Who's got DISTRIBUTION questions?

A

AnywhereButHollywood

I am going to interview an indie film distributor who has been in the business for many years. I'm looking for questions to ask him.

Is there anything you're burning to know about indie film distribution?
 
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- What's the best way to contact a distributor: personal or company e-mail?

- Some distributors claim they're willing to get involved early on indie projects (development stage), so how should an unknown approach them: with a brief query featuring the log line, asking if they can submit more information or a full-on pdf proposal as an attachment?

- When dealing with unknowns, is the distributor only interested in reviewing the end product, or would they prefer a more hands-on role (as in an active co-producer, even if the film-maker originally only enquired about a negative pick-up deal)?

- What makes a distributor interested in an indie project the most: commercial appeal, diversity or artistic merit (obviously, forecasting a profit on a project is essential, but not the same as big sales)?

- How much money do non-Hollywood independent films without established stars command (both if aimed at cinema and straight to the DVD market)?
 
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I got one!

I was told before that in order to have a movie good enough for distribution that you all the audio dialogue tracks have to be clean, but on a micro-budget this can be impossible on locations where some background noise, cannot be turned off, and is outside of your control. What's the answer to getting around that for distribution?
 
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That's a simple audio question and there is an audio guy in the forums able to answer this better than I can.. but I'll try at it anyway.

When you first get to a location, your audio guy should take... cannot remember the name, but its like a baseline recording of your background audio noise.. That way your audio editor is able to plug that into his software and use it to match and eliminate the background noises. I'm not talking the person yelling during your take, but the constant humming of a fridge, a computer fan etc.

Directional microphones, ADR and foley is also something you might need to consider.

For distribution, you also need to consider another issue. If you intend on selling foreign rights, especially to non-native speaking countries than your own, you'll need all dialogue on a separate track. That way they can wipe that track and dub in their own language.
 
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Sweetie said:
That's a simple audio question and there is an audio guy in the forums able to answer this better than I can.. but I'll try at it anyway.

When you first get to a location, your audio guy should take... cannot remember the name, but its like a baseline recording of your background audio noise.. That way your audio editor is able to plug that into his software and use it to match and eliminate the background noises. I'm not talking the person yelling during your take, but the constant humming of a fridge, a computer fan etc.

Directional microphones, ADR and foley is also something you might need to consider.

For distribution, you also need to consider another issue. If you intend on selling foreign rights, especially to non-native speaking countries than your own, you'll need all dialogue on a separate track. That way they can wipe that track and dub in their own language.
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True but I was told audio on a seperate track. That means nothing else on the track, I thought, even if you have other tracks you can cover it up with, or so that's what I thought they meant.
 
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Sweetie said:
When you first get to a location, your audio guy should take... cannot remember the name, but its like a baseline recording of your background audio noise.. That way your audio editor is able to plug that into his software and use it to match and eliminate the background noises. I'm not talking the person yelling during your take, but the constant humming of a fridge, a computer fan etc.
Click to expand...

Although your advice to record room tone is good advice and should always be done as a matter of course, the audio editor cannot do what you suggest. Although it may sound like it, the humming of a fridge, a computer fan and countless other background noises (most all electrical appliance noise for example) are not in fact "constant" and therefore cannot be easily eliminated! The act of trying to eliminate these noises is almost certainly going to be either impossible or highly detrimental the the audio quality of the dialogue. The only way to guarantee the elimination of these types of noises without destroying the dialogue in the process is to not record them in the first place! All electrical appliances/equipment must be switched off during filming/recording.

Sweetie said:
For distribution, you also need to consider another issue. If you intend on selling foreign rights, especially to non-native speaking countries than your own, you'll need all dialogue on a separate track. That way they can wipe that track and dub in their own language.
Click to expand...

Regardless of whether you actually sell the foreign rights, most distributors and TV broadcasters specify in their delivery requirements a separate dialogue stem and/or a full mix with just the dialogue eliminated, called an M&E (Music & Effects) mix. This obviously means the dialogue tracks must be free of any sound FX, which must be on their own tracks.

G
 
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Well... the guy has dropped off the face of the earth over the last few weeks. I'll try him again, but who knows.

I've got a heck of a list of questions now, and will get them to another distrib if this guy doesn't get back to me.
 
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