Zen Films

Why & How We Chose to Self-Distribute Our Film - Part 1

Where We Are Now 

MindFlesh went on sale to the public last week. We're selling a 2-disc special edition DVD via Amazon & CreateSpace and the movie can also be downloaded via Caachi to personal computers and portable devices.

The film in all formats is DRM-free (except via Caachi's streaming service). Later this year the movie will be available on other download and streaming sites and a couple of video-on-demand (VoD) pay-per-view TV channels in Europe.

 

Anyone discovering the film on Amazon, a download site or VoD will have no idea or reason to care that we're self-distributing the movie. Potential customers can watch our trailer or various clips from the movie and they can read our excellent reviews. On the MindFlesh site I've tried to provide as much information as possible for the viewer to make an informed decision about whether they'll like the film before they buy.

 

This blog post is about how we got to this position. In subsequent posts I'll discuss the various marketing activities we have underway and their relative merits.

 

Should I Self-Publish My Work?

In any other industry except book publishing and movies, cutting out the middleman would be viewed as a good thing! Why give away x% of your revenue if you don't have to? And yet there seems to be some kind of stigma about self-published works - as though those who choose this route do so only to satisfy their vanity or because they weren't good enough to get a "real" distribution/publishing deal.

It was great to see that Lance Hammer took his Sundance film Ballast and decided to self-distribute it because maybe this will encourage a change in perception.

 

My usual response is, talk to people who have distribution deals and ask if they're happy with the money they're making or if they're happy with the marketing the distributor/publisher is doing. Very few will tell you they are. Many authors I know that are with big publishers still find themselves working hard to promote their own work. Why not take that little extra step and cut out the middleman? Cut out the distributor and speak directly to your audience? The problem of course is knowledge & resources to do the promotion and distribution efficiently (e.g. to sell the book or film with the minimum time and money).

 

Market Background - Independent Films

After the success of London Voodoo on DVD (now available in five languages and 21 countries; and we also had a small theatrical release in USA and Singapore) I'd been planning to sell MindFlesh to various distributors around the world for a minimum guarantee and then walk away. Approaching and selling to distributors is very easy - they're looking for product they can sell and they're open to any film that might make them money. It's a simple as that and it should be. So what changed?

 

Well, several things happened or increased in prevalence over the two years if to took to shoot and post-produce MindFlesh:

•  Internet piracy is stealing DVD sales - why buy the DVD if you can download it for free?
•  NetFlix, LoveFilm and other rental companies that offer "all you can eat" subscription-type services have reduced DVD sales - particular for independent titles that have always been seen by the public as a bit of risk
•  user-generated video sharing sites like YouTube are satisfying viewers' needs for original content. Further, because there is so much to trawl through, it's created what some have called a new "Attention Economy" where everyone publishing any kind of content is struggling to get some of the viewer's time.

 

The result of this has been a huge reduction in the number of DVDs purchased.

This in turn has meant that those most likely to sell are the Hollywood titles and those other titles with big marketing budgets that buy attention through print, cinema and TV advertising. 

Hence:

• the big retail outlets now only carry a narrow range of titles. (For more information about what's happening in retail, watch this video or visit the "Save the Indies" MySpace page)
• independent DVD distributors have gone bust because of lost sales through piracy, subscription-based rental and they're squeezed out of retail outlets.

Some people may be able to point to exceptions of course - smaller titles in a Virgin Megastore for example -  but these titles come from the bigger distributors that have long-standing relationships, a bigger library of titles and hence more leverage – "take our turkeys" they might demand "or you won't get the better titles". This bundling of dross with gloss happens everywhere – in TV and in film festivals: take these weaker titles or you don't get the titles you want. It further squeezes out the indie.

The bottom line for us then is that the market for indie films is smaller and more risk-adverse. We knew going in that MindFlesh was never going to be an easy sell because we set out to make something completely original: it doesn't fall into a neat pigeon hole because it's part sci-fi, part horror with a storyline that allows parallel interpretations because it's a film about parallel realities. It's based on an excellent Buddhist horror novel, White Light. 

 

We screened in Cannes and although many distributors loved the film they confided "I don't know how I'm going to sell it".

Of course we'd anticipated some distributors reacting in this way but had hoped to sign with some niche distributors who sell kinda fetish/art-house/genre cross-over titles. But in a smaller market (by which I mean less money being spent) these guys are going bust. For for the bigger distributors still in business it's not about "good films" vs "bad films", it's about "sell same product to known (but dwindling) audience" vs "sell something unusual to a hybrid audience" - they can't be bothered to take the trouble. 

Sure we have a niche audience but the audience for MindFlesh is very easy to identify - it's those people who like films by David Cronenberg, some of those who like David Lynch and some Buddhists. Look at Cronenberg's fans - they're not all horror fans or all sci-fi fans; some would just say that they're fans of great cinema.

 

Thankfully we'd anticipated this outcome from the moment we signed up the book rights which means we'd already started our audience building long before we'd started shooting, never mind selling.

 

Coming Next

In the second part of this blog posting I'll discuss all our social media audience building work including our YouTube blogs, widget building, newsletters, MySpace page, Facebook application and so on.

MindFlesh in San Francisco

So last night was our USA premiere of MindFlesh in San Francisco at The Roxie down in the Mission district.

What a great turn-out and what a great audience reaction. I'd checked ticket pre-sales the day before and was delighted we'd managed to hit the top spot. So, with my expectations set, it was nice to see a packed theatre.

Regards the technical aspects of the screening, the sound was pretty good but the projected image looked darker than it should and I need to check if it's our tape or their projector. At the screenings in Cannes the image transferred from the hard drive to tape was too bright for some reason but I'm worried the post-production guys have gone too far in their corrections - last night was the first time I'd seen the NTSC version (the film is mastered in HD and txferd to NTSC digiBeta for last night).

My wife Helen and my nephew Anthony were there last night too. Here's some of Anthony's video work in the form of some audience feedback.

I was delighted to screen with Imp Of Satan which is an excellent short film (30 mins). It opens with some mesmerizing shots of SF's Castro and similarly scary/hypnotic music. All the direction, acting and photography is absolutely great. Check out the movie if you get a chance....

For those that came last night, and others I guess, here's the link to Bill's novel on Amazon.

NEXT SCREENING

MindFlesh plays for a second time in San Francisco on Tuesday 17th June 2008, 7:15pm. Again we're preceded with Imp Of Satan but be sure to catch both films - IOS is great.

"WHITE LIGHT" novel now on Amazon

I'm thrilled to report that William Scheinman's novel, White Light, upon which MindFlesh is based, is now available on Amazon! Please scoot on over to buy a copy; you can use the "search inside" function to read a sample chapter and see for yourself how cool it is.

Original Goodness vs Original Sin

Last Friday my friend, the author William Scheinman, lead the meditation at the San Francisco Buddhist Center and after a period of quiet meditation he read from a book of Zen poetry by the renowned Ryokan. It was a wonderful session and since then I've been left with an intense feeling of wellbeing and connectedness with the universe.

After the session Bill and I followed our usual *cough* "ritual" for Friday nights and we talked a little about Christianity's original sin vs Buddhism's original goodness. It kick-started several days of reading for me as I sought to refresh and deepen my understanding of Karma, Rebirth, reincarnation and original goodness.

At the same time, as if synchronicity were at work, this week's Start the Week podcast from BBC Radio 4 carries an excellent discussion about the mind and its life in the body :) I've just ordered my copy of the book The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head which appears only to be on the Amazon UK website and not the US?

More soon....

Back from World Horror Convention, Salt Lake City

Just got back from the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City. As cons go, this was my 4th WHC and I still felt like an outsider - which I think is a big shame. Still, I had a nice time renewing old acquaintances and meeting a few new people.

It was fun to have my niece Heather with me too and we made sure to check out the local sights rather than stay locked up in the hotel. Here's a couple of photos of the salt lake of SLC :)

One small nuisance was the local drinking laws: On the first evening we went into a bar and ordered two diet cokes. I was asked if Heather had ID - ?! "What, for a diet coke?" I asked sarcastically :) To which the barman replied that everyone had to be over 21 to even just sit in the empty bar. What a ridiculous law. So, banished from the bars we discovered that we were able to at least be in a restaurant together.. where I was free to drink alcohol and she was free to drink cranberry juice.

Meat Means Murder

Just got these photos emailed me from horror author Joseph D'Lacy and really thought they looked cool. What a great idea and great way to promote his new book, Meat.

DNA Computing & Parallel Worlds..oh, and an Update on MindFlesh

Wow - it's already the start of July. This is a bumper update because I've had my nose to the grindstone for weeks...er.. and I went on holiday last week to Rhodes (the Greek island)...and there's lots to say. Here's the headings:

• MindFlesh update
• Books I've read recently

MindFlesh update

Picture progress...

Three of the four reels have now passed stage one (of two) - which means they've been graded and special effects added. They haven't been given an overall "look" yet and some SFX shots need to be tweaked but all-in-all progress is pretty good. I hope that by the end of July all the picture grading and SFX will be complete... at least to a really good stage :) I'm not planning to screen the film until Jan 2008 at the earliest so that gives me time to (a) improve any SFX I fancy and (b) find out how I'm going to get the hi-def image files off my PC and onto a HDCAM tape for screening! On the last point, watch this space.

Sound progress...

Matt the editor has now transferred all the Final Cut Pro (FCP) reels to ProTools where he's made a start at organising everything into tracks - vocals, production sound, sound effects, music, atmos etc.
Meanwhile Arban the composer has completed about 95% of the music so all that remains is a final (music) mix and then we can slot it into Matt's ProTools projects.

Books I've Read Recently

Did I mention I spent last week basking in the sun and I'm now a bronze Adonis? Oh... then that's probably because I was hiding in the shade with the redheads and babies :) Forty degrees...luvvly.

Anyway, at the airport I picked up two books, Genesis Machines: The New Science of Biocomputing and Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos. Is it me or are subtitles getting longer? :)

Believe it or not I wasn't on the look-out for a book on biocomputing but it just happened to be the store and I thought it looked interesting. There's an important lesson in distribution there. Anyhow, despite what you might think, it's actually quite a riveting read and I couldn't put it down. It's not at all about living computers, computers made of flesh, stolen pregnant embryonic fluids or anything in the slightest ethically disturbing. It's about using DNA, enzymes and other microbiological chemicals to perform discrete computing tasks...or maybe not because it's all still theorize-build-trial-and-error. What makes the book enjoyable is the author's tone although I could have done with a few more diagrams. The author also has this tendency to provide examples for the easiest concepts and then skip over the more challenging. It reminded me of my school chemistry teacher who used to dictate his lectures - example: "use a 'deflagrating spoon'... thats spelt  's' 'p' 'o' 'o' 'n'". Amazingly the book inspired me to refresh my programming skills and while sunning myself by the pool I knocked-up a little program in Excel that plays Rummy using fuzzy logic. Yeah, I know it's a bit nerdy but it's not much worse than playing su doku all holiday.

We've gone all Lulu

Well, as a trial/test we've uploaded our anthology Love & Sacrifice to Lulu.com and made it available as an e-book for download for the ludicrously low price of £1.25. I've been paying for and downloading a few e-books myself so we decided to dip a toe in the water and try ourselves.
I know the argument about people not wanting to read from the screen but the truth is you just can't beat the immediacy of the download. Besides, a hardcopy is available too for those that want it. And, downloaders are allowed to print off the stories to read off-line.
Stay tuned....

Our Anthology Reviewed: Love & Sacrifice

Our horror/ dark fantasy anthology Love & Sacrifice has received it's first reviews - both very positive indeed. One's at HorrorWorld and the other at Whispers of Wickedness. I've included them both here in full but you might want to zoom in with the browser or better still visit the review sites :)

American readers can now buy the anthology from Shocklines, in the UK it's at Amazon.

Horror World review in full:

LOVE AND SACRIFICE edited by Robert Pratten
Review by Joe Kroeger

Even though Love And Sacrifice, edited by Robert Prattten, has a small page count in relation to most anthologies, this book packs an amazing emotional wallop within these well-crafted tales. Love And Sacrifice collects twelve stories, written by a wide range of authors, which center on love, relationships, and the horror that can be lurking in the shadows. Even with a couple stories falling short, this anthology is still an energetic and horror packed reading experience that will leave you wishing that there were more tales to tell.

This anthology opens with a story that bristles with such heart-wrenching emotion that you will find yourself pausing to catch your breath before going on to the next entry. Stepping Off by Mike Davis is a simple story that follows the lives of two damaged individuals with horrific pasts and the paths each of them end up on. With a perfect narrative voice and a powerful ending, Stepping Off is the perfect story to gather the momentum to rocket through this exceptional anthology.

Stepping into darker regions with Nine Lives, Gary McMahon leads his readers down a frightening trail of deception and misplaced revenge that will leave you cringing at the all-too horrific ending. McMahon takes a simple story and infuses it with horror so real that you will think twice about what even the most normal person is capable of.

For The Game by Bruce Golden is a simple tale about a baseball player with an intense love of the game that becomes a perfectly realized “Twilight Zone” type story that stands out as a high point in this anthology. Pushing the limits in the opposite direction, Freaks by Brian Rappatta tells a story about circus freaks and personal fetishes that will have you realizing that fulfilling your deepest fantasy may not always be a good thing.

Other stories that stand out as exemplary works of fiction in this anthology are Code Blue by William Malmborg and Those Below by Jeremy C. Shipp. Both of these stories take on the idea of death and its effects on love and relationships, which successfully creates two completely original tales. Add these to the rest of the stories within this book and you have a wonderfully solid anthology that is an immense pleasure to read.

If you are looking for a collection of stories that is a fast read that stays with you long after the final tale then Love And Sacrifice, edited by Robert Pratten, is the anthology you have been searching for. Be prepared to lose yourself for a short time within an anthology that is well worth the price of admission.

Whispers of Wickedness review in full:

To the dismay of those who keep sounding the death knell for the genre, the horror story anthology is alive and well, especially in the world of the small press, as Love and Sacrifice clearly shows.

A slim volume of about 100 pages, the book assembles twelve dark tales "about troubled relationships" by contributors who, although for the time being not exactly famous, exhibit both a solid background and a steady hand at producing perceptive but disquieting tableaux of family life, difficult friendships, love affairs, bizarre sexual encounters.

Conceived as a companion anthology to the award-winning film London Voodoo, the anthology provides hours of pleasant reading, now simply entertaining, now thought-provoking, sometimes eliciting a sense of melancholy for the frailty of the human condition, occasionally trying the unpleasantness of the cutting edge.

There are no really bad stories in here, a few being just ordinary run-of-the-mill material, but some are particularly worth mentioning.

Mike Davis’ Stepping off is a poignant, accomplished story of only two-and-a-half pages about abuse and wasted life, leaving a long lasting feeling of sadness.

Gary McMahon contributes Nine Lives, an insightful piece describing with subtlety how a man becomes gradually aware of his wife’s unfaithfulness and how this is going to change his life.

In William Malmborg’s delicate Code Blue illness casts its dark shadow on the existence of a cystic fibrosis patient and her devoted fiancée.

For the Game by Bruce Golden effectively describes how the supernatural quietly creeps into the life and career of a baseball player, whose star will shine only for a little while.

James S Dorr's The Groupie is an excellent piece reporting with cold precision but gripping narrative style the doings of a woman going through the centuries both killing and being killed.

In Freaks by Brian Rappatta bizarre sex and horror team to generate a strongly tasting tale not for the squeamish or the puritans.

Jeremy C Shipp provides Those Below, an offbeat zombie tale with an undercurrent of subtle melancholy and deep human pity.

In short, an interesting showcase for a bunch of talented writers and a good way to spend a few pleasant reading hours.

An iTunes podcast and MP3 download of Mike Davis' Stepping Off is available at the Zen Films website.

MindFlesh podcast from the World Horror Convention 2007 in Toronto Canada

It's been a great convention and I've had a really lovely time meeting new people and renewing old acquaintances. I also got to spend time with William Scheinman, author of Whitelight the novel we optioned and adapted for MindFlesh.

In the MindFlesh podcast below, Bill discusses the process of going from novel to film and how he felt along the way from intial meeting through optioning, reading drafts of the script to finally getting to see the current cut of the film in my hotel room!