case study: how to successfully self distribute your indie movie
TRANSCRIPT
Building an Audience - Case Study The Old, the Young & the Sea A movie about the people of the sea Nomad Earth Media 2012 - 2016 @andreasjaritz
more at: www.oldyoungsea.com photos by: www.stefanleitner.com
The Old, the Young & the Sea European Surf Documentary
This is a case study about the production and hybrid
distribution strategy of our first feature length documentary. Let’s start it with watching a trailer!
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
The Old, the Young & the Sea European Surf Documentary
It’s a vivid snapshot of the European
Atlantic Coast, its habitants and visitors. Not just another surf movie.
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
Festival Circuit
Digital Distribution TV Distribution
2016
The Production Let’s talk about the timeframe
Concept
April 2012
EUROLINESA European Surf Documentary
1st Shooting
June 2012
2nd Shooting
Nov 2012
Prep Trip 2
Sept 2012
Teaser
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
Post Production Premiere
Nov 2013
Trailer
2010 - 2011
Ideas
Movie making is a 50/50 business in the self-distribution model
50 % is making the movie, and 50 %
is delivering your movie to the right audience.
The Financing
Every movie needs (at least) some money to be done
So let’s keep the the lights on…
EUROLINESA European Surf Documentary
First Concept The Old, the Young & the Sea so we came up with a little concept to „impress“ first sponsors and partners
Link to a low res version of our very first film concept
No chance without a comprehensive concept!
Creating a paper the includes a treatment,
cast, crew, goals, and a timeframe are essentialto outline your project and set others on fire.
Financing
public10 %
sponsors10 %
own pocket
ask mom & dad uncle Fred your bank clerk
and take all your savings
80 %
total production value: approx. 250.000 € (if you count the countless hours…)
total real budget: approx. 60.000 €
The Shooting April - June 2012 & Sept - Nov 2012 in France, Spain, Portugal
Shooting
The Gear Shooting like the pros… haha
photo camera - most professional gadget Since we worked with one friend who is a professional photographer
we worked with (for that time) industry standard gear.
Outcome Photo Project The photo project was an essential part
of the movie’s overall distribution strategy
video camera - seriously shooting a movie with that? Yes, we shot our movie which was supposed to be screened
in cinemas with a Lumix GH2 ‚consumer‘ camera.
The Old, the Young & the Sea Spending less than 3.000 Euros on the whole
video and recording equipment we to shoot for cinema …
The Crew You need a special delta force
Producing & Direction
this boy is Andy Jaritz
and he is Mario Hainzl
Stefan Leitner Roman Königshofer Sebastian FunkHarald Brettermeier
Photographer DOP Cinematographer Co-Direction
and a whole army…web designers/developers graphic designers digital image technician translators sound/foley artists music composers motion graphic designers translators/proof readers distributors technicians more cutters friends & families
We owe them our deepest respect!
The Community
Nomad Earth: 4180 OldYoungSea: 5800+
private/consumers: 1.500+ business/media: 400+
Everything had to be built up from zero. Never under/overestimate your community!
But these are numbers you can work on (in the future)
How we built an audience1ST EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
Crowdsourcing Let the crowd tell you the title of the
movie in a Facebook app
130+ film titles were submitted in a custom Facebook App
We built up our first FB fanbase
Media started contacting us
The Old, the Young & the Sea
The resulting title:
The project received first exposure in the international surfing scene
…or let the community vote We activated our community with a Vote-Your-Favorite-Character game.
We need a logo! We wanted a visual anchor reflectingthe movie’s theme and feeling and to
make people remind the movie.So get me that logo!
beautifully done by Verena Michelitsch
And what about a website? We need that thing too!
www.oldyoungsea.comWebdesign by Stefan Leitner
it all began with this one…
Strategic partnership with a cause Besides creating a beautiful movie we wanted
to raise awareness for ocean conservation
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST EUROPEAN SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEAx
Parts of the movie featured interesting ocean conservationists from the NGO Surfrider Foundation Europe.
Mutual benefit: Surfrider spread theirmessage through strong stories in the movie, we got access to the bigSurfrider community in Europe.
No (surf) movie without sponsorships How we implemented brandsREEF Crossmedia Branding
Portrait photos of Reef team rider on our website
Logo placements in pre-rolls, website, social media
Logo placements in FB headers
Events/KeynotesFilmfestivalsScreenings
Brand integration on events
branded products and stories
Branding in the movie’s pre-roll on Reelhouse
Talking to the media - media relations We pro-actively got in touch with media outlets around the globe on a regular basis. Pitchingstory ideas, photo sets and offering interviews
PRESS RELEASE
The Old, the Young & the Sea Search for meaning and surf culture on the Atlantic
»The Old , the Young & the Sea« is a vivid
documentary road movie about the people
and lifestyles of the "European Leg" – the
classic European surfing route along the
Atlantic coast from southwestern France
through northern Spain to the Portuguese
capital Lisbon. The film paints a colorful
portrait of the European surf culture and
ignores at the same time the typical boarders
of the genre classic surf movie by taking a
glimpse at matters beyond the sporting
aspects. The film crew leads the viewer into the heart of
a vibrant European coastal culture with diverse
personalities and lifestyles: from surfing pros
and pioneers to environmentalists and marine
biologists to postmodern nomads and
dropouts living the legacy of the hippie
culture. As different as their personal life
stories may be, what unites them is their fascination for the sea and a close, deep relationship to
nature. "We do not just show spectacular surf scenes and impressive landscapes. Our film is
intended to capture the diversity of European culture and raise awareness of important
environmental issues - and lust for travel", says producer Andreas Jaritz. During the trips at the coast the seven-member crew lived a total of more than four months in two
camping buses. They’ve made more than 150 interviews and had a production expense that blew
the usual minimalist budget of indie films. "The shooting tours can be characterized by what the
fascination of travelling means to us: To not know now, where you’ll be tomorrow," describes
director Mario Hainzl their approach. "Many of the interviews were also spontaneous encounters,
some of them resulted in lasting friendships."
Since its world premiere »The Old, the Young & the Sea« has been screened worldwide in 15
different countries and has won 8 film awards.
We created a comprehensive press kit which we could easily send to journalists
We setup a media relations mailing list updating journalists one-by-oneand with newsletters.
We offered variations of stories and different angles of already published material to create news value and reach more media outlets.
more promotional activities
We just kindly asked people to rate the movie on IMDb
We sent newsletters regularly (When we had something to say)
Movie Poster & Screening Flyer
We also experimented with a new movie experience: Online Live Screenings
MerchandiseIn addition to the movie we
also created a series of ‚by-products‘ to round up the whole experience
The Photo Exhibition We created a series of 4 exhibitions
in cooperation with the Spanish Tourism Board Photos by Stefan Leitner
Exhibition España Verde The Old, the Young & the Sea Prague - Budapest - Bratislava - Vienna
Direct-to-Consumer Distribution How people could and can watch the movie
On festivals and screening events…
… which we promoted on Facebook together with local partners (e.g. surf shops) and screening tour sponsors.
Distribution Map
Television
self-distribution theaters DVD download
The Status Quo What has happened and what’s the outcome?
Media Coverage - Selection
Austria Europe Worldwide
media coverage: 250 in print/online/tv
visitors www.oldyoungsea.com: 130.000+
130+ screenings, 26 festival selections, 11 film festival awards, 26.000 audience in theatersIMDb rating: 9.0/10.0
250 video embeds, articles and features across the web, print, tv
3000+ Downloads, 3 TV stations, 500+ DVDs
teaser & trailer plays: 130.000+on reelhouse, vimeo, youtube, mpora & other players
OldYoungSea newsletter: 2.000+ subscribers
Facebook fans: 5800+
The bottom line
We found a (hard) way to break into the industryby leveraging Social Media
We were able to recoup most of our initial cash investments
A considerable audience can only be reached trough ‚self-distribution’ if you go a lot of extra miles
Making the movie = extreme amount of work, sweet, blood and perseverance
Our promotion had a focus on digital media but the majority watched the movie the old school way: in theaters
The acceptance to pay and watch movies on self-distributing platforms like Reelhouse is steadily growing
We were able to keep the lights on and to find financing for a new production…
and the best part:
our next adventure…
beyond.oldyoungsea.com/
Thanks for your attention! www.oldyoungsea.com Nomad Earth MediaIf you have enjoyed this case study please share it with your friends #oldyoungsea #[email protected] twitter: @andreasjaritz medium: @andreasjaritz