The Best Film Book I Have Read

The best book about filmmaking that I have ever read, by far, is FILM & VIDEO MARKETING by Michael Wiese.

Reading that book not only ensured that many of my films were financially successful, it gave me a 25 year career in film and video distribution. 

Had I not read it  I would probably have just continued making the same mistakes over and over again that so many filmmakers make - producing unsellable films with no audience. 

I have been an actor, producer, screenwriter, director and distributor and I always say I was never taught how to do any of these things. I kind of learnt by doing them. However, when it comes to distribution it is not exactly true.

In 1989 I was based at Pinewood Studios and my then business partner Gary Tuck came into my office one day and started reading a chapter from Michael's FILM & VIDEO MARKETING which he bought from an American company. I was transfixed. So much so that I took the book home with me and read it from cover to cover that night. 

It was a lightbulb eureka moment. I suddenly had an important key to helping to understand how to make successful films. 

It then became my bible. No other film making book has had the same effect on me before or since. Michael became my mentor. Many years later I went onto an Elliot Grove course solely to meet Michael who was by then living not in the USA but the UK. 

I had also absolutely no intention of ever becoming a distributor but having read Michael's book, for the first time I began to really think about who the audience was, and I mean really think, and then how it to find them and let them know it existed. 

Up until that point I had make three very high profile television films that had won many awards, but because they were TV, aimed for TV there was no need to think about an audience. It was simply down to interesting the acquisition departments of broadcasts around the world. Back in the 1980's there was also much low level corruption involved as to who bought what from whom. All you had to do that was find a TV distribution that understood how it worked and leave it to them. Hardly any marketing was involved. 

With independent film, it was totally different. Unlike TV that needs to be fed, and all the time, with the cinema and video, even then, there was an oversupply with more films being made than there were outlets for those films. Now that gap is almost out of control. With an alleged 15,000 films made per year only around 10 % possibly 20% in a good year, are ever going to be financially viable and by that I mean sell well, not necessarily make their money back. 

What reading FILM & TV MARKETING did was to make me think about the sales. Where they would come from and what they were likely to be. Michael had taken many film and video examples, all American productions and gave an in-depth breakdown of each film and video. At the time this was unusual. No one did this. 

I already had the rights to a book called JAMES HERRIOT'S YORKSHIRE which I wanted to make as a documentary feature. Following what I read in the book I looked at the film from a totally different angle. I began to think outside of the box. 

I wrote a 35-page marketing plan during the development phase, which greatly helped me successfully raise private funding. Once made I had a great many offers from video companies, but none of them wanted to incorporate the left field ideas such as selling to 388 retail outlets I had found who had never sold a video before. These companies such as BMG, Warners, Polygram just wanted to deal with WH Smith, HMV, Virgin etc. 

Because these conventional distributors just did not get the special market I was creating I ended carrying out the distribution myself. We sold approximately 23,000 units in those 388 retail outlets alone. We also sold to HMV, WHSmith etc.  

The film went into profit. Had I not bought Michael's book I would never had to confidence to market and sell my own film and I don't think that film would have ever sold as well as it did. 

I don't have a copy of the book anymore. I did have three but over the year’s people borrow it and never ever return it. 

Although film production and distribution have changed so much over the last 30 years, sales & marketing never change. You do certain things differently but the fundamental principles never alter. Understanding sales & marketing is the key to success.

Now I have returned almost full time to filmmaking Michael says this is my HUGE advantage over most other filmmakers. He is of course right.

Success as a filmmaker is so very simple in many ways. 

If you make a film that is aimed at a very specific market, and you have provided the elements to easily market that film, then you will have sales agents and distributors biting your hand of to take.

Over the last 25 years so many filmmakers have come to me saying they know their market. But around 80% of them don't. They think they do. As an example several years two different films came to me that makers said were a British AMERICAN PIE a hugely successful franchise. Both were not. I was involved with neither. Minor distributors sold them as a British AMERICAN PIE's but both the critics and the public thought differently. The films failed. They both could have actually been British AMERICAN PIE's but with serious rewrites 

I have conducted over 150 panels and talks over the last 30 years and so many times I have suggested to the audience that they buy the FILM & VIDEO MARKETING book, but very few did. They bought every book going on filmmaking, but one covering the most important aspect of any product, whether it be a film or baked beans or a pair of socks - marketing, they ignore. 

I should point out that I have only ever made frugal guerilla type films (hence the make of my company) so I am not sure the book would work for big budget film, but for the low budget filmmaker I recommend the book - if its still in print that is. 

Although I certainly do not know how to guarantee success, I have had many failures but I have also made films that are profitable. All those in the latter category have a very strong marketing hook. 

In many ways filmmaking is all about marketing!

I am delighted to discover that Elliot Grove has now asked Michael to do more talks in the UK about not only filmmaking but more importantly MARKETING !

Sometimes You Dance With The Devil

A good many years I saw one of the most original British vampire movies ever made. It is called BLOOD. 

( Terrible image for a sleeve ). 

Produced by Simon Markham and Colin Pons it was shot in Yorkshire on a tiny budget in the late 90's.

It starred Adrian Rawlins and Lee Blakemore. If it broke through I was sure it would be the start of a great career for Lee as an actress.

I wanted to release it in 5-10 cinemas in the UK and I had a UK broadcaster who said if I secured good reviews they would pay £25-50,000 for it. That's a good price for a low budget film. It could have sold well on video and DVD.

The filmmakers were I recall keen for me for me to take this on.

The problem was the sales agent originally wanted $200,000 advance for the UK.

I talked and talked for over a year and I got it down to $100,000. He was deluded I told him if he thought he could get that much for the UK. He told me he definitely would.

Even if I had sold it for the top price to TV and it did well on DVD, with the costs of release I would have a loss.

Oh yes. And I didn't have $100,000.

A smaller sum and I would have taken it and the filmmakers would have had a release in their own country. 

Releasing only British & Irish films and ones most other distributors didn't want was a road I went down for 18 years that was never paved gold. Mud and shit most of the time.

The film was never released in the UK and I bet most of you have never seen it.

The tragedy, and it is heart-breaking, is that the director/ writer Charly Cantor never made another film.

The reason. He died far, far, far too young just after finishing the edit. 

One of the most original talents I have ever met.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190273/combined