More SXSW tid-bits....

OK, so on the last day of the SXSW film fest I went to panel on Music Docs....sitting there minding my own business, wondering why there were so many cameras in the room....until the panel speakers arrived and they went down the line introducing themselves and suddenly I hear "Hi, I'm Charlize Theron". I looked up and by golly, it was HER. Very funny indeed! Apparantly she just produced a doc called EAST OF HAVANA, and it was premiering in the festival. She was the only speaker on the panel that had distribution for her film. Surprise, surprise!

Anyway, here's some other tid-bits I gathered from attending panels that day:

1. Regarding DVD distribution, any film that has had a TV broadcast is more appealing from an acquisitions perspective.

2. If you want to research sales numbers for straight-to-dvd titles IMDB pro gives retail numbers; Video Scan will also give those results. What is considered a good range in sales numbers? Anywhere from 30K to 100K units is considered decent. 30K units sold translates to approx. $1million in revenue for the DVD distributor, and 100K units sold translates to approx. $1.5million in revenue.

3. 2006 will be the year when we figure out if internet distribution is a viable economic model.

4. What is an approx. license fee for a cable buy like HBO/Cinemax/Sundance Channel? Anywhere from $20K to $50K depending on several factors.

5. Network buyers agreed that they are happy to receive submissions directly from the filmmakers themselves - so don't be discouraged if you don't have a producers rep to make that call for you.

6. Definitely do your market research before signing any deal with a network - you don't want to sign away more of your rights than necessary.

7. When shooting in HD, go for the highest resolution of 1920 x 1080. If you wanted to get a broadcast deal with HD net for example, they will ONLY accept the 1920 x 1080 format.

There you have it again!

Hopefully these two 'downloads' from SXSW are helpful...let me know what you think!