The Future Of Indie Film Distribution?
Every day I see filmmakers lamenting the state of the industry, and begging for Hollywood to change.
I'm of the mind that that approach will never work - rather, it will keep us stuck where we are, waiting. That's the opposite of the progress we want to see as indie filmmakers.
But what can be done? As I've written about many times, indie film producers must take responsibility into our own hands. So when announcement like this one in IndieWire today shows up, I hop on here to make sure you all see it:
Brian Welk
The Duplass Brothers - especially Mark, the younger of the two - are widely seen as beacons of hope for the indie film ecosystem.
They've done it all, but most recently Mark seems to be hell-bent to crack the "indie film TV" problem - specifically that it's really hard to produce indie TV!
In 2024 Mark and his producing partner Mel Eslyn brought an independently produced TV show, Penelope, to the Sundance Film Festival. It was then licensed by Netflix and premiered on the streamer in September.
Despite that success, and the clout and leverage Duplass has created over his career, he still struggled to find a traditional home for The Long Long Night since premiering at the Tribeca film festival in 2023.
Enter The Independence Partnership
Brian Welk
Two companies that support indie filmmakers have joined together, and now have partnered with Mark Duplass, to prove out the model of an established filmmaker going directly to their audience.
We've had 15+ years of Kickstarter and other players supporting the financing of independent projects. Now we have an even more robust route to distributing our indie projects to our fans and supporters.
Seed & Spark handles the crowdfunding, and Kinema helps you release your films, solving the two hardest parts of filmmaking: fundraising and distribution.
Duplass will use Seed & Spark to raise the marketing budget for the project to cover the cost of advertising, prints, DCPs, and more, while Kinema will connect the project with the most passionate fans, allowing them early access to the project in exchange for their help getting people to see it.
Both platforms have already had plenty of success, so this partnership has plenty of upside.
But what does it mean for filmmakers? That there is a new path. If filmmakers can build an audience and produce their projects responsibly - understanding the balance between their budget and the demand in the marketplace - this makes it possible for more indie films to reach more people in a profitable way.
That is exciting. I can already see how two of the projects I want to do through Producer Fund I can use this crowdfunding + distribution model. I, along with everyone else, is watching closely to see how this project with Mark Duplass plays out.
What I do know is that we need to take responsibility for the relationship between our work and the audience that values it. We must stop outsourcing it to other companies who then own that connection, including the ability to contact them.
The more we can directly reach our audience, the more leverage we have to make the kinds of projects we feel compelled to make.
Member discussion