Why “Showing Up” has to be part of your NonDē distribution strategy
Chapter 12 in the Invisible Nation distribution & NonDē exploration Case Study
Promoting one’s work is part of the job.
And you should be compensated for doing it. Granted that in the non-corporate American way of doing things, directors and producers rarely get paid for most of their work, but that doesn’t mean it is right, let alone fair. Oh… wait! They don’t get paid for most of their time in the corporate world either, so that must mean it’s fair to go that route, right?
Seriously, how have we put up with things this way for so long? I don’t know what the unions are doing letting it slide forever without so much as insisting their members get paid for the majority of the promotion they do. Sure, a couple – let’s say three – appearances should be included in the scope of work for those receiving beyond-scale fees, but after that, it only makes sense to incentivize it somehow. But let’s save that discussion for later, yeah?
Showing up — and truly participating in your film’s distribution —extends well beyond promotion though,
and that’s what we are going to dig into today.
The fact is you learn tremendously from being there and get so much out of it. You connect in deeper ways than you will have imagined. You advance your business, product, and craft by tending to the release. You need to do it. It will change what you do, how you do it, and what your goals for it.
Like most things in our industry, the focus on the transactional aspects of the action has dulled the power of being in the room – but there are many ways the cost of appearance can be addressed. I personally favor appearance fees and salary, but as Dan Mirvish has pointed out, making sure that those that do have a percentage of all revenue (i.e. gross participation) helps. Regardless of how you get compensated – and if you own the film and always will own your work, you will ultimately get compensated – you should do the work and show up.
Let’s examine what showing up does for our work and creative practice, shall we?
All that I am sharing today comes from the experiences Vanessa and I had leading the distro on the film she directed and we both helped to produce, Invisible Nation. This is first hand lived and experienced testimony.
First, take a deep breath and examine where we are at this precise moment. Don’t assume it was the same as yesterday. The practices you have learned and maybe even mastered are not necessarily applicable any longer. The collapse of the industrial entertainment sector isn’t coming; it already occurred. The 125 year cinema system and 35 year SC-Indie only applies to the 1%; there is nothing for everyone else except what we are building from here forward.
We are now building something better, something that will benefit most of cinema making and cinema loving participants. Something that is positive, generous, supportive, kind, and compassionate. Dwell on that for a bit. Think of the future you want and let’s work towards it.
The 20+ Benefits Cinema-makers Earn From Showing Up
1. You know you need to make all your screenings each an event if you expect others to attend. They have too many options to just go to a screening; you “showing up” makes it an event.
