DGA - AFMA Event:
The Price of Passion: How to Get Your Independent Film Made
By David Geffner
In an industry as tough and capricious as entertainment, it helps to have someone in your corner. The DGA has been "in the arena," fighting for the creative rights of filmmakers for decades. But who's out there representing these same artists inside the theaters? Not the major studios, whose bigger-is-better bottom-line approach rarely accounts for the independent. Hollywood's box-office goals are too grandiose to support the artistic and thematic considerations that often heave indie directors far afield of the mainstream.
The American Film Marketing Association (AFMA) is one of the few industry groups formed specifically to represent the independent motion picture. Made up of more than 150 production companies, banks, foreign sales agents and distributors, AFMA is a global confederation that lacks the myopic view of the industry that studios tend to foster.
It was fitting, then, that this year's DGA-AFMA network mixer was called "The Price of Passion: How to Get Your Independent Film Made." At a pre-event reception for AFMA panelists, Dan Griffiths, Director of Acquisitions for Trans Pacific Media and producer of The Attic Expeditions, which screened at the 2001 Seattle Film Festival, defined just how much passion indies need to stay the course.
"When you're talking about independent movies, at least from my company's perspective, you're talking about films made totally outside the system," he said. "They can cost $500,000 or $5 million, or even $50 million. But without big-name stars or A-list directors, they always have a tough time getting made."
Griffiths noted that when a small indie film, like The Full Monty, breaks out, buyers the world over want to duplicate its success. "Of course, you can't suddenly release 30 little English comedies because you'd be glutting the market," Griffths said. "It requires tremendous passion on the part of buyers and distributors, not only the filmmakers, to have faith that these films can do any business, at all."
The night kicked off with welcoming comments by AFMA President Jean Prewitt and AFMA's Chair of its Industry Relations Committee, Shanyon Cobe.
"AFMA was started 21 years ago by Bobby Meyers, initially to create the American Film Market and counter Cannes as the most dominant market force in the world," Prewitt explained. "What became apparent, as the years passed, is that there was no one, in any position of influence, speaking out for the independent. What you'll see, as you look around the table of panelists, are people who devoted their entire careers to figuring out how to slot independent films into extremely competitive and ever-changing world markets."
Before handing the floor over to individual panelists for introductions and company breakdowns, Cobe talked about the DGA and its members. "The best filmmakers in this industry belong to the Directors Guild. We look at this mixer as a better way to broaden the lines of communication between both organizations. AFMA members view the Directors Guild as a talent pool to draw upon. And we hope this event helps DGA filmmakers find new companies and individuals to approach with their independent films."
All combined AFMA panelists have enough experience to map the history of independent film several times over. The panelists included the following: Lawrence Safir, Chairman of AFMA Europe; Guy Stodel, Vice President of Acquisitions for Lions Gate Films; Bic Tran, Director of Acquisitions and Development for Lakeshore Entertainment; and Peter Wetherell of Independent Pictures, who recently executive produced Allison Anders' Sundance hit, Things Behind the Sun.
The panelists talked about their specific companies and what kinds of projects they get involved with. A session of Q&A ensued after their general presentation. Directors' concerns covered areas as diverse as when to option a book and hire a screenwriter to the specific branding of each panelist's company. The evening was then split off into 30-minute sessions of four groups. In this more intimate give-and-take format, AFMA panelists were brutally frank about what makes the indie marketplace tick.
"We always will look at movies that have a name director and cast attached first," explained Joe Drake, President of International Sales & Licensing for Senator Entertainment, during one of the first breakout sessions. "A name cast or director acts as a filter for us to more quickly size up which projects will have the best chance of succeeding in the marketplace."
"We make money off of movies that we sell," Hadeel Reda, the L.A.-based President of Winchester Films, a division of U.K.-based Winchester Entertainment, added. "Unlike producers, who don't need attachments because they can make money setting up a project with a studio and taking home a development fee, we have to sell a film to make any money. The further along you can take a project before you approach us, the more attention you're going to get. That's the way foreign-sales companies work.
Many directors voiced concerns during the breakout sessions about approaching AFMA companies without an agent.
"The majority of the films that I do finance come to me through entertainment lawyers," said Barbara Perez, First Vice President, Manager, Global Media Division for Far East National Bank. "Attorneys have a better grasp of the bottom line than talent agents, and consequently have an advantage in advising their clients. As a bank funding an independent film, we have better luck with projects that utilize an attorney."
The final breakout sessions were so enthusiastic, panelists stayed to answer questions long past the event's conclusion. Peter Wetherell, in response to a director's question about bringing in partners, boiled the evening down to its essence.
"The answers to so many of these questions actually depend on your own personality as a filmmaker and where your own passions lie," he said. "The more information you have, the less vulnerable you are to wasting time. Having said that, if you are the producer, writer and the director, that's a hard road. If you're a writer/director, you need a producer. Not only because they hopefully know a lot more than you, but also because you need help in this industry. Having knowledge in many areas [of film production] doesn't mean you always have to be the front person. In fact, for directors that can ultimately be a big mistake because it's hard to do a lot of jobs really well."
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