Sales and Distribution WorkshopPresented by AAA Entertainment

What is a Distributor?

What is a Platform?

What is an Aggregator?

Who are the broadcasters?

What is a Sales Agent?

Distribute in a territory or region

Theatrical (Cinema)

DVD or Home Video

VOD – SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, NVOD

TV – Pay TV, Free to Air

Ancillary : Airlines, Ships, Hotels

Pay Minimum Guarantee (MG) or buy out territory

Usually don’t deal with producers directly – prefer to deal with sales agents and other distributors

Distributors

TVOD : iTunes, Google Play, Amazon

SVOD : Netflix, Sony, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon

AVOD : Hulu, Amazon, YouTube

NVOD : Airline, Hotels, Ships

Local : Showmax, VU, Veedee, iBiskop, OnTap, BuniTV, iRoko

Most big platforms will only buy from distributors or aggregators

Platforms

Aggregators acquire and supply to one or several of the major platforms in TVOD, SVOD and AVOD

Aggregators can also be distributors

Aggregators manage the encoding of movie and trailer files for the specific platforms, in house or through licensed encoding facilities

Aggregators usually do a revenue share whereby +- 50% of the retail rental or purchase price comes to the rights holder

Example of aggregator is FilmBuff

aggregators

International Major Networks : NBC, ABC, Starz, HBO

International Pay TV : Sky, Sundance Channel, AMC

International Major Public Broadcasters : BBC, PBS, NHK

International Free to Air : Sat1, CCTV, GlobCast, Al Jazeera

International IPTV : Africa Channel, MoviestarTV

African Pay TV : DSTV, StarSat, Zuko, Canal Plus

African Free to Air : SABC, ETV, Ebony TV, ENTV, KTN

Broadcaster pay either an acquisition license fee or pre-sale

broadcasters

Sells to distributors, aggregators, platforms and broadcasters

Don’t pay up front, but act like and estate agent and take a commission on the sales. Also charge costs of selling the film against sales e.g. market attendance costs

Take film to markets and festivals around the world and sell to buyers at these events

Usually sign exclusive world wide rights for 5-10 years

Repackage films for international markets

Manage festival strategy and PR for festival and market run

Manage legal contracts and accounting reports for sales

Give letters of interest (LOI) to projects

Sales agents

casting

Affect on sales

Determine the value of cast for territory

Pay and Play Contracts

Escrow accounts and casting fees

Casting agents

Cast managers

Casting director : advisory vs. actual casting

contracts

Contracts

Territories

Windows

Hold backs

Black outs

Payment terms

Number of plays

Legal Fees

Language

deliverables

Movie Deliverables : ProRes File, DCP, BluRay, Encodes for iTunes and other

NTSC conversion for US

Music Cue Sheet and Music License Materials

Subtitles (.stl .srt) and Closed Captioned Files

M&E for Dubs and transcript

E&O Insurance

Artwork

Legals/Contracts : Key crew & cast, script and film clearance, chain of title (incl writers agreement), music clearance – cost3% of budget max approx. R250k

Selling a finished film

vs.

Selling a development project

selling a development project

Sales projections

Pre-Sales to distributors, platforms and broadcasters

Determine the value of cast and assist in casting

Get coverage on the script

Packaging and proof of concept

Benchmark salability of a film up front

Assist with key crew and suppliers

Plan and execute out sales roll out while film is in post

Selling a finished film

Sales agents are more reluctant to sign on completed films

Finished film are more difficult to re package as the post is already done

Deliverables for distribution are often omitted from the budget and become an extra cost

Completed films can no longer be benchmarked in the market so the sales agent has to take it on risk

By the time a sales agent gets the film, it has already aged and festival submissions are a problem

Films generally have a two year life cycle to sell as a new title

Sales roll out not as effective once film is completed

Market

Who buys African films?

What films (genres) are in demand?

who buys African films

African buyers i.e. from the continent

Diaspora buyers e.g. Africa Channel

Black content buyers e.g. BET

World cinema niche buyers e.g. diverstity cinema

Genre buyers for specific genre where African element is just a flavour

What Film genres are in demand

Action

Horror

Sci-Fi

Thriller

Fantasy

The above genres will require proof of concept for first time film makers in development to get pre-sales

Faith Based

NOT DRAMA

Packaging

TitleTrailerPoster

Press kit

iNumber Number Local Trailer

Avenged International Trailer

Con Games German Trailer

Blood Tokoloshe Local Trailer

Ghetto goblin International Trailer

poster

Local Poster South Africa

iNumber Number

International Poster Germany

Con Games

Press kit

Production stills

Frame grabs

Detailed cast and director info

Press release

Any press coverage

Social media presence

Website

IMDB listing

Key Art

PR and PRESS

Publications

Variety

Hollywood Reporter

Screen International

Screen Africa (local)

The Call Sheet (Local)

Blogs

The Business of Film

Sydney’s Buzz

Twitch.com

Publicists

Journalists

Bloggers

Influencers

Media Liaisons

Editors

Reviewers

Critics

Festival strategy

North America

A

TIFF

Sundance

B

Tribeca 

SXSW

Telluride

LA Film Festival

AFI

Asia

A

Pusan

B

Tokyo

Hong Kong

Melbourne

Europe

A

Cannes

Berlin

Venice

B

Locarno

St Sebastian

Goethenberg

Black and african festivals

Pan African Film Festival Black International Cinema Berlin Black Harvest Film Festival AFI New African Films Festival Africa In The Picture Afrykamera Montreal Int. Black Film Festival Langston Hughes African American Film Festival

San Francisco Black Film Festival American Black Film Festival Zanzibar Film Festival Africa In Motion Film Africa London African Diaspora Film Festival Africala Film Festival Africa International Film Festival London African Film Festival

markets

Film

Marche du Film – Cannes Film Festival

European Film Market (EFM) – Berlinale

American Film Market (AFM) - IFTA

Hong Kong Film Market (HKFM) – IFTA

Toronto International Film Festival - Hybrid

Ventana Sur – Argentina (Spanish Language)

Fantasia Co-Pro Market – Brussels & Montreal

Television

NATPE – Miami

MIPTV (MIPDOC&MIPFORMATS)– Cannes

DISCOP – Istanbul and Johannesburg

MIPCOM (MIPJNR) – Cannes

BANFF (Development) – Canada

TIFFCOM - Japan

ANY QUESTIONS