February...ah...23, 2007

2007-02-23T11:42:00Z

So...this is blogging...the good people at Go Daddy tell me blogging is just posting your crap up on the internet...isn't that called MySpace? Oh well.

This is Betty B here. I'm going to try to start a blog here where I can post journal entries on my Adventures in Rock-Doc self distribution...for those filmmakers out there who care about things like what's your sales agent distribution deal and where do you get your DVDs replicated and why didn't Next Wave Films ever email you back?

But right now it's...3:45AM (which I'm thinking is going to be the time of night I do most my blogs) and I'm just getting over the emotional trauma of setting up my "free" blog w/ Go Daddy.com...which took 3 snarky female customer service people insisting my questions were too detailed until I redialed for a fourth time and got a good-ole-boy in Phoenix who not only loves "rockabilly" (that is, he's heard of the Stray Cats), but actually even emailed me a picture of his kustom truck and insisted he was a kustom car event organizer. Natch, he took me under his wing and walked me through this silly blogging crap. We'll see if he actually orders the film online or just gets distracted by the links I put on my website to Bernie Dexter dancing on YouTube.

I promise I will eventually get to useful distribution info on this blog eventually. At some point I will enter a blog that will bring you up to speed on my Adventures in Distribution thus far. I will summarize shortly for now. Right now Rebel Beat, created as a straight-to-DVD title...in my apartment...using software which I realized the other day was 100% pirated (I didn't mean to do that, but boyfriends just kept giving me copies of stuff, so what's a girl to do?). Luckily, the fabulous Bernie Dexiter (berniedexter.com) let me use her hot pinup on my demo cover so I was able to quickly get an offer for distribution from Redeye, a music label that distributes roots rock artists, including Big Sandy, one of the bands featured in Rebel Beat. They are acting as a sales agent which means they get $$ for each unit sold and provide no $ or services up front. I pay for all replication, ads, press material, etc. And in fact, Rebel Beat is really the only documentary they have in their entire library. They sell music CDs. So my experience with them has nothing to do with what a normal doc filmmaker would go through were they to license their film to a studio or an "indie" studio. What Redeye does for me is get the title into retail outlets like Amazon, Borders, etc., plus because they're Redeye, little indie music stores. And they answer their phones. So far so good. The title was released in their catalog in Feb 07, so so far I haven't actually been PAID by them for anything, but they have answered their phones! They're a small company and very easy to deal with, so I like Redeye.

Other than that, my film so far is being distributed by Rockabilly fanatic companies, online retailers around the world who cater to rockabilly fans. And that means it's being sold all over Europe via these online stores, my favorite of which is junglerecords.fi in Finland, the global center of rockabilly fantaticism, who I am told (by a friend in Finland who translated it for me) wrote a very glowing endorsement of the film on their online store.

I've also licensed the film to a distributor in Scandinavia who has the right to replicate it at will for 3 years to the home video market...but they're only selling the title as a DVD with subtitles...in Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic! Which I think is very cool.

And I also have the rigth with Redeye to sell the film myself in any manner I like that doesn't step on their toes, including selling it through all rockabilly outlets and selling it to any film-specific retailers that Redeye wouldn't have access to as a music company. And to sell it for broadcast, should that come up.

So this means that since I released the film in Dec 06 I've sold 1,000 copies! Woo wee!

Okay, so that's the short of it. I'll give you some amusing backstory info on my encounters with "indie" film distributors in my next blog. But all I'm thinking about now is that I'm heading to SXSW to write about the film fest for Documentary Magazine (the IDA's magazine) and will also have an underground screening of the film in Austin courtesy of young, yummy, Orlando Rios, editor of Rockabilly Magazine, who decided this year for the first time instead of fleeing Austin during SXSW to avoid the freaks that fly in from Hell-A, to host a "Rockabilly Showcase" show at some bar called Headhunters. Orlando wrangled Pabst beer as a sponsor (although I'm not allowed to say that because beer companies technically can't sponsor events) but Pabst will be serving up beers and handing out Pabst Goody Bags. I myself will have two Rebel Beat Prize bags to give away during SXSW, one at Orlando's Showcase and one hopefully on a radio station. I'm very jazzed about my prize bags because they will not only include a free copy of the Rebel Beat DVD, about 5 free CDs of LA rockabilly musicians, but also some very cool gear that Murray's pomade is having flown into me, including Murray's T-shirts and some pomade samplers. If you're a mere filmmaker and not a rockabilly reading this, you might not realize how very cool this is. But we love Murray's! US made since 1913! Detroit baby!

Okay so eventually I promise I'll add some useful facts about my DVD replicator, my postcard printer, my Redeye deal, my credit card debt repayment thermometer, how much weight I've gained since editing and how much I hope to lose heading into the "marketing phase" which will allow me to leave the flat, whether screening in an LA film fest in May 07 makes any difference in sales, how much support I've had from Toby at Lou's Records in San Dieog and from JD at Amoeba in LA, and other useful tales from the trenches.

But for now I am just exited that I can get up and wipe the "learn how to blog" item off my list on the wipe off board and shut down the computer so I can go watch the Jesus Camp DVD I rented from Vidiot's in Santa Monica. Please comment. Betty.

Adventures in Self Distribution

February...ah...23, 2007