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front of audiences.” The Conservancy is currently<br />
representing a short called The Meaning<br />
of Robots, which played Sundance, SXSW<br />
and New Directors/New Films in New York.<br />
“Right now, we’re just giving it out because<br />
we want the film to be seen and we feel it<br />
wouldn’t reach audiences otherwise.”<br />
Sounds like a passion project for filmmakers<br />
who’ve embraced that they’ll always be in<br />
debt. But the last project the Conservatory<br />
used its nonprofit funding for was Another<br />
Earth, which then managed to catch the eye<br />
of Fox Searchlight and become the studio’s<br />
fifth-highest-grossing picture of 2011. Not<br />
only did it put writer and star Brit Marling on<br />
the map, it also put her on the cover of Vogue<br />
Magazine’s New Hollywood issue.<br />
Yet according to the smaller, for-profit distributors<br />
like House Lights Media, getting bigger<br />
names in the mix presents a problem. Says<br />
Roberts, “Fox Searchlight and Sony Classics<br />
releasing ‘independent’ movies with significant<br />
star appeal means the true indie art houses are<br />
less likely to take a risk on something that may<br />
be a great story and good production, but no<br />
stars.” He has a point: Fox Searchlight’s biggest<br />
draws last year were The Descendants, starring<br />
George Clooney, and Tree of Life, starring Brad<br />
Pitt and Sean Penn.<br />
Which brings us back to Leonard’s dark<br />
comedy, The Lie. Based on a story by T. Coraghessan<br />
Boyle (Road to Wellville) The Lie stars<br />
indie faces like Jane Adams (Wonder Boys),<br />
Jess Weixler (Teeth) and Alia Shawkat (TV’s<br />
Arrested Development), but despite the quality<br />
and cast of the film, Leonard chose to selfdistribute<br />
with a twist, breaking the distribution<br />
into chunks he could manage if he also<br />
worked with a service provider.<br />
The going trend in self-distribution is compartmentalization:<br />
One company handles the<br />
marketing, another takes the P&A, another<br />
takes DVD, and a fourth handles VOD/ondemand.<br />
Sound confusing? It can be. Says<br />
Orly Ravid of the Film Collaborative, “What<br />
I saw was an industry that monetized secrecy,<br />
and we’re trying to monetize transparency. The<br />
industry has a lot of secret, extraneous middlemen,<br />
and monetizing transparency empowers<br />
the filmmaker so that it’s more sustainable for<br />
the creator and the investor.”<br />
The Film Collaborative’s services to filmmakers<br />
start with education. Its website houses<br />
a “distripedia” of links and information,<br />
plus blogs and a tool called the Distributor<br />
Report Card. “It’s like Yelp for distributors,”<br />
says Ravid. Soon, the Film Collaborative will<br />
also offer legal advice and services. “In most<br />
of our situations, filmmakers do some selfdistribution<br />
and a hybrid deal. It’s not ‘Down<br />
with the industry!’—it’s finding a way that<br />
makes sense for everyone involved. Of course,<br />
the distributor gets his due fee—but “due” is<br />
the important word. The deal shouldn’t be deleterious<br />
and never-ending.” Though the Film<br />
Collaborative’s angle is service, its nonprofit<br />
status means it, too, has to be picky about<br />
which films and filmmakers it helps. Reputation<br />
is key.<br />
As VOD has become an increasingly common<br />
option for indie films, is the theatrical<br />
run still important? According to Sandro<br />
Fiorin, VP of FiGa Films, while “theatrical is<br />
a vanity in many ways,” smart small distributors<br />
still angle for at least a one-week run in a<br />
big city art house. “The film will get reviewed,<br />
and if it’s well received, the phone doesn’t stop<br />
ringing. For us, it’s a huge deal.” The warm reception<br />
of a critic is worth “more than money<br />
can buy. It makes every little theater around<br />
want it.”<br />
Adds Fiorin, while the indie world is at<br />
an unusual crossroads where there’s almost<br />
too much product and too many options, the<br />
key to the business is still incredibly simple:<br />
“The only thing we can rely on is our legacy of<br />
quality. That’s the excitement: being the ones<br />
who were lucky and smart enough to be there<br />
at the right moment and to be responsible for<br />
bringing films into the market. It’s been said<br />
people will watch whatever they want for free.<br />
Am I gonna stop sleeping well because of that?<br />
No. There’s a different type of audience who<br />
wants to feel and see and hear the film with<br />
everything they do—and that audience doesn’t<br />
want to see it on YouTube.”<br />
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