Ian Agard dot Com

After a little holiday break, I’m back onto Ian Agard dot Com. I hope you enjoyed their holidays. Now that my film Bend and Break is completed I plan to devote the next 4 to 6 months of my time and energy to market and sell my feature film around the world and entertain as many people as possible. That means I will not be writing on this blog on a weekly basis as usual. It might be once a month or once every other week. But I will continue to share my personal filmmaking experience as things progress over the next 6 months.

Here is something interesting I came across while researching for potential film festivals to submit Bend and Break too. It can be quite costly to submit your movie into a film festival, so here are some festivals from around the world which have no entry fee.

The No-Fee Film Festival List

15/15 Film Festival - short must be produced during the contest

African-American Film Marketplace

African Diaspora Film Festival

All Roads Film Festival

American Conservation Film Festival

Amnesty International Film Festival

Annapolis Reel Cinema Festival – defunct?

Archaeology Channel Festival – indigenous peoples, heritgage film

Arizona State University Art Museum Short Film & Video Festival

Auckland International Film Festival

Australian Effects Short Film Festival - showcases digital effects and innovation

Balticon Film Festival – sci/fi convention fest, mostly shorts

Berlin and Beyond – films from Germany, Austria, Switzerland only. Fest is in San Francisco.

Bicycle Film Festival – films featuring or celebrating bicycles.

Black Soil Film Festival – hip hop films

The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival

Brisbane International Film Festival

Buenos Aires Film Festival

Calgary Underground Film Festival

Cinerama (defunct?)

Comic Arts Laugh Festival

Conscious Life Expo Film Festival – where the “the spiritual and progressive community in southern California” comes together

Daytona Beach Film Festival – free for student filmmakers

Delray Beach Film Festival

DOCNZ – documentaries

Docfest – New York International Documentary Festival – filmmakers apply by letter first; festival will request screener if they are interested

DC Meets Delhi Film Festival

DC Independent Film Festival – student filmmakers pay no fee

Down Under International Film Festival

Flyway Film Festivals

Global Peace Film Festival

Green Mountain Film Festival

Greenbelt Utopia Film & Video Festival – fee waived for filmmakers under 18

H2O 360

Human Rights Watch Intl Film Festival – festival solicits film descriptions by email and then requests screeners from filmmakers

Intelligent Use of Water Film Fest – short films about water conservation

Loisaida Cortos Latino Film Festival

Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival - no fee for films submitted before certain date

Melbourne Underground Film Festival

Native American Film & Video Festival

National Neighborhood Day Short Film Contest - no entry fee for youth

Newark Black Film Festival

New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival

New York Film Festival

New York International Latino Film Festival

Next Reel International Film Festival

Nihilist Film Festival

NoisePop Film Festival

The Other Film Festival

OUTer Gay & Lesbian Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film Festival

Pangea Day

Philadelphia Fringe Festival

Providence Latin American Film Festival

Red Stick International Animation Festival

Reel Black Men

Salem Film Festival – send info first, they will request screener if interested

San Francisco Women’s Film Festival

Scandinavian Film Festival L.A.

Scinema Festival of Science Film

Short Shorts Film Festival

Stony Brook Film Festival

Tiburon Film Festival – fee waived for students

Tromadance Film Festival

Vistas Latino Film Festival

Wairoa Maori FIlm Festival

Wanaka Mountain Film Festival

Wellington Film Festival

Wild Spaces Film Festival - appears defunct?

Zeitgeist International Film Festival

Hello,

I would just like to say thank you to everyone who visited my website, read my articles, bought my movie and ebook this year. 2009 has been a wonderful year for me and that was made possible by your support and interest in Ian Agard dot Com.

I would like to wish you a very safe and Happy Holidays and I look forward to helping you towards your success throughout 2010.

Thank you again.

Ian.

With one week away from the DVD release of my new movie ‘Bend and Break’ I’d like to share with everyone the film’s official trailer, check it out:

Watch the Official trailer now!

Only 18 days left until…New Year’s Eve? Nope.

Christmas? Close.

There’s 18 days left until my movie Bend and Break goes on sale on DVD. Here are some publicity stills for the movie:

Check out the official Bend and Break site at http://www.bendandbreakmovie.com/  and join the mailing list for your chance to win a FREE poster for the movie.

…and how to turn this situation around.

The first time I ever set foot on a movie set was back in 2001 (working as a boom operator on a Sarah Polley short film). Since that day my passion for making movies has only grown and intensified. But one underlining question that continues to run through my mind is…why do most (95% or more) Canadian films tank at the box office?

Ask any Canadian filmmaker this question and you’re sure to start up a very long and never-ending conversation that might leave you wondering what made you want to open that can of worms. Well, I’m going to open the can of worms…just for this article. I’m so proud to be Canadian and our industry produces world-class movies year after year, however, these films just don’t seem to make any money (profit).

I found a great article by Canadian actor, writer and producer, James O’Regan that explores this matter in further detail:

Over the last year or so, a great teeth-gnashing has broken out within the Canadian Movie industry. Producers and their public sector confreres at Telefilm Canada sat down to wonder why no-one saw Canadian movies in the theatres. And now Telefilm has unveiled new money to throw at the problem.

In case you don’t know, Telefilm Canada is an arms length crown agency that has no public accountability via a “value for money” audit unless its own board of directors thinks it needs one – wow, get me on that gravy train, quick! It has generated, over the last 30 years, an industry wholly ignorant of Canadian theatrical film markets and wholly dependent on cultural welfare in the mistaken belief that you just can’t make any dough here a mare usque… I and every American film distribution company on the planet know different. I know because I’ve made money in the Canadian box office, in fact more money on one film than all Telefilm films on average. My short comedy, Edsville – about an innocent young couple that stumbles upon a town of Ed Sullivan impersonators – has a recoupment rate of 20% while the average recoupment rate published in Telefilm’s annual report, year after year, hovers at 2%-ish. I’ve also observed what our Yankee cousins actually do. All you have to do is ask them and they’ll actually tell you – hey, who knew?

So let’s see what it takes to make money and sell movies in Canadian moviedom. Here’s the top 12 for anyone who wants to make $8M on a movie in three weeks in Canada:

Rule # 1: No one knows what sells

Rule # 2: See Rule # 1, no, seriously, memorize Rule #1. I’m not saying this only to make the list apostolic, really. I could make something else up.

Rule # 3: Anything that helps sell is good

Rule # 4: The public will pay to see things or people they really like

Rule #5: Exploit people or things that the public likes

Rule #6: The Canadian Public doesn’t care who directs, writes or produces movies

Rule #7: The Canadian Public pays to see “people” on the screen. Actors are the Product

Rule # 8: The Canadian Public loves Stars

Rule # 9: Make sure you have a story

Rule #10: Comedy Sells (Canadians are masters of comedy)

Rule #11: Do everything you can to ensure the Canadian Public knows about the movie

Rule #12: To the risk taker goes the reward. All else is bunk.

To manufacture and market a Canadian movie to the Canadian market, you have to invest $3.5M. Making the movie costs CDN $2.5M. Marketing the movie for a 100 screen three week release costs CDN $1M.

Let’s take a look at how much money you can make. A 100-screen release can generate up to $16M in revenue. If you control the marketing with your $1M, you get $8M back from your $3.5M investment. Isn’t math for fun and profit great?

If you don’t spend that $1M, you are guaranteed to make nothing at the Canadian box office. Telefilm Canada and its producers don’t spend the money and the results are predictable. Movies funded by Telefilm Canada don’t earn a profit from Canadian box office; they don’t even recoup. Telefilm Canada data shows that Canadian distributors have an average marketing budget per Canadian film of $30,000 – about $970K short of what they need; that this average results from a blend of a majority of films released with an actual budget of less than $10,000. Hoo boy, why aren’t these films making the big bucks, eh?

Let’s say it again for the benefit of Telefilm and its Canadian producers, you must spend $1M regardless of a movie’s budget to have a chance at success.

Had the recent Egoyan opus, The Sweet Hereafter, received $1M in Canadian marketing highlighting the divine Sarah Polley, it might have made some bucks. After all, Polley has a following in Canada – more of a following than Egoyan. Yet it was Egoyan that the producers tried to market, not Polley. The little money that was spent was spent foolishly – see rule #6.

Even a American B movie like Nurse Betty gets the full $1M marketing treatment. Learn the lesson from American distributors who know better; who do spend $1M for each film they release in Canada.

Here’s the best part about making sacks of cash in Canada. Manufacturing, distribution and marketing infrastructure are all 100% in place. All you have to do is come up with a movie to market and some cash to market it with. Hey, pinch me!

Why isn’t it working now? Why is Telefilm’s record so dismal? Public policy has intervened in the movie business only at the level of manufacturing – dolling out wallops of cash to make movies. The new funds maintain that approach. This is simply bad policy and we have bank vaults full of unseen films to prove it.

The only successful public policy intervention on the books are Canadian Content (CanCon) rules for the Canadian music industry. There, public policy told the radio stations (the exhibitors) that they had to play a percentage of Canadian music or else they would be shut down. Today, we have a thriving music industry with big Canadian stars.

Before CanCon in the music industry, Canadian Radio stations played about 3% of Canadian content. After CanCon, it became 30%. Can-con drove the business of the Canadian music industry. It supported the early market-driven development of Canadian music stars. It allowed financial and artistic success in the small Canadian market. Remember there was no success before Can-con rules for the music industry. That Canadian-based market success worked as a springboard to world success for many Canadian performers. It took a while to work but work it did.

Marketing is simple. It just costs money. With its new infusion of funds, it appears that Telefilm will try to mystify the process per usual, read the entrails and divvy up the dough without recognizing rule # 1 – no one knows what sells. That is the mystery and joy of movie selling – ya just don’t know and no-one can give you the magic bullet, i.e. previous box office records, e.g. think how many major studios have hit rock bottom with a series of losers only to bounce back “unexpectedly.”

If public policy is going to intervene, it should get out of movie production and into the marketplace with CanCon for Canadian cinemas. Set a quota, step out of the way and voilà: in five years, we will have a thriving movie business with big Canadian stars. Movie producers are much better at making movies than cultural bureaucrats. I know, call me crazy, but it’s true.

CanCon rules for the Canadian movie business are one means of helping create movies and movie stars without spending a lot of tax dollars. That’s all they do. Canadian movies don’t need it to succeed but if government is to intervene to help reward risk, then that’s the best way and means of intervention, and cheaper too.

For public policy, how bad could it be to issue an “initiative” to exhibitors across the country, insisting that 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% of product viewed in Canadian cinemas must be indigenous Canadian product over a period of years. Then stand aside and let the industry do what it does best: sell movies.

Hey, it ain’t that hard. After all, no one, not even Hollywood, knows what sells. Remember rule #1?

How to turn this situation around?

Now, it’s time for me to add in my two cents worth. We (the Canadian film industry) need more film studios here in Canada. I’m not talking about some glorified soundstage like Filmport but a full-fledged independent movie studio that has 100% control of the financing, development, production and worldwide distribution of their movies. These Canadian movie studios should have only two objectives:

1)     To make movies that will entertain millions of people around the world. Focus on giving moviegoers what they want and according to the current all-time North American box office stats…people want to see movies with Action, Animation and Special effects. Success leaves clues.

2)   To maximize profits.

That’s it. When that day happens, then we’ll definitely see a lot more Canadian films reaching the #1 spot at the box office. Both domestically and overseas.

As always, your comments are welcome and encouraged. Let me know what you thought about this article by leaving a comment below!     

Also, I invite you to become a fan of my film “Bend and Break” on Facebook.