When my company decided to fund the film, we did not pre-sell any foreign territories - Most indie films raise money by selling off the movie to different countries based on the actors value in the film. The different countries pay when the film is finished and delivered. The producer needs that money now though, so he/she takes the sales contracts to the bank and gets a loan against the contracts to help make the movie. The difference is made up of private equity (someone gives their own money) and some possible tax rebates (states offer you money back if you spend money in their state hiring their crews...that's why we changed it to New Orleans)
The problem with the whole pre-sale formula is this: The rest of the world is a bit behind in who they consider a star. They go by proven box office successes like Will Smith and Tom Cruise etc. What's even stranger is that certain actors that you don't see in theatrical movies in the United States (Jean Claude Van Dame, Steven Segal, etc) are still worth money overseas because of their box office track records from years earlier.
That's all fine if you like looking backwards to make a movie. We wanted to look forward. How can you make a movie with an actor based on talent alone, without a box office track record? With the foreign pre-sales model, it is almost impossible.
Remember, when we decided to do this movie, Kristen had not done Twilight.
She was not the worldwide star that she is today.
So we took a huge chance...We funded the movie completely without any pre-sales to reduce the amount of money we had to put in ourselves. Yup...we paid for the whole movie with our own money. Pretty scary stuff!!
We made the movie, Twilight became huge, we finished the post production and New Moon became even bigger. Kristen is now a big star and we got accepted into Sundance. Happily ever after.. right? Not so fast.
The independent film market has crashed and distributors aren't really buying small movies like they used to. People don't see them like they used to either. Sure, there are those one or two that break out every year (Precious, Little Miss Sunshine) but mostly people don't go see them, so the producers lose loads of money.
The distributor needs to be convinced that there is an audience for the film before they buy it. Is there an audience for our film?? We think so, you think so, but we don't know what the distributors think yet.
Is Kristen a big star only in Twilight? will her fans go see her in other movies? Did they go see The Cake Eaters? Adventureland? will they see the Yellow Handkerchief? These will all be factors in their decision.
The Sundance buzz is strong, that helps. It shows the buyers that there is a strong interest in the movie. The meter is/was high, that also shows that there is anticipation for the film. But...look at her projects, they are all pretty high right now. If WTTR were rated much higher than her other projects, would it help it stand out a little more? who really knows...
We go to Sundance and we screen the movie for a week. The buyers from all the major studios and distributors will watch. They will read reviews and they will feel the reaction in the room to the film, then they will decide if it's something they want.
The energy in the room is very important. The energy around the festival is also important. In an ideal world WTTR would have been at Sundance without The Runaways. It takes some of the energy and splits it. Is everyone here for WTTR or The Runaways? They will wonder...
The Runaways already has distribution in place. It was put together by a remarkable group of people with amazing bravery and taste. It also helps that they own a distribution company as well ; ) regardless..I really admire the team that put that film together.
We have a lot riding on Sundance. More than anything, I want to let you all know that we sold WTTR and it got worldwide distribution. Like all of you guys, that is what we are hoping for.
We will all find out together. Let's keep the energy high, lets keep the interest high, lets keep the buzz high and lets keep our fingers crossed that WTTR will be showing in many theaters in your town.
THANKS @LARRY411 AND SYR FOR MAKING THE PICTURE!
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