Expert: Dan Pepper - 5/31/2008

Question
hi Dan, we have recently put together a production company and are in post production for our first movie, getting filmed in august in Spain. we are based in Europe but want to get in contact with distributors in the States. how do i do this? where do i look? could you run me through the typical process of a company like ours and a distributors agreement? some people want to buy our raw footage and rebrand it, others want us to get the dvds authored and put it on there shelves and sell it for us. please let me know the best way to do this. thanks Peter

Answer
There are literally hundreds of distributors in the U.S.  VCA, Vivid, Elegant Angel, Evil Angel, the Evil Empire, JP, JKP, Rain, Metro, Wave etc. are some of the big ones - they all have their own production companies, but they will sometimes buy independent stuff and distribute that too.  Most of the independent distributors are in Los Angeles, and you can search local directories to find them.

If you want a distributor to do the P&D (press and distribution) and do some authoring as well, expect to hand them a hefty cut of any sales to do so.  I still think the biggest market is in Internet distribution, which can be far cheaper in the long run.  Ultimately it depends upon your target market, the type of content you're selling, and what sort of margins you're looking for.  Everyone's goals are a bit different.