The Travelling Documentary Salesman (or how to survive in an age of diminishing distribution deals)

There's no need to lie. It's rough out there in the real world for documentaries. Recently I've been wondering how I'm going to scrape by after college (although, I don't really mind scraping by, as long as I'm doing something I love). Ellen's been telling us the last few weeks that the feature documentary is dead (or possibly dead, as we can never really predict the future). Regardless of this doomsday outlook, I still think there is a life out there for a longer documentary form. However, it's becoming more and more apparent that filmmakers must changes there standard models of distribution, in order to keep up and adjust in a topsy turvy world. 

One model that I've continually read about and find more and more appealing is that of self-distribution. If nobody wants to take a risk on your film, who better to sell it than yourself. The lack of a distribution deal should never be the end for a documentary. As Ellen has talked about in class, one of the most important things to think about when crafting a film (from a business standpoint, that is) is the potential audience. More specifically, we need to think about niche audiences. Filmmakers like Bradley Beasley have exploited this concept to the nth degree. Mr. Beasley in particular has sold countless copies of his Okie Noodling DVDs to Noodling fans across the nation and the world. All it takes is a killer website (and an attractive film).

A more ambitious model I've run across (for those that have a little extra cash in their pockets) is that of the travelling film salesman. A couple of years ago, David Lynch took his utterly bizzare (and utterly unmarketable) film Inland Empire on a tour of major cities. I believe he self-financed this tour, but I think it payed off in the end. Not only is traveling with a film a great way to create buzz, it also creates some real opportunities for bringing home the bacon (or atleast paying off your travel expenses). Say you sell DVDs of your film in each city, even going as far to . . . autograph copies! These discs could be sold for $15-20 a pop. If you manage to sell 20 dvds at each stop, that's $400 dollars right there. Of course this doesn't sound like much, and I'd be lying if I said this strategy will make you rich. However, the $400 dollars could help finance a nation-wide, grassroots publicity tour. It's worth a shot (for the brave soul out there). 

In the end, one thing I know for sure is that we'll have to be ready to adapt to an ever changing market place. In the age of twitter (what a mindless application), anything is possible. There are opportunities surrounding us, and all we have to do is reach out and grab them. It'd be nice to get that HBO deal, but in the meantime, I'm looking toward different models. If anyone has any other ideas of how to distribute documentaries, feel free to comment!