American Film Market Preview: Indie Vision

PREMIUM: International demand for indie feature films and TV movies is strong, buoyed by the growth of digital channels.

For years the American Film Market, or AFM, as it is more commonly called, has championed independent films. While the industry has felt the impact of a sluggish economy and a subsequent tightening of financing, the AFM still provides a forum where hopeful producers can pitch their ideas, distributors can find projects they feel have sales potential and a wide range of finished movies is on offer.

What has changed, and continues to evolve, is the media landscape, ever more complex and layered. Besides the traditional theaters, pay-TV, broadcast, cable and satellite channels, there are now digital platforms of all sorts, many of which are offering distributors new opportunities.

“We’ve seen quite a nice demand from most places internationally,” says Fernando Szew, the CEO of MarVista Entertainment. “One of the growth areas has been the digital terrestrial channels around the world who need good content.”

“Many major terrestrial channels have a lot of digital platforms and they are opening up some opportunities for us to do business, but we are still looking to do deals with the main channels because that is where the bulk of the value is,” says Gene George, the executive VP of worldwide distribution at Starz Media.

One company that is noticing a healthy demand for films is Breakthrough Entertainment. “The AFM 2012 is a landmark year for Breakthrough, because—for the first time—we are exhibiting,” says Marina Cordoni, the company’s VP of movies. “That is quite exciting for us, because it shows the growth of our movie division.”

In fact, in November of 2011 Breakthrough formed a unit specifically dedicated to the acquisition and sales of feature films that is headed by Cordoni. “We have been in business almost 30 years, and there has been some film production and distribution in the past, but in January 2012 we officially launched the unit, and within [this short time] we acquired 12 films. We are still committed to TV movies, but my main focus now is acquiring feature films.”

Cordoni attends all the major film festivals in Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Toronto, and has a number of criteria she follows as she makes her selections. “For me it’s about what makes a good quality film, and first and foremost it’s the script; it has to be a good story, it must have universal appeal. Secondly, who is the cast and are they saleable in foreign markets. And obviously it’s the execution of the film and who is directing it. I look to acquire films that are festival-driven, independent in nature and perhaps commercial in appeal.”

Breakthrough is bringing three new films to the AFM. The Resurrection of Tony Gitone is about a Canadian actor of Italian descent returning to Toronto to shoot a film after years of struggling in Hollywood. “It’s a film that resembles Diner, featuring a group of friends who come together, and it centers on one evening,” explains Cordoni. In addition, there is Unlucky, which is about a profoundly unlucky man who works for the lottery corporation, and Please Kill Mr Know It All, a romantic comedy about an extremely attractive hit man.

“We recently an­nounced a new production, and I will be looking for presale opportunities during the AFM,” adds Cordoni. “The movie is called Cas & Dylan and stars Richard Dreyfuss and Tatiana Maslany and is directed by Jason Priestley.”

Another company that uses presales to finance its films is VMI Worldwide, which was formed by André Relis, now the company’s president, after he parted ways with his former partner at a company called Vision Films. “In a matter of two years we’ve launched a new film division that has really taken off,” says Relis. “Part of it comes from the fact that we have moved up the scale of the productions we are working on.”

One of the films the company will be presenting at the AFM is Scorched Earth, a post-apocalyptic action movie, which stars Sean Bean and is directed by 24’s Brad Turner. “It has a budget of $5 million and we have three or four other projects we are preselling now in that realm,” adds Relis.

Not every film is suitable for presales, however. “We’re very selective, we read scripts to make sure the genre is commercial and we work with producers to attach a cast that is saleable. We have to make sure that the film’s elements are appealing to our buyers so they will come in early. The big keys to a successful presale are: first, the genre; second, the cast; and third, the director.”

A cast that is known internationally is typical of independent movies. Starz Media is banking on the power of Cuba Gooding, Jr., who won an Academy Award as best supporting actor for his role in Jerry Maguire, for its thriller Summoned. And Frankie Muniz, known for his role in the series Malcolm in the Middle, stars in the action-disaster film Blowing Vegas off the Map.

Some distributors are looking for new ways of financing films. “We tried something new; there is a European co-production called Lovemakers,” says Irv Holender, the chairman of Multicom Entertainment Group. “It’s a comedy with Daryl Hannah and Billy Zane and has a European cast and it’s about a matchmaking agency that goes awry.”

While independent features can span a wide variety of genres, the TV movies that find homes on international broadcast, cable and satellite outlets have traditionally fallen into specific categories: the female thrillers, or women-in-jeopardy movies, action-disaster films and holiday movies.

MarVista Entertainment, a leading supplier of TV movies to major cable networks in the U.S., has been active in all these genres, but recently, as Szew explains, they “have carved a very nice niche in the family-movie genre, not just from a family point of view but from a teen or tween point of view. We’ve done movies with Disney Channel and those have been very successful for us internationally as well.” Among the teen-skewing titles MarVista is bringing to the AFM are Circle of Lies, I Kissed a Vampire and Pop Star.

LICENSE TO THRILL
MarVista’s slate also includes thrillers: Fatal Justice, about a woman who takes matters into her own hands when a gang injures her 12-year-old niece; A Fall from Grace, the story of a 17-year-old girl who is accused of killing her best friend in a drunk-driving accident; and the high-action movie Collision Course, about an airplane struck by a solar flare. There are also the romantic comedies Today’s Special, a super-feel-good story about a young chef at an exclusive Manhattan restaurant, and Language of a Broken Heart, about a best-selling author struggling to keep his girlfriend’s interest.

TV movies with holiday themes continue to have enduring appeal among international broadcasters. MarVista has two such films, Love for Christmas and Oh Christmas Tree!

This genre has also been successful for Starz Media. “We have a very steady flow of holiday movies, particularly for Christmas,” explains George. “They work very well in late-afternoon slots.”

Starz also focuses on female thrillers, which “work well later in the evening, in post prime time,” continues George. “If you get a disaster film or a thriller that has a higher level cast, or it’s an event, or a Christmas movie during the holidays, many of them do get licensed for prime time, and that is our upside.”

Events, thrillers, romantic comedies and holiday movies are also part of Red Arrow International’s movie slate, which includes The Spy, Baby Bonus, Keep on Dancing and Matchmaker Santa.

Digital channels are providing distributors with a variety of new sales opportunities.

“A number of the digital channels belong to bouquets owned by some of the main broadcasters who already are our clients—now they just have more outlets,” says MarVista’s Szew. “So it’s very healthy for us because some of our broadcast partners now have specialty channels, which is a little bit different from what we saw eight or nine years ago with the growth of cable and pay TV. Those were new buyers, but now, for the most part, a lot of them are the same, they are just buying for a bouquet of channels.”

OPENING WINDOWS
The increasingly complex landscape is certainly making deals more complicated, forcing distributors to carve out windows that in some cases didn’t even exist a couple of years ago.

“The good thing that is happening in the international marketplace with a lot of these new platforms emerging is that we’ve seen a lot more flexibility from a lot of broadcasters,” says Starz’s George. “Although they are seeking, in many cases, broader rights to cover what they are doing with their platforms, we are seeing a lot more flexibility in the deals—shorter windows, carve-outs and things of that sort—which is great, especially for a company like ours that is very meticulous in working the windows. I always say we are not in the business of making a dollar anymore, but we’re in the business of making 20 nickels. We’ve really got to chop everything up, slice and dice it and do whatever we can to maximize [the opportunities in a market]. Sometimes when you chop it up it’s not 20 nickels anymore, we can get 25 or 30 nickels. It’s extra work, but in many cases we can monetize [our content] better by managing it.”

“In this day and age you have to make the rounds with all distribution entities,” agrees Relis of VMI. “If we can do an all-rights deal with a theatrical component to it, great. If we can get a free-TV deal and it’s more lucrative than all-rights then we’ll consider that. If we go into a certain territory and we strike out on all-rights theatrical or free TV, then we have to start looking at home-video and pay-TV deals. It’s about monetizing each territory and managing that territory to the best of our ability.”

OUTLET SHOPPING
“There are plenty of outlets but the revenue per outlet is very, very small,” says Multicom’s Holender. “So you have to cover more of an area and there is less revenue [for] that area. But at the same time fragmentation is causing more opportunities, so you have to have a very deep catalogue.”

Holender recently relaunched Multicom, a distribution outfit originally formed in 1995, that today focuses on selling to the global TV marketplace, as well as to digital platforms, pay-per-view, Internet and mobile channels. “Since November of 2011, we have acquired a tremendous amount of library content,” says Holender. “We have a documentary catalogue that has 1,100 broadcast hours of biographies, events and history. It deals with things that the average person below the age of 40 really doesn’t know. So it opens up a market for knowledge and we’re doing very well in China and in some of the other [emerging] territories. People are beginning to acquire these rights because they want to know the history of the 1940s, 1950s and so on.”

VMI is not only supplying digital channels with programming, but launching its own as well. “We are moving into the digital platforms very aggressively with our content,” says Relis. “We recently acquired 1,000 hours of military programming, war documentaries. At MIPCOM we launched a new channel of military programming and we will sell it to the VOD market in North America as well as internationally. We also have a separate music division, so if this works for us, we’re going to launch a music channel as well.”

MONEY HUNGRY
“It’s about combining your income from different outlets,” Relis continues. “If you have a lot of content you will always be able to monetize it and keep your company afloat. We have income coming in from our television programming that will keep us stable so that we can go out and do these bigger films, so that we can actually invest the time and energy into building these film projects that do require a ton of work.”

Despite the work and risk involved in making movies that will appeal to a broad audience, these distributors remain committed to the 90-minute storytelling form.

“It’s very risky. I have been in it for more than two decades and I find that people will always be drawn to a short version of entertainment,” says Breakthrough’s Cordoni. “As much as we love dramatic series and reality series that keep our attention for weeks and months on end, I still think that everyone requires a beginning, middle and end within 90 minutes. I find that the psychology of human nature is that we will always want something that has a full story that we can go in and come out of quite quickly.”