Film Courage: Without naming names, can you give us some of the distribution
offers you’ve had for Lola?Antoine Allen, Filmmaker: Lola one [his first
film] the process was when I did a premiere before Covid happened (the day of Covid)
I had a whole plan. I was going to put it in AMC, do movie theaters (all that), it didn’t work out.
So I was like my whole marketing strategy with my last movie was movie theaters that had collapsed.
I did his big festival called American Black Film Festival, one of the biggest festivals out there.
I premiered it online because Covid happened and I got a lot of distribution companies contacting me.
The one that contacted me was called Homestead Entertainment and they kept telling me Antoine,
the Netflix’s and the BET’s are going to say no. It was right because I didn’t have big names but
they said go to Tubi TV. I was like What’s Tubi TV? We’re so programmed that if it’s not
a Netflix or Hulu or BET we’re not looking into that. I gave in, I did a deal with Homestead.
At first I was kicking and streaming but the CEO Rob Johnson said Antoine, trust me,
you want to make something with Tubi TV. I said Whatever. My first check was nice. Tubi
TV is an amazing platform for independent filmmakers when the big networks say no.
It’s a great split. They give you 50 percent of the ad revenue and as long as you promote
and are really out there, getting all your friends and family, it’s free too. You don’t
have to pay for nothing because the reality is the film business is now the music business,
no one pays for music anymore, they stream everything. It’s the same in the film business,
people are not trying to pay for your films unless it’s a big film, so you want to stream it for
free. Tubi is a great platform when you can’t get to the big networks.Film Courage: No subscription
model for Tubi?Antoine: Nope, [none] at all and it’s great. You set the app on your phone and I
didn’t even know this, a lot of people got Tubi. That’s another thing, I wasn’t educated, I thought
Tubi whatever? But Tubi has a big market. It’s a great platform. Film Courage: Are you able to get
age demographics and where people live? No no okay that's something I want to work on my next project
when you talk about the revenue that's generated from having Lola on Tubi can you talk about what
you mean by good so my first three weeks on Tubi because you get paid when you sign a distribution
company you get paid by quarterly first quarter second call to third quarter it's like every three
to four months so I came at the end of the quarter so I got to get paid that last quarter because I
came at the end like three weeks and the first week was like around around five thousand dollars
it's a way better back end than Amazon Amazon Prime give you pennies so if
you're a filmmaker and you want to make some money off your Independent films try to get
on tubing and get a great distribution company that could help you get on Tubi
and you will see the results but you have got to you have got to promote it
when you say promote it you mean what do you do Facebook ads yeah Facebook ads Instagram
ads don't just put it online and do one or two posts you have got to be consistent if that's not
you hire someone that will be consistent online doing different marketing strategies for it when
I release level one this is a woman empowerment film I release it during women's month business
side I did a podcast for it a limited podcast for it leading up to the release talking about
women empowerment things I interviewed a lot of powerful women in my life and I did an interview I
saw a marketing promotion leading up roll out and it did really well did really well before you had
Lola won on Tubi we talk about some of the offers that came in from other Distributors for the film
it was a lot of distribution companies and I did not go with them because a
lot of them are predators a lot of the becomes our predators
they tell you I put your movie everywhere but the reality is they don't even have that reach so if
you're a filmmaker unless you got a big name in your film or you have a great marketing strategy
it doesn't make no sense to put your film everywhere because at the end of the day
your order is only going to go to one or two platforms so let's break it down Amazon Prime
is really for exposure you're not going to make a lot of money on Amazon unless you're a big film
Apple TV unless you're getting a license fee no one's really buying it no Independence
over ten twenty dollars you might get some money but it's just it's crumbs so for me
I'm a realist I'm not going to say here's my film everywhere and everybody going to watch my film
that's not going to happen try to stick to one and two platforms so you're going to do Amazon do
Amazon do Tubi don't do a whole bunch of platforms it's just it's just a waste and another reason why
I don't like that you want to control your money if you have a distribution company they stick up
with you from everywhere you got to count that money you have got to know where that money coming
from and sometimes a lot of distribute companies they're not trustworthy you got to be Catholic
a lot of distributing companies don't have your best interests they predators independent films so
you want to be very loud research the number one reason that you want to do and this is why I went
with homestead entertainment the best research is if a distribution company got filmmakers contact
the film exactly already making money and you're going to find out majority are not making no money
staying in red they're not making nothing make it like a little advanced and that's it when I went
to Homestead entertainment I contacted four filmmakers all making money and some of them
show me their receipts they do a statement so that's the number one reason why like it's very
rare for if somebody could say have any money while this bridge company independently favored
so you want to really control your thumb be a be realistic if you don't have no big names in
your film why you don't worry about distribution like you got to be a realist like I know my film
I know I have big names let's keep it simple one to two platforms I know my money going to be at
it's not no it's my film is not no network that's a Millions away and I can't find the
money so you just want to be a realist when you do the deals and get a lawyer
the final lawyer go online because those contracts are crazy so really find a lawyer read a contract
because I think that's your baby you want to give a real baby to no stranger why don't be
desperate like really read those contracts and they have lawyers website they will do it for free
and if you don't understand the language the terms and the contract Google the words
this is everything I would do because sometimes we don't have the money for lawyers so you want
to break it down and then also too you want to try your best in the contracts
that you could order the distribution company if you feel like you're not getting your money
so it has little things like contracts but get a lawyer and a lawyer will represent you and say the
right thing for you where do you find a lawyer to do this for free so they have some websites
out there that they would read a contract for you I came into websites but even if not
put that in your budget just to read a contract because you could get a as long as I didn't cost
a lot of money but it's some lawyers that local lawyer that can read a contract for you and break
it down for you not for a lot of money but put that in your budget that you need a lawyer to read
the contracts what what kind of hourly fee are you paying so you have some lawyers play a fat fee I
would say do a flat fee don't do no I believe tunnel listen this is what I want workout flat
fee there's tons of lawyers that will work out flat fee for you what do you think is reasonable
it's on your budget put on a person reasonable for me might be reasonable somebody else so
it depends on your budget so you go with your budget but you wouldn't get a lawyer
what do you think is unreasonable because on the budget
like for me my lawyer was looking at my contract was 1500. for me that's fine but for someone else
that's a lot of money so you got to go with your budget but do you want to make that investment
even if you have to do a crowd for me because that contract once you sign that contract you
can't go backwards so you want to be very careful with your signing okay so you you only allotted
certain things that you wanted this lawyer to do and you paid them yeah yeah yeah you don't have
to do a whole hourly fee and everything you could don't listen this is document read it tell me what
I need to know you work out flat fee everything's negotiable no people think you give you negotiate
when you reached out to these filmmakers that were working with this Distribution Company
without naming their film or their names first off how did you contact them IMDb
so when you go on IMDb the district numbers there so I want to contact them so I was a phantom on
Instagram called them and also I so I told the district company could I get so many numbers the
ones I didn't know they it was happy giving any numbers and the numbers was really good and I was
happy so yeah that's rare for any filmmaker two did it say yes because usually you hate
I ain't making no money they gave me advance and then another thing you don't want to do
so distribution companies be saying that we have like a 50 000 budget for marketing what
marketing social media they don't know how to do marketing so when you sign your contract you
said you're not getting no marketing not enough to don't take money or friend you here's your
percentage whoever is 15 or 20 whatever the percentage is and that's it because multitude
companies don't know a clue about marketing so when they add that in their contract or is it 50
000 marketing budget how it's a lot of a line okay and so you say I don't want marketing to be part
of my package I do everything I'll do everything right yeah just take this hit again take the fee
that you want to set whatever's up and that's it because they don't Market there's no just like so
they don't if you go on high-filled distribution companies marketing they're like maybe five likes
50 people fall in them like what are you marketing to so you have got to they take a prayer for a lot
of filmmakers a lot of bad distributes comes out here but I must say Homestead I had no
homes entertainment no complaints and when you talk to these filmmakers what kind of numbers
were they providing for you six figures and what span of time six months what type of films were
these documentaries Urban African-American films gangster films captain of the day is not the film
it's your audience you got to know your audience like if you if you're doing a Christmas film I
love film a horror film you have to build your audience for it but they was doing and also it's
free like to be great in my two is free so you guys just watch commercials on it no you have
to because because at the end of the day if you get a thousand people to watch the film half of
the majority are going to pay five ten hours of ranger film it's just not just I mean just read
that they're not but if I say my films on this platform it's free it's easier I'm not paying
for nothing and then signing up to two bit real easy you have to put so much information in there.