{"id":2114,"date":"2019-11-06T04:42:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T04:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/?p=2114"},"modified":"2019-12-02T04:44:33","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T04:44:33","slug":"at-afm-theres-a-small-screen-boom-for-indie-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/at-afm-theres-a-small-screen-boom-for-indie-producers\/","title":{"rendered":"At AFM, There\u2019s a Small-Screen Boom for Indie Producers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"VarietyLogo1\"<\/a>For the first time in its 38-year history, the American Film Market is producing a conference about what was once considered taboo at the confab\u2019s Loews Santa Monica digs: television. The Nov. 11 event will address how indie filmmakers can cash in on the tidal wave of new streaming services \u2014 Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Quibi, Peacock, AMC Theatres on Demand and more \u2014 and cable outlets investing billions of dollars to produce and acquire films.<\/p>\n

Variety spoke with Anthony Bregman of Likely Story, which has a first-look production deal with Netflix; Brad Feinstein of Romulus Entertainment, a producer of Apple TV Plus\u2019 first big feature, \u201cThe Banker\u201d; attorney Elsa Ramo; and other industry vets to find out what streamers are looking for, how producers can get in the door and how this new paradigm is impacting indies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to triple our output,\u201d says Disney Channel VP of original movies Lauren Kisilevsky, who\u2019s overseeing a slate of Disney Plus features along with films that will migrate there from her pay cable outlet. Similar to Lucasfilm and other Disney divisions, Disney Channel is producing several films for the streamer in-house. Kisilevsky will speak to producers after the Nov. 11 AFM panel Made-for-TV Movies: Expanding Opportunities for Independent Filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to invest in large-scale, VFX-heavy franchises [and] films that are cinematic with high-production values, but we\u2019re also exploring a large number of lower-budget, more contained movies\u201d that are often more grounded and comedic, she says.<\/p>\n

The channel\u2019s target demographic \u2014 girls age 6-11 \u2014 remains the same for Disney Plus films, but it is looking for grown-up actors \u201cwho are a bit more recognizable to adult consumers\u201d on the new platform. So far, only one Disney Channel-produced feature \u2014 \u201cSecret Society of Second-Born Royals,\u201d now in post-production \u2014 has been set to bow on Disney Plus, which launches Nov. 12 with family films like \u201cNoelle\u201d and a \u201cLady and the Tramp\u201d remake.<\/p>\n

One of the first glimpses into Apple TV Plus\u2019 film strategy is \u201cThe Banker,\u201d which opens theatrically Dec. 6 before debuting on the service on Jan. 31. Producer-financier Romulus Entertainment (2018\u2019s \u201cDriven\u201d) showed footage to generate presales at last year\u2019s AFM before Apple stepped in and swept up worldwide rights to the completed film this summer, founder Feinstein says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been great partners, and made sure we\u2019ve had pretty much everything we\u2019ve wanted \u2014 from post-production to a good publicity team \u2014 as we head into awards season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple brought Bleecker Street aboard for a theatrical rollout \u201cas wide as there is interest for the film,\u201d he adds. \u201cObviously, with a streaming release, there are some inherent limitations with windowing, but the fact that they\u2019re giving us a theatrical run says a lot. They didn\u2019t necessarily have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film, starring Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson, will close the AFI Fest Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

Feinstein says he\u2019s now in talks with SVOD platforms about releasing more of his completed and in-development features. \u201cWith a lot of distributors for independent films going under, you almost have to find a streamer in order to get them out, and [\u201cThe Banker\u201d theatrical run offers] the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likely Story\u2019s Bregman tells a similar tale that began with his 2016 musical \u201cSing Street.\u201d \u201cIt had incredible reviews, exit polls and word-of-mouth across the board, yet it didn\u2019t perform at the box office,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then we found out it was a massive hit on streaming services.\u201d<\/p>\n

After two of his films (\u201cThe Land of Steady Habits\u201d and \u201cPrivate Life\u201d) that were stuck at specialty divisions over casting and budget issues got fully financed by Netflix, he signed a first-look deal with the streamer, which is now producing three of his seven features. Deciding which distributor to go with \u201cis a tricky thing \u2014 it\u2019s a feel, and it\u2019s also who\u2019s biting,\u201d but he finds the outlet very producer-friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetflix is so active and hungry for material that it feels like there\u2019s less clubbiness about it than in some of the other financing\/distribution setups in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motion Picture Corp. of America founder Brad Krevoy, who\u2019s produced dozens of cable and theatrical movies as well as the just-released Netflix film \u201cHoliday in the Wild\u201d with Rob Lowe and Kristin Davis, will advise his fellow producers on the right place to pitch projects at the Nov. 11 television conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the demos each of the cable networks with advertising are trying to target \u2014 that will tell you the kind of programming they\u2019ll end up doing,\u201d he says. \u201cHallmark Channel just launched [the SVOD service] Hallmark Movies Now, but they\u2019re being consistent with what they\u2019re offering customers in the cable space. Most streamers are subscription-based and try to appeal to everyone, so they may have a broader bandwidth to try different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entertainment industry veteran John Zois, executive vice president of acquisitions and co-productions at Anton, has spoken with almost all of the new streaming services. \u201cI think Apple is looking for films that they can promote as events, maybe across platforms that they control,\u201d he says. \u201cHBO Max still seems to be in the formulation phase \u2014 they\u2019re buying things that are more high-profile, like the Soderbergh [film \u2018Let Them All Talk\u2019 with Meryl Streep], but I think their buys will be broader and they\u2019ll be doing a lot more. Quibi has high-profile projects, but they\u2019re also doing smaller, more obscure things and paying good prices for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramo Law PC managing partner Elsa Ramo has a good global perspective on budgets and content that\u2019s selling. She\u2019s now seeing a lot of made-for-TV and SVOD films in the $1 million-$3 million range and \u2014 if they have the right talent \u2014 the $10 million-$15 million range. Hot sellers include family-friendly content and rom-coms with name cast, \u201cand I have clients that make Christmas movies all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n

The streamer model is having a major impact on traditional indie financing. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to have an SVOD platform commit to the full budget, versus how independent films were made at AFM even five years ago, where you reverse-engineered it based on presales and equity and tax credits, cobbling together what you think the budget is, based on this unknown variable of what is the domestic market going to pay that\u2019s been shrinking year after year,\u201d Ramo says.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually there\u2019s no back end [in TV deals], or it\u2019s very hard to obtain,\u201d she adds. \u201cSo there may not even be the necessity of equity financing. The benefit of these made-for-TV movies is there is some protectability in giving a producer at least a bird in the hand in terms of compensation they know that they can rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will this affect film financing and AFM dealmaking in the near future? \u201cI think it\u2019s going in the direction that there will be no rights left on the table, and that will be to the detriment of producers,\u201d Ramo says. \u201cDepending on how these SVOD platforms perform in the next six to nine months, we could go back in the realm of them getting a first-window right, and the producer being able to exploit secondary windows or untapped territories \u2026 but I think the strategies by which all of the unlaunched platforms are buying is going to significantly change and modify once they\u2019re live. That\u2019s the cliff that we\u2019re all jumping off together, and nobody really knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

View this article at Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in its 38-year history, the American Film Market is producing a conference about what was once considered taboo at the confab\u2019s Loews Santa Monica digs: television. The Nov. 11 event will address how indie filmmakers can cash in on the tidal wave of new streaming services \u2014 Apple TV Plus, Disney
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-variety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2116,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions\/2116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}