Startup Film School with Stacey Parks of FilmSpecific.com

We are always talking about marketing and promotional budgets for our releases, but what if you literally have $0 budget to work with? How do you pull off a release with NO MONEY?

Filmmaker Micah Van Hove is about to find out through the release of his feature debut MENTHOL.

Tune into this case study we did with him to find out:

• An intro to the movie, the budget range, and how he funded it
• What his initial goals were going into Menthol
• What the festival process was like and how long he waited before approaching distribution
• Why he decided NOT to do a TUGG tour
• Why he decided to launch his VOD release on the Reelhouse and Vimeo platforms over all the other ones available
• How he plans to sustain a digital release with $0 marketing budget and who his target market is (his answer will surprise you!)
• The single biggest lesson he's learned throughout the process of making and releasing his first feature in today's 'distribution is everywhere' climate
• The biggest challenges he's faced along the way and what he's done to overcome them
• The three things he'll definitely going to do differently next time

From Crowd Funding To Broadcast Deal To Emmy Nom: Sean Hanish & Return To Zero Part 

Join us and filmmaker Brooks Elms while we walk you through the steps to preparing your script for financing and Brooks will weigh in on how he applied all this to his project "Montauk Highway

Full Story Here

After a 10 year journey of getting his film made, Film Specific member Mike Fitzer got a distribution deal for his film "Pleased To Meet Me" after playing just 2 festivals and is now premiering his film on iTunes. In this candid interview with him, find out...

• Why he chose iTunes to as the premiere distribution platform?

• What his plan is for driving sales?

• What he's spending on marketing and promotion and what's working best?

• How social media is playing a role in the promotion (his answer will surprise you!)

• What type of deliverables he needed for the process and what the costs are

Full Notes Here

We last spoke with filmmakers Kimberly Dilts and J.T. Arbogast while they were over halfway through a 75 city theatrical tour (half powered by Tugg) for their film "Angel's Perch". Well now the tour's done and we pick up where we left off with Kim and JT for final tally from their tour.

Full story

The VOD landscape is in a period of rapid growth and expansion. Michael Murphy of VOD aggregator Gravitas Ventures joins us to discuss the changes taking place as the VOD landscape evolves, the new model that's emerging, and what steps filmmakers need to take to play the VOD game.

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Sean Hanish just closed a big distribution deal for his directorial debut "Return To Zero" starring Minnie Driver, Paul Adelstein, and Alfred Molina… and that's after crowd funding $100K plus in finishing funds for the film.

Full notes here

Everyone generally thinks of social media and community building as tools to help distribute their films. But what about leveraging those assets for packaging and financing? In this case study, producer Miles Maker discusses how he's leveraging social media to move his project forward.

We last spoke with Miles in a previous case study, "Creating the Illusion of Motion While Packaging Your Project"

Here Miles discusses:
• Updates on the packaging of SAFEWORD
• How to utilize Facebook to attract producers, executive producers, and financiers
• How to take advantage of Twitter to approach actors directly (and by pass their reps!)
• The draw of new social media platforms like Pinterest and how you can leverage them
• Why you must choose your producing partner carefully and what happens if their sense of urgency doesn't match yours
• And more!

Daniel Meisel, producer of "All She Can", which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance 2011, is proof positive that is is possible to get into Sundance and get picked up for an all rights deal despite being a small film, a drama, with no name cast, and first time director. In this seminar Daniel discusses how he took the hard road and how it paid off.

In this seminar Daniel discusses:

• What kind of strategic planning he did in Pre-Production

• How he approached budgeting and coming up with a realistic amount

• How he financed the film using all private investors

• What his distribution strategies were from the get-go: Plans A, B, and C

• What was the single most important ingredient in getting distribution for his film

• How and why he decided NOT to use sales projections or comparables to 'sell' investors on his film

• What is cash flow and revenue model is like now that he got distribution

• What he plans to do differently next time