US $6.

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MARKETING YOUR
FILM OVERSEAS:
A DO-IT-YOURSELF REPORT

By Ted Chalmers for

www.movieplan.net
© 2002 Chalmers Entertainment Corporation
 MARKETING YOUR FILM OVERSEAS
A DO-IT-YOURSELF REPORT
By Ted Chalmers for
www.movieplan.net

Disclaimer: This report is not to be construed as legal advice in any matter or form. The
examples used are not based on any actual project, and the hypothetical dollar amounts
are shown for placement and layout purposes only.

In this report, we will discuss the simple steps to creating valuable marketing tools that
will make or break your success in licensing your film to distributors in the foreign
markets. A good campaign can close a deal without ever having to send the full length
cassette. Though rare, it is possible to make a sale solely based on the film's trailer and
marketing materials. However, since today's overseas buyers are more savvy than ever,
don't be surprised if everyone requests a full length tape.

1. The Sales Sheet

A typical sales sheet for foreign sales consists of a 8 1/2" X 11" printed flyer. This
should be at least a 4/1 design, meaning four colors on one side and black & white (or
color) on the other. The front of the flyer is in color showing the key art that you have
created.

The key art is the single most important tool in selling your film overseas. From your
key art, the buyer is going to determined if he can market the film to his customers.
Typically, they will use whatever key art you have created, even though you will be
delivering them more elements enabling them to create their own key art. Many buyers
simply use the sales sheet key art. So, if you have bad key art, it can kill a deal right off
the bat.

Of course, good key art is a subjective judgment. To get yourself acquainted with good
key art, you should take a trip down to Blockbuster and study carefully the box art on the
shelf. Believe me, the buyers at Blockbuster are no different than the overseas buyers
when making a decision to buy a movie. They look to the key art first and the film
quality itself second. Many times I have seen great boxes at Blockbuster that were
horrible movies... I mean horrible in quality, acting… everything. But, the box looked
great and that's what made the deal. Study these boxes and get to know the kinds of key
art that are out there. Study the key art for the particular genre of the film that you are
going to be offering.

Next, try to grab the annual key arts award issue of the Hollywood Reporter. This
reproduces every major key art campaign in all of Hollywood from video to theatrical.
All the nominees are included, so it is a good resource of quality key art.
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Once you have acquainted yourself with key art, then you must determine how you will
create your own. There are only two ways... do it yourself or hire someone to do it for
you. I would always recommend that you hire someone. Not just anyone, but someone
who is very good at graphic design. With today's computer literate world, almost
everyone knows someone who is a graphic artist. If you don't, you can go on to
http://www.elance.com. If you are not computer savvy yourself, then you can always go
to the nearest University art department and post a message that you are looking for
someone to do graphics for you. You will be surprised how eagerly these up and coming
artists will be to do the key art for your movie. First, its glamorous to work on a film,
and two, it helps build a portfolio.

For your information, sales sheets can costs in Hollywood something like $10,000.00 to
$20,000 and up for several thousand pieces. This includes a high profile art house and
printing. You can do it cheaper. If you are hiring a friend or student, you should be able
to get the design done for about $500.00. That's a good price to aim for. But, I wouldn’t
pay more than $1,000.00 for the design and layout.

If you choose to do it yourself, you will have to buy a good computer with a lot of
memory because graphic design programs are memory hogs. There are plenty of other
sources of material on how to become a graphics designer, so I will not get into it here.

In order to facilitate the creation of the key art, you will need some basics items. First,
you will need stills from your movie. Hopefully, you hired a photographer during
production and you have hundreds of 35MM slides to choose from. Otherwise, you will
have to pull frames from your movie. This is not a bad thing, if you shot negative film on
35 or 16. Video Frame grabbing still has a lot to be desired. But, if this is all you have
then you will have to work with it. In any case, have it least 20 - 40 shots from you film
for an artist to work with.

You will also need a short synopsis of your film. A paragraph or two is all that's
required. If you cannot do a good job, hire a copywriter in the same manner as your
artist. It will be worth it to have good copy on your sales sheet. While they are at it, have
them come up with a tag line. You know what a tag line is. It's the short phrase that
sums up the feel of the movie. My favorite is ALIEN, "In space, no one can hear you
scream". Again, check out your local video store for great tag lines. This line will go on
the key art.

You will also need to provide all the legal stuff like the copyright year, logos, trademarks,
credit blocks (be sure to be specific about any contractual credits).

Work closely with your artist in the key art design. Discuss ideas with him and have him
create several versions or roughs to choose from. If you choose an artist from the
internet, you should try using Adobe Acrobat. This is a great program that will enable
you to view the sales sheet design on your computer exactly as the artists is seeing it.
You can also print from Adobe Acrobat files and show them to your investors, partners,

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etc. You can comment on the design by e-mail and the artist can easily make revisions
and send them to you electronically. For more info, go to www.adobe.com/acrobat.

Once the key art has been set, lock in the text. Typically, the cover of a sales sheet is in
color, with the key art and the tag line. Also, if you have any stars in your picture their
faces and names should be prominently displayed on the cover. The back of the sales
sheet which is in black and white, should have the film's synopsis, credit block, legal info
and (most importantly) information on how to contact you, including an address, a phone
number and a fax number. It is a good idea to include other info such as e-mail and web
site addresses.

When the artist is finished laying it out, have him give you the computer file on a zip
disk. This will cost you about $25.00. But, then you can keep the art on disk forever. Its
a good thing to have just in case there is a change of information down the line.

Take the disk to a service bureau and have them output the color separations or negatives.
This is what the printer will use to print from. Colors seps will cost you about $160.00
for four colors and about $60.00 for the black and white. Call around all of these service
bureaus you can find competitive prices if you look. Be sure to have a color match print
created so that you can see how it will look printed. The printer also needs this to match
the color when printing. This is another $40.00.

Take the film outputs to a printer. Call around first to get the best prices. The printing of
1000 sales sheets (all you will need) will cost about $600.00. Again, be sure to tell them
that this is a 4 over 1 job. Also, determine the paper weight and stock. This is subjective,
but I recommend about 80 LB weight in a matte finish. But, you can always go glossy if
you want.

The total budget for your sales sheet is as follows:

Design: $1000.00
Color Seps $160.00
B/W Film $60.00
Match Print $40.00
Printing $600.00

Total: $1,860.00

If this comes in a little higher that’s okay. The average is about $2,000.00. If you hit that
mark, you're doing okay.

2. The trailer

The trailer is also an important tool. If there is any doubt in the buyer after looking at the
key art, you will hopefully be able to convince them with your trailer.

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It is absolutely essential to have a trailer. Almost all buyers will insist on watching a
trailer. Most buyers will ONLY watch the trailer and not the whole film. If you don't
have a trailer, you might as well stay at home, because no one will buy your film without
one.

To have a decent trailer made you will have to go to an experienced trailer cutter. They
can range in price from $1,500 to $5,000. A good theatrical trailer house will charge you
upwards of $10,000. You can also hire a good editor, or you can do it yourself. But, I
can almost assure you that you will not have the insights needed to select the right
sequences to make the trailer work well. A trailer is not just a synopsis of the film, it is a
sales pitch. It is the best of your film created to elicit emotional responses in your
audience. It's not as mechanical as feature editing. That's why there is a distinction
between editors and trailer cutters.

If you are truly at a loss for trailer cutters, try your local community college or
University, you may find a film or video department there. If so, you can post your need
for an editor. If they are inexperienced, make sure you work closely with them to get the
feel you want.

There are not many parameters to cutting a trailer. I recommend a trailer no longer than 2
minutes. Most buyers will get bored with anything longer... no matter how good the
product. Also, you should not use any music you like for a trailer. Copyright law
prohibits the use of music on trailers for commercial purposes without proper clearance,
even though a lot of companies do it. Also, the trailer will become a deliverable item to
your buyer and you will have to have cleared music then. So, you might as well make
sure all your music is cleared on the trailer. You can use music from the movie itself or
license music from music libraries. These “cues,” as they are called, can be as little as a
few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

To do the trailer, you will need to give the cutter a copy of the film on the format of their
choice, beta, s-vhs etc. The sound should be divided minimally as follows: dialogue and
effects on one channel and music on another channel. This will enable the cutter to cut
your scenes up with out the annoying "pop" of trailers that are cut from fully mixed
masters.

Usually a script is presented by the trailer house or cutter. The script should tell the story
of the film. It’s OK to give away key plot points. This not a trailer geared toward
consumers, but to distributors, so you want to sell the best aspects of the film and not
hold anything back. The cutter will do a rough cut for you which you can approve or
request changes. He will then go and finalize the trailer. Make sure the trailer creates an
emotional response in its viewers. Show the rough to your friends and family or better
yet -- complete strangers. This will help determine if your trailer is working.

To look for good trailer examples, call any one of the trailer houses in Hollywood and
request a reel. They will gladly send you a reel of their work for free. But, expect them
to call you to follow up. They are notorious hard sellers. Also, you can check out the

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trailers at the head of most videos you rent. Make notes on which trailers you think work
and which don’t.

You can cut a trailer on your own, but it will require some fancy video editing systems.
But, besides a poor looking trailer, you won’t have the dynamic feel of a great trailer
unless you, the trailer cutter, knows what your doing.

You should end up with a video copy of your trailer, properly mixed and sweetened. You
will want this on Betacam SP at least, depending what you intend to duplicate from.

The budget of your trailer: between $1,500 and $5,000.00.

3. Press kit

You will want to create a simple press kit that your buyers will ask for. Usually this is
required after a sale is made, but sometimes they request it to help determine if they will
buy your film or not. However, if your budget is tight, this is an optional item at this
point.

Typically, a press kit will have a color sales sheet (as above); A longer outline of the plot;
Production notes (that include interesting and publishable tidbits on the cast and crew);
detailed bios of the cast and key crew members 3 black & white 8 X 10 glossy photos and
about 4-5 35 MM slides for publication.

Contrary to what you might think, a press kit does not contain press clippings from
previously published stories about your film. These are nice to include when marketing
your film, but they do not need to be in there when being submitted to actual members of
the press.

The press kit can be written by a PR agency wherein it will be expensive. You can
accomplish the same goal by writing your own and saving a bundle.

I would recommend you hire a freelance copy writer and pay them a few hundred dollars
to write a good kit for you. Again, you can scour the marketing department at local
colleges. There are Public Relations majors that might do it for free.

Your actors and crew may already have their own bios written. This is a big help. Ask
them for a copy and I am sure they will be happy to provide it.

The production notes will take a little time. Make some note on the elements that you
think are interesting about your film. These notes should be about 2-3 pages long and
double spaces. You are not writing a book here.

The slides and B&W glossies can be created from the shots that you used to make your
sales sheet above. You should be able to take these shots have as many sets of these as
you want made up from your local camera shop. Slides typically run about $1.00 each to

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reproduce. Black and white glossies may be a little higher. Call around first. Then, pick
4-5 shots for your color slides and pick 3 of those to be your black and whites. Instruct
the camera house that you want colors slides AND B&W glossies on those shots. Also,
order 35MM sleeves that you can cut up and slip into your press kits with the slides in
them.

You can get samples of press kits by calling the publicity departments of any major
studio or video company. Tell them you are a small newspaper or magazine and you are
doing a story on their new titles. They will be glad to send you their press kits.

The final kits are to be placed in plain black or white presentation folders which you can
buy at an office supply house.

Press kit budget:

35 MM slides (20 Sets of 4) $88.00

Black and Whites (20 sets of 3) $90.00
Photocopies of Text (20 sets of 10 pgs) $10.00
Presentation Folders $20.00

Total: $208.00

When your press kit is finished, send out two of the right away to the international
department of the two major trade publications, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and
DAILY VARIETY. A complete list of trade publications and contact names is at the
back of the manual. Make sure to have enough kits for your clients too. They will need
them for their own territories. Also, you may want to contact the Foreign Press
Association. They can give you a list of reporters here in the U.S. that you can send your
kits to. This may help foreign sales if the film is favorably received.

4. Screening Tapes

You will need plenty of screening tapes. So, make sure you get a reasonable duplication
price. Many video labs will charge as much as $10.00 per copy, even in quantities of
100! There are some very cheap places out there. Video duplication is basically a
"whore's market". Excuse the expression, but it accurately describes the field of
competition out there. Most "mass" duplicators will undercut any price just to get your
business. Be sure to present yourself as a producer who will be making many more
movies and they will be glad to get you their best price. I would say you should not pay
more than $1.10 or $1.50 for screening tapes of 90 minutes. You may need to do
quantities of 50 to 100 for this. But, you will be sending a lot of tapes out, so you will
need at least that many.

You should create a screener master. Have your lab create a screener master from your
video master. Your trailer should be at the head of the feature (before the feature). There
should be a visible text mark to the effect of "For Viewing Purposes Only" over the

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picture at the lower portion of the screen (or in the upper portion should you have any
sub-titles). Your company name can then be at the top of the screen. This will help with
piracy, but if you check into any hotel in Malaysia you will see this text on most of the
movies you watch on the hotel pay video systems, so don't be surprised (deal with it now,
if your film WILL be pirated somewhere).

Have your screening master vaulted at your video lab and you can order up screeners as
needed. Many place will extend 30 days net to repeat customers, but don't expect this
right away. If you have great references and credit then you might get net 10. It never
hurts to ask. These video duplicators will pick up and drop off for a small fee or
sometimes even free. Always ask for this. If you are out of L.A. you will have to use
UPS. I would suggest opening an account with them.

Have the lab create laser labels (some will charge extra 10 cents) that spell out the name
of the movie and that this is a screening tape. Also make sure to have your contact
information and copyright information displayed prominently. Use face labels only and
forego the spine label. Have the lab sleeve the screeners in black or white window
cardboard window sleeves with shrink wrap. This is always a nice touch.

DVD-R is becoming more and more in fashion these days as screeners. The same
techniques apply, but an extra step is required to “author” the DVD menu items. This can
be done at most labs for a few hundred dollars. DVD-R duplication is about $7 each.

You can also do what we call "dirty" dubs. These are dubs made by putting two VCRs
together and copying one from the other. I used to do this when I would run out of my
good screeners, but would need to get a tape out right away. If you do this, make sure
that you buy good quality tape stock and that your original copy that you are dubbing
from is first generation (from the screening master). Make your label with a typewriter or
use one of the many label computer programs out there (like My Label Designer from
My Software). Always use the best tape stock and dub at normal speed (not EP). You
want to make the viewer enjoy your film as much as possible.

If you want, you can also make trailer only tapes. This is an extra expense, but may help
when selling to high piracy countries.

Screening Tapes Budget

Master Creation $200.00

100 Dubs $150.00
Total $350.00

5. Web Site (optional)

You don't have to even be computer literate to understand the importance of the internet.
A web site promoting your film will give overseas distributors the opportunity to learn all
they can about you, your company and your film. You can hire someone to design your

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website for a few hundred bucks (again, http://www.elance.com). Extras will cost more
like having your trailer available for digital downloading. But, think of the costs saved
by not having to send the trailer on tape! You would have to digitalize your trailer. The
price for this varies. But, even if you just create an online sales sheet, it is worth it. All
of your photos will be on disk anyway from the creation of the flyer. You should also
have an email address for immediate inquiries. Web site hosting shouldn't cost more than
$30.00 a month. Check the web magazines for the most competitive prices. I use a
reputable web host that is only $5.00 a month. Check them out at
http://www.refhost.com.

Website design budget: $500.00

Hosting ($5 a month): $60.00 per year
Total $560.00

6. Trade Shows (for Advanced Marketers)

There are 3 major film markets each year. They are The American Film Market in Santa
Monica, the Cannes Film Market in Cannes, France (during the well-known Film
Festival) and MIFED in Milan, Italy.

Attendance at these markets can be costly. Booths cost $30,000 and up. Then you have
to get here and find (costly) lodging. You also have to advertise or no one will know you
are there. It is possible to attend these markets as a seller without taking booth space.
This is called “working the lobby” or “working the halls.” In this case, you would just
need to buy a badge and have copies ready of your movie to show along with a sales
sheet, etc. You will need business cards for this. You can get FREE cards here:
www.vistaprint.com. Another good idea is to have a portable DVD player with you film
trailer and feature on DVD-R. Then, you can meet buyers at the show and offer to show
them a clip right then and there. It may sound like hardcore huckstering, but believe me,
a lot of people do this. Some of them actually close deals this way. But, it will be hard if
no one knows you. So, you will have to be patient and go to more than one market. To
get your film on DVD there are many labs that can do this. There are also inexpensive
consumer houses like this, http://www.pictureperfectsolutions.com/.

Film Market Budget (annual): $10,000.00 with no booth;

$150,000 with booth and all the trimmings…

For more information on each market, please visit their websites:

MIFED:
www.mifed.com
AFM
www.afma.com
Cannes Market
www.cannesmarket.com

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If you have specific questions or require advice in the area of Film Distribution, etc., Ted
Chalmers is available for individualized consulting. For rates and information, please
visit www.movieplan.net or email to tcprod@usa.net with the subject: Consulting.
Thanks.

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© 2002 Chalmers Entertainment Corporation

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