Foreign Affairs By Michael A. Weiss December 27, 2004 - 4:46 AM PST Marketing your film abroad. You think you've "made it" when - during that long awaited vacation to some faraway land, after you've had your fill of sun and rum for the day and you return to your hotel room to take an afternoon nap for an evening of stress-free relaxation - you unexpectedly see your leading lady on the hotel room TV screen gesticulating to strange subtitles or mouthing your million-dollar words to mistimed and badly emphasized synchronizations of local dialect - and they are all laid over the perfect dialogue that took you months to write and years of grief to bring to film. Is it cool? No doubt. Is it creatively impressive? Have another Captain and Coke. Was it financially worthwhile? Switch to Tequila, read below and better luck next time! The foreign market for films is, at first glance, very simple in that there are essentially fixed prices in each country, (each is generally referred to as "territory" since some countries are combined with seemingly unaffiliated islands/provinces or similar language-speaking parts of other countries), for each of the different revenue opportunities (e.g., Home Video, Pay-Per-View, Television and Internet), but it is made difficult and complex as a result of the effect of the cultural differences that impact each and every deal. The effect of these cultural differences can be anticipated and accounted for by virtue of experience for mainstream films that have traditionally recognized budgets and tangible box office receipts from which buyers gauge the film's potential in a particular territory. Additionally, buyers must carry these mainstream films for fear if they don't someone else will and that insecurity tends to keep "license" prices steady. But for "B," independent or lower budgeted films, (generally less than one to two million dollars), these variables are nearly impossible to counteract as the foreign buyers look upon these types of films as "filler" product and you tend to take what you can get - before piracy takes away even that joy. Accordingly, it is very easy to get frustrated marketing independent films in the foreign market - especially those that do not have any or even a minimal United States box office track record. Thus, great care, expertise and patience must be exercised to ensure that the available opportunities are "exploited" to the fullest extent possible. It is important to point out that foreign deals typically involve a licensing arrangement whereby the foreign distributor will license the various rights to a film for five to seven years and then return or destroy any source materials at the end of the license term. Some exceptions occur when a filmmaker utilizes the foreign market to raise money to produce a film by pre-selling foreign rights. This is still a fairly common practice amongst major Hollywood studios and for internationally recognized and consistent suppliers of "genre" product, but it is not a technique to be undertaken by an independent filmmaker without experienced counsel and "bankable" product, as there are often substantial and complex strings attached to this ease of financing. The other major exception, more likely applicable to genre and independent product, is selling foreign units (i.e., DVDs, VHS), a process that has become more viable due to the innovations and standardization of international manufacturing processes. This is difficult to set up but it could be an effective way for a small independent "straight-to-video" film studio, for example, to market its product in a controlled fashion that maximizes income. For a studio of that type, the traditional alternative is to use the "rights" pricing structure and that is fraught with the pitfalls outlined above, but mere distribution is easier to achieve via the traditional model - it is profit and control of a brand name that is sought via the manufacturing route. As a result, this is something that might become more common for independents. There are "Minimum Guarantee" ("MGs") payments for the above licensed rights set for each territory that largely revolve around a territory's population size and its access/outfit to the media rights sold. However, that amount is obviously affected by political circumstances, foreign currency exchange rates, piracy controls and censorship issues. For the independent or B-filmmaker, further modifications to these generally accepted MGs must be made in order to account for the always articulated lack of demand and overabundance of supply. The establishment and marketing of brand names in the B and indie worlds helps films get past this hurdle, but that type of success is more the exception than the rule, as the foreign market is almost exclusively driven by mainstream studios and recognizable talent. The talent portion, while often relied upon by independent filmmakers too heavily in the domestic market, is often, ironically, underestimated in the foreign market because some American actors maintain their foreign popularity for many years after their United States "expiration date" and some even develop a sought-after foreign reputation with no preceding US success (e.g., a few action and erotic stars). For these reasons, some independents are successful at competing with mainstream films and studios by capitalizing on this phenomenon, but it often comes at too steep of a price for the average filmmaker, so retaining a foreign agent and building foreign relationships is the typical course, thus the basics involved with that are detailed next. Unless you can speak Flemish, Japanese, French, Chinese, Spanish, etc., conduct business in accordance with the numerous and logically unpredictable customs of different territories, and become intimately familiar with the personalities of foreign buyers who tend to dominate the industry for their careers, you need to develop a relationship with a Foreign Agent or Agency. The word "Foreign" and the word "Agent" are uncomfortable to deal with by themselves. When you combine them - yup! - it equals twice the apprehension. But, in order to have a presence in the foreign marketplace and to maximize your film's income potential in each and every territory, you have to take into account the above nuances, and you must understand that all deals are derived from impressions, interactions and meetings at the major foreign "markets." These markets generally are: NATPE (January), AFM (February), MIPTV (April), LA Screenings (May), Mipcom (October), Cannes (May) and MIFED (November). Therefore, it is imperative that you retain an agent who attends these markets and who will prominently represent your film during such attendance. next >>> Index Marketing your film abroad. The first agreement and beyond. back to past articles

Michael A. Weiss General Counsel for Alternative Cinema Magazine, Michael A. Weiss has practiced entertainment law for over ten years. His columns are strictly for informative purposes and should not be relied upon for legal advice. For that, you can contact him via email: "mawesq at verizon dot net." February 6, 2007. Mark Savage & the D.I.Y. Aesthetic by Jeffrey M. Anderson February 3, 2007. Seeing the Humor in Sexual Identity by Michael Guillen January 29, 2007. Smokin' Aces with Joe Carnahan and Jeremy Piven by Sean Axmaker January 26, 2007. Include Me Out: Interview with Farley Granger by Jonathan Marlow January 25, 2007. Grindhouse: Chapter Four - The 1960's by Eddie Muller January 19, 2007. Charles Mudede: Zoo Story by Andy Spletzer January 19, 2007. Mark Becker: Merging the Personal and the Political by Sara Schieron January 19, 2007. Micha X. Peled: The Lives of the Sweatshop Youth by Hannah Eaves January 16, 2007. Djinn: A Taxi Driver Dreams of Perth by Jeffrey M. Anderson January 12, 2007. Clint Eastwood: Flags and Letters From the "Good War" by Jeff Shannon view past articles