Stage 32’s Film Finance Summit rocked. The panelists were “unfiltered and unhinged,” said one of the Stage 32 moderators, Amanda Toney. Another Stage 32 moderator, Harrison Glaser called them, “unvarnished,” and personally, I loved the speaker’s honesty and transparency.

With three panels on producing, finance, and distribution, the Summit took a complex and open look at the state of the film and TV industry in 2021. I’ve remixed the wisdom from all three panels together in a 3-part blog series of articles under the following sections:

1. This intro and what audiences want
2. Attracting talent, investors, and buyers/distributors
3. What finance and distribution deals look like today

Finding An Angle For Selling Dramas

“No one wants to buy your pandemic drama. We all want escapism”.

- Kristin Harris, VP of Distribution and Acquisitions at Good Deed Entertainment

One of my favorite moments happened when Kristin Harris (all bios below) proclaimed the quote above. She talked about how people want what we’ve been missing during the pandemic. We miss traveling and going out and meeting new people. So Kristin gave an example of a drama currently in cinemas, Ma Belle, My Beauty. It’s about a polyamorous romance in the South of France with beautiful people.

Almost everyone in the panel agreed on how difficult it is to get an indie drama sold right now. Kristin secured a good distribution deal for the drama Ma Belle, Ma Beauty because she loves to find diamonds in the rough. She describes her favorite types of finds as “films overlooked by someone else that are not an easy sell, but make you feel something, and there’s an angle.”

She could see that the audience for Ma Belle, My Beauty was one that she could realistically reach. “My audience is reliably going to film festivals, tend to be educated, the cinephile queer audience tend to be early adopters,” and her strategy was to expand out from there. She said her distribution company is “finding success with the right niches - genres that work and appeal to specific audiences where I can be smart and targeted about how I'm releasing”

Kristin Harris, Good Deed Entertainment (LOVING VINCENT, SUMMERTIME)

It Starts With Producing

It’s beautiful how all the three summit topics connect, flowing in and out, but it starts with producers committing to a project, writer, or director and saying, “I will help get this made.” Of course, connections to the audience, financiers, and buyers start right then. A good producer wants stories that connect with audiences they can viably reach to get the return their stakeholders desire.

Community panels and Stage 32 help you connect with people who can get you through this cycle that keeps folding back in on itself. I believe the panelists from all three panels said something unique and thoughtful about why they love Stage 32, and most have made deals here. Kristin’s company even acquires “short film content to put on our channels to celebrate the community. We get stuff from Stage 32”. In addition, Stage 32 curates finished films for distributors to review. With this folding cycle and the tremendous help at your fingertips in mind, let’s dive into…

What Audiences Want

"There’s so much competing for our attention - podcasts, video games, social media. You have to make a project a little more undeniable.”

- E. Brian Dobbins, Talent Manager and Producer, Artists First

E. Brian Dobbins (Emmy-nominated Producer, Black-Ish, Cheaper by the Dozen / 20th Century 2022)

When producers pitch films to actors and investors and pre-selling to distributors, it feels like the studios and money-people are in charge. But Brian said, “The studios are always chasing something.” And what they are chasing are the audience's wants, needs, and desires. It’s our job to be the “people taking risks and act as fresh voices that speak to the audience,” said Brian, “It's our job to give them something that they are not expecting.”

In the next blog post on the Summit, I made a list of genres the money people are looking for right now - when you read it, keep in mind the paragraph you just read. Know that everyone is cheering you on to create unexpectedly advanced content even though the suits seem to ask for the same old stuff.

Comfort Content Is Hot Right Now - Even If It’s Scary

Right now, “most people want something that is comforting and doesn't take too much mentally and emotionally,” said Jeanette. The drama from politics, the pandemic, and all the other crazy things we hear about has audiences tired and ready to zone out.

When they watch TV or go to the movies, they want to know what they are in for. Kristen noted audiences want “consistency in genre films - be careful with pacing.” Audiences still want horror movies right now but don’t need any surprises they didn’t ask for - thank you.

Casey Sunderland - Agent, Media Finance CAA (Creative Artists Agency)

Great Stories Are Always Hot

Casey Sunderland**,** Agent & Media Finance, CAA, noted - and I agree - that over and above specific genres, audiences, talent, financiers, and buyers want “great stories.”

Where Audiences Watch

Of course, audiences are staying home, so streaming demand is high, and theater demand is low. And what producers and distributors should be thinking about are creative places to distribute.

Tiffany Boyle, President of Packaging & Sales at Ramo Law, and other industry experts said that they’ve had success with creative routes like drive-in theatrical, selling shows to social media sites like Reddit and Snapchat, and that AVOD is picking up. Canopy, Tubi, and Pluto are all places shows can find audiences besides channels, subscription streaming, and theaters right now.

Tiffany Boyle, President of Packaging & Sales at Ramo Law

Building A Filmed Entertainment Audience

How to reach an audience is of chief concern to producers, financiers, and buyers right now, as everyone is less risk-averse in this untamed, unexplored landscape.

Chris Moore, Oscar-nominated Producer and Founder of Producers Union, said, “It's about talking directly to the audience these days,” referring to getting investors interested in your content. Kristin said that she is looking carefully at what producers have “done to build a platform before meeting with distributors” and that it’s essential for filmmakers to take on audience-building.

A piece of information everyone seems to agree on and that Chris put perfectly is that “talent is so important right now because talent gives you marketing. If you're The Rock and you have 220M people, they're going to greenlight your movies”.

Chris Moore (Oscar-nominated Producer, GOOD WILL HUNTING, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

Growing an audience and creating a marketing plan for your filmed entertainment story is a pretty specific topic and not one that the seminar covered. However, it came up many times as a critical component for standing out to investors and buyers. Below are some great resources on the topic from Stage 32.

As I mentioned above, Stage 32 packed the Summit so densely with wisdom I had to break the content into multiple articles. Here are two more articles covering the following topics:

1. Part 2: Attracting talent, investors, and buyers/distributors
2. Part 3: What finance and distribution deals look like today