Producers, keep the money for 35mm!
Lately I have often discussed with producers what a revolution digital cinema is, and what a gain of ease and costs it is for indie movies not to have to handle 35 mm anymore. These discussions tends to make me nervous as I get to the point I have to explain them how much right they are to think that it is a revolution for the future, but how wrong they are to think the revolution is already there for independant films. It is not.
The main reason to disappoint potential customers - apart of a deep sense of honesty - is to flag out, as soon as possible, that they have to keep at least €40,000 to generate one 35mm print from a digital source. There are one, easily understandable reasons for indie film : indie films means indie cinemas, and most of them have not been able to bare the cost of equipping their theaters with D-cinema yet, whatever the territory. This is simple. Call out the manager of 10 locals cinemas in your area. You will have the same answer. Maximum 2 out of 10 are equipped.
Not keeping this amount of money from your production budget (or any DIY distribution budget) would :
- jeopardise (a lot of) screenings opportunities
- jeopardise sales opportunities (indie film also mean indie distributors unlikely to pay this amount of money to generate a 35 mm print on top of minimum guarantee and all release costs)
- disable a whole part of any DIY distribution plan you would have made for your film.
It will already be a hard work to get your film programed in theaters, don't cut your market by 80 % !
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