10 Things I Learnt while Shopping Monsters in the Woods to Distributors

1. Low Budget Found-footage movies are outta vogue. We had a few big distributors pass on Monsters because they didn’t want another “camera-crew movie.” (which sucks, cause Monsters in the Woods isn’t a found footage movie. But if you only watched only the 1st 15 minutes or so, you might think that it is. Which further sucks because of #2)
2. Distributors give a movie about between 5 and 10 minutes to peek their interest before shutting it off. And even then (more often than not) will only watch the 1^st and last 10 minutes of a movie.
3. A great working actor does not guarantee a good, quick sale.
4. Blood and titties do not guarantee a good, quick sale.
5. A cool trailer doesn’t guarantee a good, quick sale.
6. A good movie does not guarantee a good sale
7. Guess I could have summed up 3-6 with there is never a guarantee of a good, quick sale.
8. While you can make money on the backend, the only way to guarantee a decent pay day is to get it up front – during production – make it part of the budget. (I actually knew this going into Monsters in the Woods and dove in anyway)
9. Film Festival Friendly movies and sellable movies are often two very different things.
10. It takes time to find a good distributor. (Unless you have an existing relationship with a good, reliable and honest distributor, it can take a year or more to find one.)