Guide to Documentary Filmmaking Pt.8: Manufacturing/Distribution and Conclusion

Doing a Q+A at a Premiere of LUTHER in Moscow, Russia.

Manufacturing and Distribution

We live in a wonderful era where it’s easy to get your project online and viewable for the masses. With services like Amazon Video, Vimeo, and others, anyone can get their film online with relatively very little effort.

There are also aggregators you can work with who can push your film out to popular services such as Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, etc. In fact, using an approved aggregator or going through a distributor might be your only way of getting it on iTunes because iTunes does not work directly with filmmakers. I recommend using Bitmax if you’re looking to find an aggregator. I have good experiences working with them.

Also, take advantage of the tools at your disposal. Early on in this post, we talked about the funding stage and building an audience. By the time you are at the manufacturing and distribution phase, you might have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of voices who have come along with you over your entire journey and are eager to help you spread the word.

If you want to submit your film to festivals or try to win some awards, you can easily do so with filmfreeway.com. Also, be sure to add your film to iMDB. It’s one of the simplest things you can do, but it’s really rewarding to see your name up there along with your project, knowing the thousands of hours you’ve put into it.

Conclusion

My best suggestion for upcoming filmmakers is to do everything I’ve mentioned above on a micro-level. Go out and make a project, all the way from the initial idea through post-production. You will learn a lot, and as you repeat the process, you will be able to gradually increase the scope of your projects.

In addition, there are a ton of great resources available for free to help you hone your craft. If you search Youtube for “how to make cinematic films,” you’ll have enough videos to last you for months. Other helpful resources that I highly recommend and frequent often are NoFilmSchool.com and NoamKroll.com.

Remember also that every filmmaker has a beginning, and often those beginnings are small. Before I ventured out to make my first feature-length documentary, I had worked on several projects with an agency. I developed many skills that I now have from that job. I also had made several short films around the house and my town—I even enlisted my father on one of them. They are embarrassing to watch now, but they prepared me for my project and ultimately my career.

We live in a world where we can reach the masses from the comfort of our own screens. In my experience, if you have a story that is interesting and tell the story well, people will listen. I hope that these steps give you a jumpstart on your next project, and I’m excited to see what you create.

If you have any feedback or questions about any part of this process, please contact me.