British Film distributor Soda Pictures, which has a focus on world and art house cinema, has set up a distribution fund of £2m ($3m) to acquire bigger films and boost its release campaigns.
The Soda Film Fund is a partnership between Soda and Lumiere Film Investments, and has been open to private investors since the end of last year.
It aims to acquire six to ten films over the next year, for release by the end of 2011, and has already acquired Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro(right) and the adaptation of Chris Greenhalgh’s novel Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky.
Soda Pictures is on One Fat Cigar’s list of distributors who are regularly updated about the most exciting projects on the website.
If you’re an independent Producer and need film distribution or sales agents then it is important that you read this.
It’s probably not going to change your life, but we can definitely help increase your potential audience and aid with access distribution/sales agents at all stages of production. We know you’ve got a great movie to promote – otherwise you wouldn’t be here looking at this page.
How we can help you…
We built One Fat Cigar to help you with your aims – getting your film out there to as many relevant people as possible to allow them to have privileged access to your production and provide you with a loyal base of people keen to see your movies when they come out.
With that in mind not only are providing a great site to help you build a fan base but we’re also building relationships with some of the most exciting forward thinking film distributors and sales agents in the business and have designed One Fat Cigar to help you to maximise our network and contacts – and put your films in front of them.
One Fat Cigar helps you to promote your work all the way through the production from day 1 of script so that by the time the film is ready for the festivals or theatrical, or dvd release – you have a market for it. We have been described as ‘Facebook for Film’ meets ‘IMDB’.
Our Promise
We will, on a regular basis, promote the most exciting films on our site without distributor/sales agents attached and put them in front of some of the premiere UK film distributors and sales agents – wherever your film is shot (or being shot) in the world – if it is good we’ll put it forward. We will look at two categories… finished films seeking a release, or ‘hot’ films that are seeking a distributor and that they should be keeping an eye on.
How does this help you?
First, we’re taken seriously because we’re filtering a lot of films/projects and will only ever offer distributors/sales agents the best work on our site. This means that if we recommend you, distributors/sales agents take us seriously – they know we’re going to see a lot of films and it’s not in our interests to give them bad productions to follow.
Secondly, you have a pretty awesome incentive in getting some great content and in turn generate fans for your films. If you do we will notice and will put them forward.
Third, Film Distributors and Sales Agents DO have profiles on our site. They may not publicize it or shout about it, but they are on here, seeking projects and looking at your work – so even if we miss your project to put forward, chances are that they will find it – if it is any good.
So who is looking at your films?
Our list includes some of the more prominent and proactive names in the UK business – from Artificial Eye to The Works Media Group. Look them up. They’ve done a bit! We’re growing this list daily and will soon be expanding it internationally.
If you’re a reputable distributor or film sales agent and want to be on our list, get in touch here.
Our Offer to you, the Film Maker…
Because we want your film on the site to give us the best choice of film projects to promote to distributors we’re making this as painless as possible and as inexpensive as we can possible afford to maintain a great site. We could charge a lot more but we want you to try out the service and be happy with what’s on offer.
We’ll be frank about it – long term is more important to us than short term today. We want you to be not just our friends – who we are seeking to help wherever possible – but also our customers, and we hope that you’ll value our service so much that you’ll recommend it to your friends and stay with us for a long time.
If you like what we’re doing, then maybe you’ll use other services we offer and recommend us to your friends, helping build our community and getting more great content which means even more distributors taken notice and want to visit us (some are already asking for specific distributor profiles by the way). We’re not here to push you into anything, just give you something you can use that might provide you with fantastic long term revenue opportunities through a loyal and trusting fan base for your productions.
It’s as simple as that.
The Price? Premium membership is around £10 (about $15) and billed quarterly.
And if you don’t like it? We’ll give you your money back.
We’re pretty sure you will but if don’t like what we’re offering once you’re on the site you can cancel within 7 days and we’ll give you all your money back. No questions asked. Nothing to lose.
All we hope for…
You give us a good film (we love original ideas – we’re film makers ourselves!) with a fan base and regular good quality content that distributors and film fans will love and we will push your project. Not sure what fans are interested in or how it works? Don’t worry. Mail us team@onefatcigar.com once you’ve signed up and we’ll provide you with a free ebook (that we wrote for us to use on our own projects) on how to promote your movie on One Fat Cigar.
For larger productions we can also provide bespoke marketing opportunities should you wish..
As if that’s not enough…
Did you know on One Fat Cigar you can:
Cast and Crew your productions through the website with people who have professional film credits and you can view their showreels and CV.
You can Post Jobs for your productions
Network with and easily contact other film industry professionals
Still not convinced?
If you’re still not convinced that One Fat Cigar is for you? In our first 6 weeks we had more that 750 film makers sign up to the website and over 100 different film and television projects uploaded. We’ve had projects ranging from $0 budget to $millions, and are growing pretty quickly.
We’d love you to be part of it – no matter what stage your project is during the production process.
So whether you choose to sign up – or not – we wish you the best of luck with your movies and hope you find fantastic commercial success, and we get to see them on the big screen.
We’ve signed up a lot of leading UK distributors who have asked us to recommend projects on OneFatCigar.com. They’re keen to see exciting new productions, and we’re keen to provide them with access. And that’s just the start. Soon we’ll be talking to distributors in other countries and begin to add them to the list. They see us as a great resource to access new films that they otherwise wouldn’t see or be aware of and to understand film makers who also have a talent for marketing their work.
We’d love you as our film making friends to have the opportunity to access them.
How can you access the distributors?
First we need your production on the site with the cast and crew credited with profiles – the distributors are keen to see the biographies of all the talent involved, so please attach them to the project. Don’t just leave them blank.
What will help your production to get on our regular updates to distributors?
1. High quality, regular, engaging uploads during the various stages of production – not simply announcing the project and then leaving it dormant
2. A piece to camera introduction to your movie aimed at fans/distributors
3. A pretty cool trailer for your movie would be great when you are at that stage
4. A decent fan base so that a distributor can see that it is interesting to the public and that marketing has already begun
5. Interviews with the Director/Cast/Producers
6. Interesting behind-the-scenes footage
7. A great synopsis clearly and concisely describing the film
8. A clearly enthusiastic fan base!
Does it cost?
Sign up to One Fat Cigar.com isn’t expensive. For Film Makers, cast and crew, it is £10/c.$15 per quarter for premium membership. So not a lot!
Basic membership for film fans and your friends is entirely FREE!
Signed-up and keen to see our ‘How to promote your movies on OFC’ guide?
We’d like to help you promote your movies. Drop us a line and if you’re a premium member we’ll email our guide to you – team@onefatcigar.com
Which films will we champion?
Any films presented to distributors will, for the moment, remain anonymous – but they will be projects that really grab our attention. So spread the word about your projects on OFC and we could be putting it in front of distributors for you.
How many films will you promote?
As many each month that we feel are strong enough to be presented.
We’re right behind every independent film maker and are here to help you. Help us, help you, by giving us something to shout about!
