It's all action here, in an utterly exhausted, but
happy-the-film-is-so-popular kind of way.
The first big news is that after almost five
months of negotiating we have finally sorted out the UK cinema deal and
it is not only exactly what we wanted, but it is also a whole new era
of film distribution. No really it is. You may know that the usual
model is that the distributor pays the producer a pittance, I mean an
advance, and for that takes all rights to the film. Which means it
belongs to them, the income goes through them (which they then keep
100% of by a variety of accounting dodges) and if the filmmaker wants
to have a screening of the film, they have to get permission from the
distributor. Clearly we were never (again) going to agree to that. So
we came up with a new model whereby we employ the distributor, we keep
all the rights, the money goes through us and we pay them a cut.
Crucially, this means we will be able to allow all sorts of small-scale
school/church/campaign screenings which are not usually possible. We
put this idea to a whole bunch of distributors, most of whom ran a
mile. But I'm very happy to say that we have now signed up with
Dogwoof, a well-respected London-based distributor who managed the
enormously impressive feat of getting "Black Gold" (the coffee
documentary) into 300 cinemas last year. Fingers crossed we'll be
launching at Sundance in January (no word yet as to whether we've been
accepted), then the London Premiere in February (we're trying to get
permission to put a solar powered cinema tent on Parliament Square),
followed immediately by UK cinema release. We're also going to screen
at the UN climate summit in Poznan in December. But you'll be hearing
tonnes more about all that as it gets confirmed, so I won't bore you
now.
And there is a flipside. Usually the
distributor would inject a big wadge of cash - to make the film prints,
pay for advertising etc - but we felt that what they took in return was
too harsh. So we decided we'd rather sell off some more equity, but
keep a larger slice of the profits. Obviously we're making this up as
we go along, but we're pretty sure it'll mean more money down the line
for all our shareholders (investors, crew and us).
So.... as of this minute.... we are selling a
final 15 shares of 10,000 pounds each. (Actually there's only 11 left,
as 4 got snapped up by crew I mentioned it to over the weekend.) This
is your last chance to own a slice of the Stupid profits. The deal is
that you give us your 10K (or 20K or 30K etc) and we give you a
percentage of the income, paid once a year for ten years. You also get
a credit on the DVD and website and tickets to a screening. (Sorry it's
too late for you to get an onscreen credit like the earlier investors,
as the credits have long since been done). Obviously the risk of
investing at this stage, now there's a finished film, is much lower
than the earlier stages - when we stood up and said "we've got an idea
for a film" - so the percentages are worth less.
If you're interested in hearing more, please
drop me an email and I'll send you back the Funding Plan with all the
details. We'll try to get the document up on the website later today or
tomorrow -
http://www.ageofstupid.net/money
- but it's first come first served and we were over-subscribed for the
earlier funding rounds, so if you're interested, best to get in there
quick.
In other news, we've finally finished the
website Mk II. Big cheer for Torchbox and our hardy volunteers please:
http://www.ageofstupid.net
It's not the world's greatest, but it's the best I could manage
while doing 58 other jobs. Hopefully we'll find the time and money to
smarten it up and do a proper sound mix before it goes into cinemas in
January.