How to be Boring in Vegas
#9 Nonlinear Film School - AFM 2024 lessons
Hi friends,
Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Tomorrow I hop on the plane again for a business trip to Bulgaria. I will be there for ten days putting the finishing touches on our film “Don’t Close Your Eyes”. The film is getting a theatrical release there on January 31st. More to come.
Earlier this month, we took “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “Spoke” to the American Film Market (AFM) in Las Vegas. Part one of this email will teach you how to be boring in Vegas. Part two will reveal what we learned at AFM. We will share resources that can hopefully benefit some of you. Before we proceed, the trailer for my third and most ambitious documentary to date - “Spoke” - is officially out:
HOW TO BE BORING IN VEGAS
DAY 1
Arrive on a Monday at 6PM really hungry. Check into the ABNB. Talk to the downstairs neighbor with the reinforced gate and German shepherd. When he tells you it’s not safe to walk in the dark, well, maybe safer in the past couple of years, ignore him and start walking to the Strip. Get to the strip after 40 minutes walking. You are now hungrier. Get lost in a hotel that looks like a shopping mall. Refuse the invite from two girls with flamingo feathers and little clothes to pose for a picture with you. Search for food options on the Strip. Nothing sounds good because everything is too spread out. And you are hungry.
You’re Bulgarian, and you expect a European-style street with restaurants bumping elbows as far as the eye can see; people walking casually, talking gaily; people drinking espresso and staring at you. Instead, you get a big boulevard and hotels competing for your attention. Walk back to the ABNB. Finish the day paying $100 for takeout dinner for two. Do a quick calculation to realize that if you spend a $100 a meal for the next five days, your business will go broke. Well, not really, but you get the idea. So you look up the nearest grocery store and cry tears of joy when you find out there is a Sprouts nearby.
Watch a docuseries on Netflix about aliens in New York. Go to bed, but not before you take out a scent dispenser plugged into a power socket. The toxic smell of detergent is supposed to make you feel like you belong to the exotic ABNB with the peeling wallpaper, bent blinds, snoring fridge and worn-down 90s furniture. You suffocate the scent monster into a ziplock bag, which you leave outside.
DAY 2
First order of business - sprouts, cause you know that if you eat healthy while on the road, in Vegas or elsewhere, you will feel much better. You spend $400 for two people and buy enough food, zinc and vitamin C included, to last for five days. That’s three meals a day at $40 per person per day. Eating out would make your tummy hurt and cost your indie film production company anywhere between $1,500 and $2,500. You smile to yourself and make vegetarian stuffed bell peppers.
You start your AFM adventure. The elevators are clogged up, so you take the stairs, welcoming the extra movement.
DAY 3
After a hearty breakfast, you return to AFM, pitch your films to strangers who share your passion for film; some have a passion for making only money, but you knew that already - you’re in the movie business. You get back to the ABNB, which you strategically booked only 15 walking minutes away from the venue. You save money on Uber and eat a healthy organic lunch that sprouts your energy. At night, you turn down an invitation by an Argentinian attendee of the opposite gender to meet at a bar where the AFM crowd parties. You’ve made up your mind to be boring in Vegas, and so you return to the peeling wallpaper to send business emails and read some of Jim Carrey’s new book.
DAY 4
More of the same, including some very informative panels on the current state of affairs in the industry. You are not bored, but it is cold outside. Seattle weather. Next time bring a hat, you never know. You continue to get eight hours of sleep. You can’t imagine functioning in overstimulated Vegas on little sleep. The attack for attention from the slot machines is relentless and fierce, so you fight back with some humor.
DAY 5
You meet a 21-year-old in a wheel chair. (In your book “Long Nights Moon” you’re currently writing, Soledad’s character, 16, will end up in a wheelchair. Naturally, you are intrigued. You keep running into the girl, and on the fifth day you ask her how she got to be in the wheelchair. She smiles and tells you her story: the car accident when she was seventeen. Desperation thereafter. Triumph. Her outlook on life now versus then is insightful. You can’t help but be infected by her smile and bright spirit. You promise to write to her when the book is done.
Wait, you have to do laundry. On the way back, you buy laundry detergent and chamomile tea, but not before you go to a meeting in a restaurant where there is no waitlist. It’s Friday night, and Babyface has a concert in the same hotel. You don’t eat a full dinner because the average price per dish is $70. You have an appetizer, and so do your three colleagues. Your company picks up the bill, it’s still $250.
DAY 6
It’s the last day. You attend a panel about making magic with low budgets – 100K to a few million. The filmmakers on the panel chuckle and tell you not to get in the movie business. What they mean to say is: It is hard. Very hard. After one of them says to forget about making your passion project your first movie, but to do what sells, you get up and leave.
Your philosophy is that the movie you’re making now, should be treated as if it’s your last. How do you want the world to remember you, and by what?
DAY 7
Congratulations, you have achieved your mission to be boring in Vegas! You got your money’s worth from the business trip, and that’s what matters. You give the laundry detergent, chamomile tea and whatever organic food that’s left to the neighbor with the German Shepherd. Thoughts weigh you down. So much to consider. You got this. You’re in for the long haul!
You leave hopeful and slightly changed.
AFM Postmortem
We emailed nearly 30 companies before going. Only one responded. We bought the 5 day pass, which allowed us to take advantage of the slower first two days. We went door to door introducing ourselves, handing out flyers and asking for emails of acquisition departments. We called some of the companies in advance. We even found A24’s number on IMDB Pro. They picked up and gave us an email to send an inquiry. Overall, the people who saw us were very giving with their know-how. We had about ten requests to send the films out for further review.
CAST & GENRES
Horror is the most popular genre. You don’t need name actors to sell a horror movie.
Action and psychological thrillers come in second place. You will benefit form having B list actors. Asia and the middle East are hot markets for action movies.
Faith-based movies are on the rise in the US.
Comedies and dramas are very hard to sell worldwide. You have to have name talent attached. Period.
The documentary market is oversaturated. Too bad for us, but…
Story is still king. If your movie is good, you still have a fair chance.
CLARITY & CERTAINTY
Know exactly what your film is.
Find an audience.
Build the film correspondingly. If you know your audience from the start, you can make the film taking them into consideration.
Don’t underestimate data and how helpful it can be. Research what sells in what markets.
FINANCING
How can you be profitable from Day 1?
How can you leverage what you have?
Think about your fans and center everything around them.
SOCIAL IMPACT
There is a big wave coming in Hollywood of making movies with social impact. Corporations and brands are looking to align with such films. Movie actors as well.
THEATRICAL WINDOWS
Movie theater window
Transactional window
SVOD window
AVOD - Advertising window
TVOD
DVD collectibles
COMPS (comparables)
Creative Comps–pick any three movies from now to the wake of the film age. You will use these to communicate your creative vision.
Business Comps–pick any three movies from the past 2-3 years; these movies you will compare to your film’s financial goals.
PITCHING
Tell me more–tell people enough to make them want to know more.
LESS IS MORE!
Know your room and adjust accordingly.
A time-shift is a movie with two or more timelines across time.
FLYERS
Create flyers for your films, but don’t forget to put your contact info on them. Some people want nothing to do with QR codes. People asked for business cards, but we didn’t bring any. We got their information and followed up via email.
COMPANIES WE TALKED TO or LEARNED ABOUT
Thanks for reading,
Bogdan
" People asked for business cards, but we didn’t bring any. We got their information and followed up via email." - this is actually a very smart approach because anything could've happened to those cards you gave them, but since you didn't have any, you got their contacts and basically control over the situation!