Richard Parry spent 15 years following war photographer Robert King as he documented conflicts in Chechnya, Russia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Albania, Kosovo and Iraq. His documentary, Blood Trail, recently screened at SilverDocs 2009.
The road to distribution was tough. Read on to learn how Richard has navigated the DIY Filmmaking terrain.
1. What are your goals for Blood Trail?
After 15 years in production my hopes are high. Hopefully some kind of theatrical window, TV and DVD. Winning awards would be nice but I'm not holding my breath. Ultimately, ego aside, getting the movie to a wider audience as possible has to be the motive, doesn't it? Its a unique and powerful watch and I don't now when I'll have the opportunity to work on another film like this one, so I'm trying to 'make hay while the sun shines'. And its been virtually a full time occupation playing the festivals and trying to get it out there, since our premiere at Toronto.
2. How are you identifying, reaching and building your audience?
Mostly festivals thus far. TIFF, SXSW, Silverdocs etc. But we should be about to start a wider campaign with the ICA in London screening the film in August, then our UK TX on BBC Storyville in September. I guess the grass roots approach starts now. The film centers on a War Photographer and so building good word of mouth amongst journalists has been and will continue to be pivotal. Creating a word of mouth amongst the journalist fraternity has been part of the plan. "this is the genuine war hack doc" type of thing. Obviously journalists are in a good position to help push this film.
3. What tactics did you use for financing? Any advice?
Self financed. 15 years. No cash. I dont recommend it, but if you're feeling stubborn!!
4. What role does the Internet and social media play in your DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) fundraising or audience-building?
That remains to be seen. We'll know more over the next few months, as the film starts to find its way to the public. I would imagine that twitter and the like could play an important tole in creating word of mouth for a film like this. But we'll see which way the distributors push it.
5. What is your plan for distribution? Any consideration for self-distribution?
We have a traditional distributer for the UK, who is handling a small theatric pre TX. The DVD and download market will come subsequently. We have looked at 4 walling as a means of qualifying the film for certain US awards but not decided. There are some US distributors interested in the project but we have yet to sign. I directed and wrote a movie (South West Nine) a few years ago that was self distributed especially badly. The theatres were keen to take the film in the UK and we opend on about sixty screens but we didn't have the financial muscle to support such an opening. The film would have been better opening on a smaller number of screens with a concentrated marketing local marketing campaign. So self distribution is a tricky one and in this instance not fruitful. Of course, with hind sight, it could have been done better.
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