I have come to a determination...in order to make a movie you need a bunch of things, but these are the main ones:

A screenplay: I can write these. No problem.
Director: Still not a problem. I can actually do this too.
Producer: As in someone who brings it all together and can get the story from paper to product filling in all the little details that the director has nothing to do with. Still not a problem.

So I've decided that I have the ability to make a product...but then I get into a bind.

PR, Marketing, and Distribution: A completed film is pointless without people seeing it. No matter how good the script is, no one will invest in it without the potential of a return and to get any returns, you've got to get it in theatres and DVD, etc. My question to everyone out there is how to do this.

I know we have a variety of different people on this board from everywhere and at every stage. Anyone know anything about getting those cans of gold out in front of the public?

And I know about festivals, but the percentage of films released that have gone through festivals and those that haven't is upended. Most films we see have never seen a festival. I'm wondering how they go straight from post-production into the public eye.

And it sucks I came up with this one day before the lockdown...

Make your movie and submit it to the film festivals.  If it's good, people will contact you.


Phil

The reason they get straight into a cinema is because they're working for a big company who spends millions. But a lot of films (The ones that do well go to festivals we just never hear about it)

I think we need festivals and the internet to market our projects, a professional looking website always helps as well.

Well, I do understand that the company distributing the film has the millions and spends that on the ads and trailers and campaigning for the film. But it isn't just the films made by the big studios with the millions that get a straight to theatre release.

Take Star Wars, for example. This film was made entirely on George Lucas's budget but had a distribution deal through 20th Century Fox. Lucas refused to allow 20th Century Fox to fund any part of the film since he didn't want their producers to be able to cut on it since it becomes partly theirs. He had this deal set up in advance before he was shooting and Fox set a release date and a schedule he had to keep to in order for it to be released on time. However, Lucasfilm was the company that actually made the film. It was "20th Century Fox Presents a Lucasfilm Production of a George Lucas Film". Pixar was making their own films, but releasing them through Disney.

If you check out a lot of films, they are made by smaller companies and yet released through the larger, older companies. We as writers hope that someone will pick up our script and make a movie out of it, but once the movie is made, it seems it still needs to be picked up by someone else making the sale of the script only one hurdle of a larger process. It almost seems that the distribution deal would be a sweeter slice of the cake.