Can't find a Distrubiton Deal?

Look no further. If you are a Filmmaker/Documentarian/Video Artist and you write/direct/produce, why not add distributor to the many hats you wear?

In this Washington Post article (registration required) there are some very goodbusiness ideas. Here are the good parts:

In the Era of Cheap DVD's, Anyone Can Be a Producer

Sports events may seem an unlikely subject for distribution by DVD, but football games are far from the only discs in the mail carrier's bag these days. Independent filmmakers, specialty magazine publishers, artists, educators - all those with a video to sell, no matter how narrow the niche - are turning out DVD's and distributing them through the mail. It's a trend that began in the era of videotape but has accelerated with DVD's because they are inexpensive to duplicate and ship.

(snip)

Poetry Television, for example, a San Francisco-based group devoted to verse, sells a DVD of readings, "Weapons of Mass Production: The Spoken War" for $20 through its Web site, www.poetrytelevision.com. The DVD is part of a planned subscription series.

(snip)

For $29.95, fans of mountainboarding (a sport best described as all-terrain skateboarding) can subscribe to a year of Mountainboard Video Mag on three DVD's (www .mountainboardvideomag.com). Each installment contains video of daredevil runs and spills, interviews and features on the sport's culture.

(snip)

Beyond Netflix, lots of individuals and groups are producing videos in a market that is as varied and heterogenous as the book industry. The market has even spawned companies like CustomFlix (www .customflix.com), the equivalent of a custom book publisher, which for a fee will duplicate DVD's in small runs and help distribute and sell them.
Consider Jimi Petulla, a man who says he invested $400,000 of his own money to produce "Reversal," a semi-autobiographical film he wrote and starred in.

(snip)

I've met so many people who've done good little movies, and they've never seen a penny from their distributors," he said. "It's insane what these companies can get away with."
Instead, Mr. Petulla began making the DVD's himself. To date, he said, the film has grossed about $650,000 and continues to bring in $15,000 to $18,000 a month. The discs sell for $29.95 at www.reversaldvd.com.
John Geyer, the vice president for marketing at CustomFlix, tells the story of a customer who made "RoadRace," a movie about people who race motorcycles on weekends. "He's an accountant," Mr. Geyer said. "I think he works for a Fortune 500 company and he races motorcycles on the weekend. He went around and put five video cameras on his bike. In two months he sold $10,000 worth of his product."

(snip)

Both Mr. Petulla and Mr. Brereton showed a knack for marketing. The DVD for "Reversal," for example, includes testimonials from celebrities like the gymnastic gold medalist Shannon Miller and the track and field star Carl Lewis. Once he received these endorsements, Mr. Petulla paid college students $10 an hour to spread the word about the film by e-mailing wrestling groups, electronic newsletters and Web sites.
The Internet is more cost-effective as a medium for advertising and selling DVD's that are delivered by mail than as a video distribution network. Andrew M. Odlyzko, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies the evolution of broadband, says that it would cost $5 to $10 to deliver the four gigabytes of data on a standard DVD over the best high-speed Internet connection.
Discs, on the other hand, cost between 60 cents and a dollar to fabricate and can be sent through the mail for the price of a first-class stamp. Moreover, some DVD's contain 9 or even 18 gigabytes of data. These cost slightly more to duplicate, but no more to ship.

(snip)

CustomFlix and a number of other companies are hoping to help serve niche markets in a similar way. Amazon, for example, stocks DVD's and videotapes from small companies alongside films from major studios. The DVD creator must produce the duplicate DVD's. Amazon collects 55 percent of the list price for the service.
CustomFlix offers a more sophisticated service, bundling manufacturing, order processing, payment collection and shipping. A filmmaker pays $50 to open an account and $9.95 for each film that is produced on demand. The filmmaker receives any revenue beyond that. If the title is popular, the profits can rise because CustomFlix's price drops to $7.95 per disc after 20 copies and $6.95 per disc after 50 copies.
While these companies can help deliver the discs to a niche marketplace, they can't do much for the greater challenge of finding a large audience. It is still difficult for small productions to break into the larger marketplace.

(snip)

"It's hard to get into a store," said Ms. Healy of DVD News. "It's the same problem that we've always had with this industry. The studios dominate the distribution.''
"You can sell it online," she said, "but then you've got to get your Web site out there."

Now I only need a disc burner...