I am a person who makes their living outside of the film and TV industry but I do dabble, I have written a couple screenplays and I am almost finished a documentary. If anyone has any advice on what to do once a feature-length documentary is completed I would love to hear it. Are there any film festivals that are better than others to enter, any distributor connections? I'll take anything.
Thanks!
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Hi, Jack Hilkewich. Stage 32 put out a blog two days ago about packaging documentary films. www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-package-your-documentary-feature-4075
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Thanks for this, Maurice! You rock, as always.
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You're welcome, Jack Hilkewich. Yeah, I do. Haha Have a great rest of the weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing your documentary!
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Hi Jack Hilkewich! I second what my esteemed colleague Maurice Vaughan shared above. Good luck on finishing the doc!
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Hello Jack Hilkewich great to meet you!
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Research the companies that specialize in documentaries, then contact them.
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So use Film freeway to find the doco fests, and pay for an imdbpro account, to find out which distributors carried doco's similar to yours and get their contact details.
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Mark Deuce, nice to meet you too!
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Hi Jack Hilkewich! I’m Ashley Renee Smith, Head of Community here at Stage 32. It’s great to meet you, and I’m so glad you jumped in to share.
First of all, huge congrats on being so close to completing your documentary! That’s a major accomplishment. We have a lot of filmmakers in the Stage 32 community with experience navigating the festival circuit and distribution avenues for docs, so you’re absolutely in the right place to ask.
I’d recommend starting a thread in the Stage 32 Filmmaking Lounge: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/directing and also in the Distribution Lounge: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/distribution. There’s a ton of collective knowledge there, and you’ll likely hear from people who’ve had docs premiere at top-tier fests or who’ve gone through direct distribution deals.
And if you’d like more personalized guidance, feel free to reach out to our Success Team at Success@Stage32.com. Let them know more about your project and goals, and they’ll help point you toward execs or services that can help!
Looking forward to hearing more about your doc when it’s ready!
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.Ashley Renee Smith Thanks so much for the thorough post, I really appreciate that. I will make some posts once I have a trailer cut.