The Art of Film Funding
Discover the secrets to funding and creating successful indie films with The Art of Film Funding Podcast. Join Carole Dean, President of From the Heart Productions and author of The Art of Film Funding, and Heather Lenz, director of the award-winning documentary Kusama-Infinity, as they chat with top film industry pros. Get practical insider tips on crowdfunding, pitching, saving on budgets, marketing, hybrid distribution, and the latest in A.I. filmmaking. Whether you’re funding your first project or navigating new trends, this podcast has everything you need to succeed. Subscribe and let’s get your film funded!
The Art of Film Funding
How to Monetize Your Documentary with Successful Virtual Screenings
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Love Pope Radio.
SPEAKER_03Hi and welcome to the Art of Film Funding. I'm your co-host, Claire Papan. Along with Carol Dean, author of the best-selling book, The Art of Film Funding, Carol is also the founder and president of From the Heart Productions and the host of this show. Ryan Hetrick has worked in the behavioral health field with autism for over 16 years, from ABA to floor time, and currently teaches vocational training in the digital arts. One of the families he worked with began dietary interventions, and their child experienced expansions in vocabulary, eye contact, and overall social interaction. After years working with children on the autism spectrum, it was easy to see that dietary and biomedical therapies made a large beneficial impact. And Ryan was motivated to make this documentary, Restoring Balance, Autism Recovery, after seeing the results firsthand. And Carol, Ryan won the Roy Eden grant from From the Heart Productions in 2017, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes, Claire, and we've had the pleasure of working with Ryan since then. His film is brilliant. Thank you for joining us, Ryan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks so much, uh Claire and Carol for having me. It's always a pleasure, and From the Heart has been, yeah, such a such a big help uh that Grant really springboarded us into action. So so appreciative of everything.
SPEAKER_02Oh good. No, I just am so impressed with what you've done. Uh so there's a lot to cover today. We really want to learn about your experience with virtual screenings and how you like working with Show and Tell, Keith Oshwat's new platform, uh, and how to distribute docs to their own audience. So let's start with why you created this brilliant film, Restoring Balance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, I think that um when I realized that there was like a a good story to be told here, that parents needed this. I mean, I came from the autism community, and so being able to change behavior with diet or supplements or any of that just seemed it wasn't really discussed before. Um, so it's kind of taboo. And, you know, I tried to explain to a lot of my colleagues or other families who had children on the spectrum uh, you know, the benefits of all these changes. Um it's kind of you know complicated with with the diet and the staging of everything or detoxification and all of that. And you know, so I realized there was a real need to kind of have it all in one place. Um and I think that you know, we found an audience that really needed that. Um you know, we'll talk about how the audience is different later, but it's just been uh an outpouring of thanks from those who have seen it so far, other family members, and uh I think it's gonna help change the conversation, you know, for for autism. And that's show and tell, you know, has really helped us. I mean, we were sort of at a crossroads of like how are we gonna host these screenings? Uh we were gonna do in person, and you know, I mean, aside from the pandemic, in all honesty, our like core audience is is mothers and fathers with or uh you know, grandparents with autistic children, and it's really hard for them to get into the theater because it's hard enough for them to find a babysitter and plan, you know, a night like that uh out. So I think that it was like, you know, this perfect marriage where uh we needed to do these virtual screenings this way, and show and tell was like the conduit to be able to do that. And so um it it's been great, you know, to to experience Keith's platform and I can't say enough good things about it.
SPEAKER_02Good, good. Well, yes, let's get into more detail here. I have to say that um I was going uh to a uh acupuncturist, one of the top in the world he's classified as, uh all the way to Orlando to visit him, and he said, give up uh dairy. And that's that was my favorite thing. So, but I've been a vegetarian for many years, but the dairy part I didn't want to do until I saw your film. And some of the first part of your film that I got to watch was the mother whose child uh she took that her child off of dairy, and after five days, the child who had no eye contact and was not able to communicate wa uh picked up a spoon and said one whole sentence, this is a red spoon. From being it just brought it back to the present so quickly from its adverse effective diet. Uh that shocked me into giving up cheese and all my favorite stuff, Brian.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, um as I've mentioned, these kids are the canaries in the coal mine, meaning they're the most sensitive, and they, you know, their sensitivities, it shows up bigger in their behavior. And sort of what the premise of the documentary is that you know there are these medical challenges with their immune system that are basically causing these behavioral symptoms. Um and so, you know, this inflammatory response in the children is way more out of control than the average person. However, you know, your acupuncturist and many other people have noticed, especially people going gluten-free as well, you know, everybody's talking about this, and and people are starting to mention gut health and the microbiome, and uh, you know, it really has a connection to our brain health and our energy. And so I think these kids sort of show they open the door, you know, to that.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Well, um your work and your patience with uh with your animator, Charlie Canfield, he did such a superb job for you. I've read about the important connection between the brain and the stomach, right? But I have never understood it as thoroughly as I do from your film. And watching your film, where um Charlie explained this, uh, and it's up front in the beginning of the film, so we all get it. All of us have to pay attention to our diet because we're individuals, we have uh sensitivities to different things, but recognizing what happens to you and how uh different foods affect you is very important to your own personal health. You don't have to be on the autism spectrum, you just have to pay attention to how you feel after you eat certain foods, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um I think everybody has to kind of relearn um you know what foods feel well for them and what other ones may cause an inflammatory response. And uh Charlie, I spent probably over 25 hours, I think, on the phone with Charlie trying to explain uh the ins and outs of of all of this uh, you know, they mentioned leaky gut that you'll hear about publicly, but in our movie, Charlie does a great job of showing how these uh inf another doctor calls them inflammagens. Any kind of compounds that inflame will like leak out of your uh digestive tract with this leaky gut and end up in your bloodstream, and then it ends up in your brain, and you know, that's what can cause like systemic inflammation in various systems in your body. Um and basically, you know, these kids, like if if the average person maybe inflames on like a three, four, or five, you know, these kids might inflame on like an eight, nine, or ten and and in more places, um, you know, so they're just more susceptible. And basically, like you said earlier, when the dairy or other things that are inciting that inflammatory cascade are like pulled out, then they can be more present because they actually call it like a cell danger response that's happening like in their body, you know, that they can't be present. Um and and that happens to all of us, like you said. So I hope other filmmakers, other professionals start to understand that you know, the more you can be aware of like the foods that are causing you sensitivities and inflammation, um, the more energy you'll have, because that that inflammation's gonna give you brain fog and steal your energy or give you, you know, joint problems or some other chronic condition down the line if it's you know not kind of dealt with.
SPEAKER_02This is so important uh when you're talking about brain fog. See that that is true. That can come from an a reaction to something in your diet. Uh and we be uh people blame it on uh age or uh whatever there but the it is, it is connected to inflammation because um r years ago I had a doctor uh uh through my blood test tell me I had inflammation and I said, Okay, where is it? He said, I can't tell you. And so what good does that do? What do I how do I address it? You know, which part of my body? I and they don't know. That's it. That's as far as they can go. You have it. And uh but I don't know how to heal it, and I don't think it's curable is most of the attitude. And it is, uh it is again back to the diet, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, unfortunately the average doctor really only has about like ten hours of clinical nutrition education, and so they're really not shown the way. Um, you know, I mean it's it's it's kind of popular to say that all disease begins in the gut, as Hippocrates said, but it's it's really, really so true. And I think um in in terms of like taking it serious, I think it's just a little bit of gradual sacrifice. I always tell people, and other mothers have told me, it's like good, better, best, you know, so you're always trying to get better, um, but you kind of have to start to sacrifice some of the things that maybe don't make you feel as well. And finding out what those are, you know, you may have to go get food allergy testing done, um, see what the intolerances are, but you know, sometimes you can feel symptoms. You can feel like arthritis, or you can feel a headache, or you or you have bloating, or you have itchiness or something. So sometimes the food intolerance symptoms are there, we're just not, you know, paying attention to them.
SPEAKER_02Right. Well, I the strange thing is uh I love mashed potatoes, but I began to realize that when I had mashed potatoes, or even if it was homemade French fries, uh I was uh having a strong allergic reaction uh within two hours after I eat had eaten them. So um this has never happened to me before. Uh and you can't it's really hard to find organic potatoes in the stores. That's something they've seldom have. So uh you said that they're starting to spray them with glycophate, is that right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you know, glyphosate people may know um its commercial name uh Roundup, and you know, the that company uh has been sued for that chemical causing cancer, but you know, they actually still spray glyphosate on a lot of foods to dry them out. They use it something called a desiccant. So it it evenly dries the food, and they're starting to spray it on so many things. They spray it on beans and all kinds of grains, oats, um, and now potatoes and even almonds, and you know, glyphosate uh luckily in our documentary, MIT scientist Stephanie Seniff, you know, she comments on how it's so insidious because it can cause low-grade inflammation that's not as noticeable, and it can actually like swap itself out for part of your cells. So almost like your cellular structure looks like a Jenga tower, like it's not built as strong as it should be, but it's still kind of holding up, and eventually, you know, some system's gonna break. But you know, glyphosate is one of the main reasons that you hear so many people are gluten intolerant. You know, why is people being gluten-free? Well, in 2006 they started spraying glyphosate on all the gluten more ubiquitously, and so you know, all these people started developing a sensitivity to this pesticide. And so that's why these children, you know, it's also in our dairy, uh, our conventional dairy, it's in there a lot because the cows eat food that that have that. So it's it's in a lot of stuff, and you know, that's where people can start to realize, like, oh, if they do have a gluten sensitivity, then they have to look for foods that are cleaner. But it doesn't mean that people have to cut out wheat forever. You know, there are organic products that people can have and they find they can tolerate again eventually. But in terms of the potatoes, um, it could be that, or you know, now that we talk about the microbiome, sometimes people can have a temporary shift in their gut bacteria and certain foods are harder to digest temporarily, and you know, so this movie uh s opened my eyes and I've gradually tried to not be too overwhelmed about all the things that there are to do, but if you just start your journey, um it will pay off in like dividends later, you know, just uh being mindful of inflammatory substances basically, you know, pesticides, plastics, heavy metals, um you know, those type of inciting things.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um yeah, so pay attention to diet. See how you feel two hours after you've eaten. That's what I do. What do you think?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think you know, if people can just pay attention to what they consume, but also, you know, look into things maybe that they don't feel. So try to get certain products um organic, you know, if you know that they're uh sprayed, like I mentioned on that list, pretty much all conventional beans and grains um and a lot more vegetables and nuts are being sprayed. So, you know, you would do yourself a favor to gradually move towards more organic food or finding out which ones happen to be, you know, the most contaminated in your diet.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, let's start with nuts because I make my own almond milk and I use fresh almonds. So um they're uh supposedly uh not not nothing has touched them. How would I know if they have been sprayed? W do they put that on the label?
SPEAKER_00No, they're not required to put that on the label, and uh you would have to ask, you know, if you got it at a farmer's market, you would have to ask them directly. And just to be clear, um surprisingly, the label non-GMO doesn't really mean anything for for glyphosate, and uh that's why it's so hard for these children and these families to, you know, change their lifestyle so dramatically because organic can be a little more expensive and it can take some finangling to figure out where to maybe locate those items because they're not always just readily available at the grocery store, like you mentioned. So it can it can be a challenge to to you know deal with these things.
SPEAKER_02Yes, you uh really you have to find the right products. Um great. Okay, well, we you just have to keep looking. But I'll tell you, your film is so full of these heartwarming stories. I loved watching these children, particularly those that were non-communicating, when they came back to normal and became these highly intelligent, happy, loving children. Um this is a wonderful film. It's really shows us how these children uh just have serious allergies and that changing their diet changes their brain function. So y you found out that your audience is parents of autistic children. That's one of your audiences, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And it's uh it's a growing audience, unfortunately. Uh currently they said the rate is one in fifty-four, but you know, at the beginning of the film it it keeps going up. Um, you know, just ten years ago it was like one in a hundred and fifty, and you know, now but even in certain states uh like New Jersey, they say maybe like one in twenty-eight, and some are reporting that it's closer to that. So, you know, unfortunately this along with like ADHD and bipolar and you know other basically learning challenges for children are connected to to similar issues, and these are all growing like exponentially. So that i i i it's a challenge to face, and they've identified that it's not better diagnostic stuff, so we have to start to realize, you know, where where are the causes for this? And I think that there are certain lines of doctors that have begun to look at this, and that's who we show in our documentary, and there are others who act like they're still not sure, you know, why this is happening.
SPEAKER_02Right. Well, one of the most important things for virtual screenings and for funding uh your film is to find who your audience is. So this is only one section that's uh parents of autistic children. What else are you finding? Who else uh would you say is your audience?
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, there's been a ton of doctors who have seen this that were not part of it that were really excited about it, and I think, you know, there's alternative medicine or naturopathic doctors that sort of knew this reality, but some of them maybe didn't know all the stories. So they've been all really excited about it. You know, I've screened it for a few doctors that have kind of known nothing about this, and they were also really excited about it. So I think just you know, most practitioners, whether they're in chiropractic or whatnot, I I think will be interested in this. And as I mentioned, there's still like the ADHD and other community, which which really the the they're being treated only with like pharmaceuticals basically is the only option, you know, for for things like that. And parents are starting to look into um you know different ways to to help their children. So basically finding those groups on like Facebook and reaching out to them, most of the parents have been excited. Most of the, you know, a psychotherapist or a or a doctor, like I mentioned, when I explain when I explained the project, they uh really seem to be excited about that. Um you know, but we do have a little bit of challenge in terms of our audience because uh I'll just say with the with the parents, like right now, maybe about five to ten percent of these parents are sort of aware of the biomedical route in this treatment with diet and supplements, but um I would say that at least 75% are probably unaware of it or haven't tried it at all to take it seriously because some people have uh there's a there's a weird, you know, situation in the autism community where some have this acceptance of the neurodiversity path and they don't really want to like change children at all. Um, you know, and one of the moms just put it best. She's like, you know, I'm not trying to change who my kids are, I'm not trying to change their personality, I'm just trying to help them with these comorbid medical challenges that they have, and they don't have to be a type A person at the party or whatever, but we want them to be independent, you know, and that's really the key, because all these the bottom line with all these parents and all these professionals is we'd like these children to be independent and you know, to help the families out. And um I think that that's really the main goal, and that's where we can sort of unite on with both of those audiences eventually, that it's about independence and just uh making everybody more resilient and you know in enhancing functionality.
SPEAKER_02And also to be without pain, because I I see these kids are always hitting their heads, and that's probably uh because they're uh headaches, because of headaches and pain in their head. If they are allergic to something and it is actually swelling their brain, that would give them a headache, but they're not able they don't know the difference between non-pain and pain. They that is their constant is pain. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, there um in the documentary there's animation that shows that the lymphatic system in the neck around the cervical nodes, those can get clogged and uh like you said, cause uh some swelling and you know it's i also like you said with the food allergies it there was another child who had like a mold intolerance and they were living in mold and the family moved out of the house or whatever and you know the kid came up to her and said I don't have a headache anymore and she she said how long have you had a headache and he said you know like ever since I can remember. So he basically thought that that was his life you know and then he moved out of a an inflammatory environment and you know he was relieved of that burden and so yeah can you imagine going through your daily life with a a he a headache all the time and yeah thinking that's normal right so um well let's go back to the virtual screenings.
SPEAKER_02I'm so excited to hear more about that.
SPEAKER_00So you've had some successful screenings right uh tell us about that with showandtell.film Yeah so um you know we've had three different screenings so far and I think i it it's just been eye-opening. I mean there's been a lot of appreciation but in terms of the success and how quickly people you know took to it um so basically I think with any filmmaker it's like reaching out to partners that feel like they're in line with your product already and I feel like that's what made it easy and successful for these first screenings. So the first group was uh like a biomedical doctor and a mom that you know so they're used to treating this they have like a client base and um they were partnered with a supplement company and so you know Keith Keith with Show and Tell recommends when you do screenings that you offer or that you ask for a certain rate as like a flat rate and you know that can range from like one to three thousand dollars. But of course there are certain groups that may have a harder time meeting that demand and I knew that you know some of these groups were just moms or or doctors just trying to get things off the ground and maybe they didn't have a pool of money at the beginning. But they were willing to offer other things you know they had their books or there was a supplement company that offered like $600 worth of supplements for you know giveaways for the event so they they still made them unique and uh you know we had a guest panel with each each one of those and those all went well and everyone enjoyed them. So I think that like I said this was a way to deliver to the audience that needed it and it was easy to do that because of show and tell and it was very cost effective. You know they don't really charge very much and um and and show and tell honestly also um like helps you figure it out along the way because they offer a great educational series that is broken down into topics um super organized and there's various like webinars and things that they have that it really helped walk me through the process of like you know getting the landing page set up and figuring out how to ask you know for this screening event and how to pitch everything. So yeah it it's a great platform and I highly recommend taking advantage of the educational section on it as well.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah the educational section is great. Well um in these in these screenings that you had let's go to the one where the uh company gave you some product to give away did you charge the audience and if so what rate did you charge to see the film?
SPEAKER_00Yeah so uh we did ten dollars for these events and uh for these first three events and you know things uh again seemed to have gone pretty well with the pricing um and it was kind of a determination of seeing who's in the audience uh and like what they might normally pay but you know also to my surprise uh probably fifty to seventy percent of the people who got a ticket also made an a donation um and the show and tell platform has it so that like when you buy a ticket it asks you for a donation and they have another great feature that you can ask for an additional one like at the end of your film like before the credits roll. So that was uh that was very helpful on you know how that was showing but um you know I I've read through some of Peter Broderick's uh newsletters and they also talk about the power of having a free screening you know so we are looking into the potential with certain partners to to do that and we're planning on having the the flat rate as Keith mentioned you know basically in exchange for the screening to be free.
SPEAKER_02Okay so uh what does that mean the flat rate for the screening to be free?
SPEAKER_00So basically like uh asking like for $1,000 or $3,000 upfront like from an organization you know in order to sort of cover the costs to not to not be charging. So you know it's sort of like you you could do either or um and of course you don't have to have that it's just something like that that Keith had recommended. And so we're trying to figure out how that best fits ours. You know we're also looking into PBS underwriting funding and we're trying to group some of our screening events with some of our sponsors that we're looking into for that as well. So that's part of our next steps.
SPEAKER_02Okay well you say when the let's say that you have an organization who agrees to give you a thousand dollars and then you can screen it free. Does that organization pay the money through Keith's company?
SPEAKER_00The flat rate they don't have to um you know normally what show and tell charges is like 15% of uh ticket sales and donations and so those are the ones that like go through the platform. So you know with other organizations they could pay the filmmaker directly or you know some who have granted us money of course insist on a fiscal sponsor um which from the heart has been nice enough to do for us.
SPEAKER_02Sure we love working with you. So yes so that makes sense so let's say you get the uh organization to give you a thousand they make the payment to the nonprofit so they get the write off and they look good giving money to a nonprofit to support an important film and then uh you give it to the people free and you market the donor in the event.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, yeah and you know in each event can can be different also based on like what uh the the donor has planned or or uh you know also on the show and tell page you can put promotional videos like before the screening so it's almost like a trailer you know before that plays and some you know really like that idea or just having more information about them uh on the landing page so I tr I try to make it unique to what the the donor wants. I mean we've worked out like some social media promotion things as well on our page um you know so usually it seems like they all have different requests.
SPEAKER_02But you're flexible and you're open to do it, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah yeah absolutely you know I I think um it's trying to figure out a way especially for these other professionals in the future the way that it's going to help best serve the community to get the film out there um but you know also I mean the main goal is to be able to make another one eventually uh there are some more ideas of specifics of this issue.
SPEAKER_02Uh this you know film is just really kind of scratching the surface so oh yes well that brings us to your short films that you're putting together. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_00Well yeah you know that's been I would say for filmmakers an enlightening thing was you know to find your niche and I don't know at first I was like what am I gonna post on my social media? Because you're like not sure how to be relevant if you're just a film or a documentary, I think sometimes and um what we took so twofold we have some episodes that we're gonna sell I uh a parents really were curious about this and I think other filmmakers could consider recutting some of their extra footage into episodes you know for streaming or rental. So we plan on doing that because there was just too much good things on the floor on the cutting room floor. And parents have responded to those well so far. Those are still kind of in the editing process. So it's just like a secondary way for revenue and again I think like if you can identify important topics with your audience to cut episodes into what makes sense to them it seems you know they're excited about it and those turned out well. And then you know the short videos have led to so many things on social media a lot of positive responses. I've I've taken like short moments from the documentary just one to three minute clips or the bonus footage or like the the cutting room floor footage and basically making those into just short little videos and it seems like those have been really shareable in the community and everybody really likes how just concise and understandable they are you know and that wasn't something I had necessarily thought of doing early on but it seems to help with the interaction and again it's like serving the community to something that they're interested in. Serving the community with something they're interested in yes yes you know we're working with the uh doing series on trailers and the whole thing is two minutes you keep you know you keep coming back uh the uh distributors want two minutes and under uh Tom Aloysays that's the longest for your for a sales pitch uh so you're you're hitting right on the sweet spot people seem to love that two minutes or under thing right yeah that's what they really resonated with and I think especially parents who are just getting into it or even to relearn something um because I've said you know with our topic there's a lot of information out there that it's kind of like college level lecture and you know it's hard for these parents to like digest that information to be relevant or understandable for what is appropriate to them. And so that's why I think this breaking it down has been very helpful.
SPEAKER_02Well y yes identify some of those subjects with us that you broke this down into so people can understand.
SPEAKER_00Yeah so like uh topics like well the short videos or the episodes social media videos or okay yeah so short social media was like why why is cutting out gluten so important and why do you have to cut it out for a long period of time you know because a lot of people like have that question why can't I still eat a little bit of gluten? And it you know they kind of describe why that's important to the immune system. Or you know showing a short testimonial of a parent and then having like a before and after moment of of the kid. In addition the animation went kind of viral when we put that up I cut it into little chunks and I had people so motivated to share it you know somebody put it through Google Translate and uh gave it Arabic subtitles um and he's sharing that around with with his community. And that one has over I think 17,000 views and you know I didn't really do that much to promote it in terms of like paying for it to be promoted. So I think again the community just saw these animation bits and it was like oh that makes sense why this is happening in autism and and so you know they they shared it and it was just like you said two to four minutes are very short. And so I think they they resonated with that. And that's why we you know for the longer episodes that we're putting sort of together as a series I tried to take those topics like you know diet and supplements and uh detoxification and organization like keeping data or you know motivation because I think that you know changing the diet you can read a lot of information about it but you know it takes a lot of heart and courage uh to to stick with those things.
SPEAKER_02So you know parents your withdrawals you get you really have to have you go through withdrawals we saw that child uh on the floor crying because he couldn't have his cheese and then when he came back to reality w and the four days it took to get that out of his system, uh the change was shocking, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I mean you know that's why they even say now I mean used to people would cut out gluten like cold turkey and it can cause quite a withdrawal um in behavior and so now they usually recommend doing it more gradually you know I mean every family finds it kind of different depending on how they operate and so um but yeah there can be sometimes a a shift backwards before there's a positive shift forward when you're taking some of that stuff out too.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes because the body uh is addicted to it believe it or not I think that's what happens. Well I'm really impressed with this idea um of taking parts uh cutting room floor parts and even mixing those with things that are in your film to give us a small bites of the information. I think this is really brilliant. It's a wonderful way to uh open people's eyes to the content of the film it's like uh trailers you know before the um distributors knew that if you saw a trailer a certain number of times you would definitely see the film right but the only place we saw the trailers was in the movie house but now with trailers online short trailers like that are just pieces of information can drive people to see the full film and would be very beneficial I think in uh identifying even more audiences for you by driving people to your website where they can uh sign up for more screenings and therefore allow you to determine all of these uh markets because we know you have more than just the autistic market I'm quite sure that um many of us are living with inflation and uh inflammation rather and w how do we solve that? And when you just take one thing sometimes out of your diet you can see a major difference.
SPEAKER_00So you have a large market but it's finding it is what's so important at this point I think yeah and you know luckily uh some of the parents have have helped with that and there's other organizations aside from the doctor's offices you know there was someone who reached out to me well there were there were two doctors and then someone else developing an app that you know basically after seeing the short videos wanted me to help them edit andor produce you know similar or like short videos in that same line of different topics with them as well. So yeah it's been helpful for a lot. Great and you you mentioned that you've got some episodes for sale on the Show and Tell store for pre-sale yeah that's correct yeah luckily show and tell allows you to also you know they have a nice landing page and there's like a QA section and then also there's like a tab for ways that uh your audience can support you like a store so you can offer you know different packages or DVDs and things like that. So yeah we have our uh the digital download for the documentary and the the digital download for the uh the first chunk of the episodes that we're releasing as well.
SPEAKER_02This is brilliant.
SPEAKER_00And one of the things I'm going to make sure of is that um you can when you sell to a restricted audience it's an invite only and you can collect money for the ticket and you are still eligible for a film festival right yeah from what uh Keith and them had mentioned to me it's like a private screen basically um in the way that it's set up so that's that's pretty helpful as well and it gives you more control I think over you know who sees it and and when so it's it's good in multiple regards.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um that's very important. Well let's get into what distribution tips that you can give filmmakers uh who have a niche market product like you do. How did you get to know these mothers and uh who have the um the list who have other lists that you want that you're going after tell us more about this yeah so I think it's a combination of people that maybe you know it depends on how many you know in the crowd before you start.
SPEAKER_00I happen to know some of the doctors and the moms because they were um in the film and when I had start started like capturing that you know kept relationships with them and so that was very helpful. So you know you may have some of the people you've already connected with in your film that are cornerstones in the community and that was extremely helpful because they believed in our project and they fought for it and you know went to the ends of the earth to really like share it to other people and you know when you can find those people who are willing to champion your project hold on to them because they're they're just great. And so I've met a lot of mothers and doctors who have been that for us. And um you know and if you don't have them at first uh there's a few ways I think you can do that. You know I mean there are so many groups online for like biomedical treatment for autism so you know I had known of what I thought was a lot of them but really when I did more research investigating who could screen it and such I found that you know there were like four times as many biomedical groups as I thought there were and they're in all different countries and things like that. And so I think it's a gradual process of starting to reach out and see you know who responds and we have people in Australia and in South Africa and in the UK you know who are really motivated to help get get this going in other places. And um so I think if you can and it was a law of averages you know not everybody even in the biomedical community has got back to us yet but as Keith mentioned you just kind of have to keep reaching out either people maybe haven't seen your message yet or they just haven't had a chance it doesn't mean to know. But you know so we have found already a lot that way and then Keith mentions another great strategy which we've sort of started on is uh there's a website called Rocket Reach and it basically helps uh if you go to LinkedIn it can pull out uh contact information from uh people's pages so you know go to LinkedIn and find again you know who supports your cause so in this case the biomedical autism uh situation and yeah just start reaching out to people and see you know who would be interested in a screening or some kind of a partnership or or donating or what you know whatever you after so those were a great start to us and really expanded our uh you know spreadsheet contacts of uh just of people in general and then a lot of people that of course became interested. Wonderful.
SPEAKER_02So now uh the misconceptions about the level of preparedness and launching show and tell so tell me about that. You say the project doesn't need to be fully finished.
SPEAKER_00Yeah Keith had mentioned that there have been other I mean if first of all it's a private screening so you can adjust your cut later for a different audience and only that previous audience will know. Um so that's that's great. And you know in addition I I think it's it's something that um like with your with the control of it I think it also gives you like the ability to like test it. Like I had the ability to go to autism conferences and kind of like have surveys after the you know and ask people what they thought. So I think because it's a private screen you could also take advantage of having someone answer questions like a test audience and you could either give them you know a prize or some kind of thing in order to to get their input. But in terms of partial projects because that's kind of what mine was it was growing that way Keith said there's also been companies that are you know people who have launched like trailers with extended cuts and then had a QA and it was just like a donation event you know to help the film finish post production fund. And so you can even do things like that. Trailers with extended cuts uh to raise money for their film Yeah, yeah this is great you know yeah if you can find again like the same route of the audiences and you could still reach out to them even if your product's not done um because I had other doctors who helped you know fund the donations in our other stages of of post production um and so that was very helpful.
SPEAKER_02That's great. That's a brilliant idea.
SPEAKER_00Now tell us what you f see is the future for you and restoring balance Yeah well eventually of course we'd like it to make it to a streaming platform but I think uh also for filmmakers to get the most out of their movie and 'cause like Keith said, you can get demographics and information of who likes your movie and you can spread the word more by making these contacts and reaching out to other people whereas if you get lucky and get it on a platform you don't have any contact information from anyone that watched the film. Uh so you know we're trying to release this through the virtual screenings gradually like this year, working towards a PBS uh spot hopefully and you know then after that we'll probably check out the streaming markets after we've kind of hit more of the private screenings and then even with universities hopefully and um you know other nonprofits. So we we really want to have like events for the community so they can feel like they're they're part of it at first because I want to mobilize and motivate the biomedical community that kind of already knows about it so that they can help uh convince as I mentioned you know 70% of the autism community may not know about or understand biomedical treatment.
SPEAKER_02Exactly yeah you have a lot of educating to do Ryan right just a little bit but it's been a good journey so far.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I think so well this is wonderful thank you so much for sharing all this so tell us how people can reach you yeah so uh we're developing the the website restoring balanceautism.com is up we have a lot of resources on that page it's constantly growing um and that's something you know you can work with and your partners is adding them to your page um so so that's been helpful but uh find us on Facebook you know restoring balance uh autism recovery and you can check out some of those short videos that you know we were talking about um so you can kind of see you know maybe how that would work for your film and and coming up with that style.
SPEAKER_02Yes I think that's brilliant. And um I want to know how your free event works. Uh so maybe you'll come back on in the spring and give us an update on what it's like to expand your audience and make money on a free event, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah we're gonna see how that goes this Christmas so uh stay tuned you know for that holiday we're gonna make the film available for probably like 10 or 14 days and you know have another great guest panel and um yeah we'll definitely let you know how that one goes too.
SPEAKER_02Okay Brian thank you so much. Now how how do people reach you, the website and or what's your email?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah if people wanted to reach out to me uh restoring balanceautism at gmail dot com uh yeah feel free to ask me any questions about the process or what we talked about today.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03All right thank you so much Ryan we really appreciate the information you've shared and Claire thank you so much for hosting yes always a pleasure Ryan thank you so much for all the good work you're doing yeah thanks for having me always appreciate it it's always exciting to be on okay best of luck thank you thanks bye bye all right be well everyone now in its second edition Carol Dean's popular book The Art of Film Funding has 12 new chapters to cover all areas of film financing and how to avoid expensive pitfalls. Learn how to start with an idea and end with a trailer how to make an ask for money create your story structure and your trailer legal advice fair use successful crowdfunding how to ask for music rights and what insurance you can't shoot without available on Amazon under Carol Dean and at FromTheheartproductions.com I want to remind our listeners that David Raikland is a brilliant and talented award-winning musician who scores films and can compose music for a trio or for a full orchestra David is a very good friend to the independent filmmaker and comes highly recommended by From the Heart Productions. If you need music to help tell your story please contact him at davidrain.com That's david r-a-i-k-l-n dot com and Carol and I want to thank you for tuning in to the Art of Film Funding. Please visit our website at From the Heartproductions.com You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.
SPEAKER_04Good luck with your films everyone's PCS time, you know the drill pack, research the new base, get the kids in school because family supports family. At American Public University we support military families with flexible, affordable online education that lives with you. As a military spouse your tuition rate is the same as your partner's just $250 per credit hour. American Public University education that moves with you.
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