Moviegoing, Margaritas and Distribution Roulette, in Equal Doses, at CineVegas

Todd Sklar, center, with Distribution Roulette host Troy Poon (right) at CineVegas today. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

“I’m a firm believer that linear distribution is over,” stated IMDb’s Christian Gaines when he landed a fictitious “demanding character study.” Going from a film festival to theatrical distribution to DVD is not a viable path anymore, he noted. Instead, with such a movie, filmmakers could utilize Amazon’s CreateSpace and VOD services while continuing to pound the pavement on the festival circuit, hyping the movie via Facebook, on Twitter and on their own website. “Really really focus on selling this film unit by unit by unit,” Gaines said, “Giving it as long a run [as possible], seeing spurts of sales festival by festival.”

IFC’s Arianna Bocco was thrilled when she spun the wheel and got a fictitious film described as having a “transcendent aesthetic,” a film that is critical favorite, over two hours in length, and features acclaimed performances by unknown actors. She compared it to her company’s recent “Hunger.”

“A film like that, on VOD, isn’t going to work really well, but we’ll do it anyway,” Bocco quipped, noting that combining both theatrical and VOD would make it work financially. She added, “With a movie like that, if you don’t get good reviews, you are dead in the water.”

“We’re probably the only company that would release the ‘transcendent aesthetic’ movie,” Bocco laughed.

B-Side’s Chris Hyams and IMDb’s Christian Gaines at CineVegas. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

Cinetic’s Matt Dentler designed a release plan unifying all of the contestants. “I am going to ask that we spearhead an alliance [between all of these companies],” Dentler said, “I don’t want the whole pie, I am willing to share the pie, unlike my colleagues here.” Smiling he added, “I don’t care about how much money I make, I want to make money for the filmmakers!” Dentler’s boss, John Sloss, smiled nearby while the other contestants groaned and heckled good-naturedly.

But, it was Tom Quinn from Magnolia Pictures who won the contest. “I’m gonna nail this,” he boasted when he took his turn, before offering his detailed approach to marketing and releasing that aforementioned “edgy, sexy movie.” His plan involved targeting strippers as key influencers to spread the word. He’d release it on his company’s Ultra VOD platform before taking it to theaters, maybe even releasing the movie with multiple endings to generate buzz and get people talking about it on Facebook and Twitter.

“We are at the dawn of an era where we need to be [trying] new things content wise and distribution wise,” Quinn said.

Cinevegas continues through Monday in Las Vegas. Check out the schedule for the festival via indieWIRE’s partnership with B-Side’s Festival Genius. More coverage to come soon from Vegas.

Eugene Hernandez is on the feature film jury at CineVegas ‘09