March 3, 2009
By J.R. Bookwalter
As a filmmaker who’s charted a course into the great unknown of distribution more than once over the last two decades, I’ve often felt that too much emphasis is placed on the “how-to” of getting your production shot, edited and mixed and not enough on what comes next: Preparing it to be sold or otherwise distributed on “digital versatile disc” (DVD). Even the most seasoned producer rarely understands the voodoo of how his finished project goes through the paces of getting seen by others.
The distribution mechanics vary depending on the content — feature films are treated differently than industrial videos, for example — but for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume you have a completed project and you want to get it onto DVD-R to share with potential audiences, clients and others. AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
The first step in getting your work onto disc is authoring, which is the process of taking your assets and laying out a roadmap of your disc. This can be anything from the most basic single menu with a “Play” button to an extensive setup with multiple content and menus, chapter stops, additional audio tracks and more.
Disc-burning software such as Roxio Toast 10 for Mac and Easy Media Creator 10 for Windows ($99.99 each, www.roxio.com), and iDVD ($79, part of the Mac-only iLife ‘09 bundle, www.apple.com) allow you to drop one or more finished QuickTime movies into the program and, with the push of a few buttons, create a disc in a snap. They feature built-in menu templates and in many cases, a number of customizable options to make the disc your own. For those new to DVD duplication or whose needs are relatively simple, this may be all that’s needed to quickly share your work with the world.
If you prefer to build a more complicated disc with full control over all aspects of the finished project, a more robust solution is necessary. Apple Final Cut Studio ($1,299, www.apple.com) users already have theirs in the form of DVD Studio Pro; Adobe has Encore CS4, included with Premiere CS4 ($799, www.adobe.com), and there are plenty of others to choose from.
DVD DIY
With your authoring complete, the ability to have a small manufacturing plant in your home or office is well within the reach of even modest budgets. Any mid-range computer made in the last five years can burn DVDs in their various incarnations (write-once –R or +R or write-many +RW or –RW) as well as CDs. Older systems can take advantage of USB 2.0 or FireWire external burners, which usually come with the necessary software to handle the task (such as the aforementioned Roxio titles, which can handle far more than simple disc burning). These low-cost tools will allow you to burn one disc at a time, and many modern inkjet printers allow you to print artwork of your choosing directly on the disc face. This is a big improvement over the days of adhesive labels that you’d apply to burned discs, which often wreaked havoc with playback.
If you’ve outgrown single-disc duplication or have your eye on selling your content in volume, your options are many. Companies like Discmakers.com or U.S. Digital Media (aka www.cdrom2go.com) offer DVD duplication services and sell the equipment and supplies you’ll need to do it all yourself.
If you want to stay hands-off, duplication houses can run as few as 100 discs at a time, complete with full-color artwork, case and outer wrap for less than $2.50 per piece. All you have to do is supply these vendors with a DVD-R master of your work as well as your completed artwork (generally as a PDF file) and they’ll handle the rest. 
From left: Epson’s PP-100 Discproducer, Teac’s WP-55C
disc label printer, Primera’s
Bravo SE Blu Disc Publisher, and Primera’s XRP Disc Publisher. For producers who have a steady stream of product or anticipate having it in the near future, your best bet may be to invest in the hardware to do the work yourself. Towers that can burn multiple discs at once, or even combo duplicator/printers — from Epson’s Discproducer ($3,495; www.epson.com) to Primera’s XRP Disc Publisher ($4,399; www.primera.com) to Teac’s WP-55T Explorer 1 ($13,500; www.teac.com) — will quickly pay for themselves if you’re doing more than a few hundred discs annually. U.S. Digital Media has an excellent line of Accutower duplicators ($199 to $4,699, www.cdrom2go.com), ranging from 1 to 50 discs at once, which can be coupled with an automated disc printer such as the Primera Bravo SE ($995), allowing full-color disc label printing for up to 20 discs at a time. With inkjet-printable disc media less than 50 cents per piece, the savings add up quickly.
PACKAGING YOUR MEDIA
Producers have myriad creative choices for packaging their final discs as well. While commercial clients may only need discs in a simple paper sleeve, content aimed for sale to the public is a bit more involved.
You’ll want to start with a standard Amaray-style 14mm DVD case with a clear outer sleeve to hold your artwork, familiar to anyone with even a small store-bought collection at home. U.S. Digital Media offers cases such as these for less than 20¢ apiece, and they’re also available in many colors or even multi-disc configurations.
For the outer sleeve artwork (commonly referred to as a “wrap”), you have the choice of doing them yourself or having them commercially printed. Inkjet or laser printers can load pre-scored case wraps, which produce professional results for lower quantities. For a more professional look, online printing services such as AmericasPrinter.com offer very reasonable rates on offset-printed wraps for quantities as low as 250 (currently $99, or for $10 more you can get 500).
Content targeted for retail sale will need a UPC code, which are the barcodes scanned at checkout that you see on almost everything these days. A UPC code uniquely identifies your product with vendors such as Amazon.com, and it’s mandatory if you’re doing anything more than selling on your own Web site or at conventions. Many companies such as Discmakers.com will issue you a free UPC code when you use them for duplication services, or sell you one for as little as $19. If you plan to sell more than a few titles per year or make distribution your full-time business, it’s more cost-effective to obtain a company prefix from GS1 (www.gs1.org), the worldwide organization responsible for overseeing such barcodes.
UPC codes must be placed on the back of your product in the upper right or lower right corner and nowhere else. If your duplicator provides the UPC code, it will be a graphic that you can simply drop into your layout prior to printing. Otherwise, it’s a good idea to invest in software such as Mac-only Barcode Producer ($199, www.intellisw.com), which allows you to input your numbers and export a barcode graphic in many formats, including PSD or PDF. Otherwise, you’ll have to invest in the additional expense of having UPC barcode stickers made and then attaching them to each piece.
The final touch for any product you intend to sell is shrink wrap, that annoying clear plastic we all have to rip through to get to whatever it is that we’ve purchased. Invest in a small shrink-wrap system and buy ready-made bags (the vendors previously listed sell them, or check out specialty vendors such as Uline.com or SpecialtyStoreServices.com). Slip your DVD case into it, seal the open end and use the included heat gun to shrink the plastic around your case. Along with a UPC code, shrink-wrap is usually a requirement for selling your product with retailers.
DISTRIBUTION
While it’s impossible to get into the nuts and bolts of DVD distribution here, times have changed over the years. In the late 1980s through the ‘90s, a lot of video product was moved to rental shops by way of “boiler room” sales — imagine a room full of people on the phone all day, selling to mom ‘n’ pop video stores across the country.
Today, with almost everything consolidated under major corporations, it should be no surprise that distribution is a much tougher game. Hollywood studios often deal directly with big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart or Best Buy, and shelf space in such stores is generally unavailable to independent producers as a result. Smaller chains such as Hastings are often more accessible, but only through wholesale distributors such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor or VPD, who buy product from you at 50% off suggested retail price (SRP) and sell it to the retailers (both brick & mortar and online).
But it’s a catch-22 because wholesalers like Ingram (and even e-tailers like Netflix) won’t sign new companies with even a handful of titles, which often leaves producers giving up a share of their profits to a third party who can get their titles into those accounts. However, even that approach has pitfalls, because all product sold to these wholesalers is 100% returnable — which means you could ship 1,000 units today and get 900 of them back a year or more later if they don’t sell!
Thankfully, there are some easier options. Amazon.com has its Advantage program (www.amazon.com/advantage), which is non-exclusive and open to anyone willing to pay $29.95 per year to sell DVD product that has a UPC code and shrink wrap (you can also list music CDs and other product in the same account). Titles listed with Advantage appear on the main Amazon site along with everyone else’s product. Amazon pays monthly for the previous month’s sales. Your cut of the sale is 45%, and there are no returns (except for the occasional defective product).
Amazon also owns CreateSpace.com, which offers one-stop manufacturing on demand and sales to Amazon.com for those who don’t want to invest in the gear to do it themselves. Send them your DVD-R master and artwork, and within weeks your movie will be on Amazon’s site for sale, and you’ll start getting monthly payments as it sells.
Self-distribution isn’t for everyone, but it’s often advantageous for producers to keep the rights to their content and give it a go. Even if you intend to license your content for sale later on, it can be worth it to produce a limited run of discs and sell them yourself on your Web site, at conventions, screenings, festivals or other appearances, keeping 100% of that money and possibly recouping a chunk of your production costs before unleashing it on a bigger distributor where you may wind up a small fish in a very big pond.
A Versatile Disc Indeed: Replicate This! (Part II of III)
| COMMENTS (1) | | 03/04/2009 | | Hi! Intriging article. I have a hint for anybody who is looking for DVD distribution in UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy: Contact Omniamedia www.omniamedia.de. They have long term distribution arrangements with wholesalers in these countries and offer their services to content producers.
Give a try. They are nice.
Greetings
Christian |
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