Amongst many independent filmmakers there is one dream. To make this wonderful hobby into a career. Though with a lack of funds coming in, there isn’t a way to grow your filmmaking business. For most filmmakers it’s the same old thing over, and over again. You save up money, and put it all into your passion project film. Just to not make any money out of it, and save up again for the next. Majority of indie filmmakers' budgets come right out of pocket, and there isn’t a true way to grow and have your indie film business self-sufficient. To all of us indie filmmakers we think there is one answer to this problem. That big word starting with the letter D... Distribution… To have our films distributed out to anyone willing to pay, and watch it. That sounds like a dream. With streaming services on the rise, you’d think by now there would be a strong indie film distribution powerhouse. But this isn’t the case. With the indie distribution industry being plagued with scams, and unfair contracts. It's hard to make a film, and get it out there. Much less make money off it. Many folks have tried to make their own distribution site, and many have failed. But next up in the ring is a fellow filmmaker, Robert Amico. Him, and his team of like minded individuals have set out to make a new distribution site for filmmakers in hopes that indie folks like myself have a chance of making money in the business. So I sat down with him, and we discussed the future of his site, and what it could do for the Indie filmmaking community.
This is, my interview with Robert Amico; Could he be the new face of indie distribution?
During my interview I had a few things I wanted to keep in mind, and I wasn’t about to hold any punches with my questions. Luckily, Robert Amico was more than willing to answer the hard questions about his site. But first I wanted to get to know Robert, and see what he was all about. I was surprised to hear his extensive history in film, but with a personality like his. Anyone who meets him can instantly tell he’s passionate about film, and music. Amico is from Brooklyn, New York. From a young age he pursued music, and he was definitely born in the right generation to do so. Growing up in a time where rock, and roll was first getting its footing in America. But music wasn’t his only passion. He always loved filmmaking, and has worked in a multitude of films both indie and not. He’s done a little bit of everything in the industry. From acting to teaching to “Fixing peoples crappy scripts”, he’s also produced around 55 films. Which to me, only having produced 4 films, sounds insane.
But Robert has been around enough to see it all as well. He understands that the indie film community is hurting. Hurt by what you may ask? Distribution. In this industry, there isn’t a real way of making money out of indie films. Definitely not when you start out
. Most indie filmmakers will work for years to decades without making a cent from their hard work. Some companies understand this, and instead of making a powerful, and profitable business out of indie filmmaking. There have been tons of sites that claim to be the new source of distribution for indie films. But most either fail, or basically scam the filmmakers. The ones who fail build a site, and it just never becomes profitable. The ones who scam approach filmmakers, claiming to be their saving grace. But then stack filmmakers with fees, and contracts. Contracts that keep filmmakers from actually making any money on their projects. When I approached Amico about this idea he had one clear answer: “Anyone can doubt us because, you can’t get ripped off, that’s the good thing. “The biggest thing about Amico’s service versus other distribution sites in the past is, there are no fees. There are no contracts. With his service, you as a filmmaker can sign up, and have your film on the site one day. Then the next you can take it off, no questions asked. Its hard to be scammed if you’re able to just take your film off the site whenever you get a bad feeling, and if you ever decide to give them a try again. You can just sign back up! Sounds so simple, and I truly hope it is. I continued to press Amico about this, as I too want to understand the service, and Amico’s intentions with it. He continued to explain to me that his image is everything to him. That if he didn’t fully believe in the project, and its partners. He just wouldn’t include himself. Now in this industry word is cheap, he said it himself. But during my interview with him, he seemed like he was bursting out of the seams with his excitement for the project. That he truly has passion for it, and he truly wants to help the industry with this new site. This makes me hopeful. Though when he goes into specifics of how the site works, it all just sounds too good to be true. Or maybe this really is going to be the new revolutionary way indie filmmakers can make their dream into a career. That’s what he claims to want. To make those hobbyists, turn into passion filled full time filmmakers.
I try to be optimistic while remaining realistic about what this site could hold. As of now I’m kind of mixed. Through my interview he answered a lot of my questions about how it would work, and honestly it truly does feel too good to be true. There is a lot the site has to offer. Amico explains you as a filmmaker will be able to set up your own page as if it's your own website. Something similar to Film Freeways site. You’ll be able to promote your film, and even sell merchandise right from the site. Which sounds great! If you are any indie film maker just starting out, it's hard to set up your own site to sell merchandise. For most it ends up just being a Facebook post just saying “Heyo we have merch” but that almost never reaches anyone. I should know, it happened to me! You’ll also be able to set your own prices to anything you sell there, and here’s where things get interesting. Amico explained to me that you can set up the pricing system to run in multiple different ways. You could set up a fixed price for lets say a film, and that would include taxes, and the sort. But you also have the option to set it up like a tip system. Where a viewer can tip you if they decide too. This of course is completely tax free! You also can just make your film completely free of course. This is best for fan films or parody’s.
This leads me to my next point, content. With a deal like no contracts, and no fees. That begs the question, how can they keep content on the site, and make sure there's always something to watch for the viewer? Amico’s simple response with this is that he expects filmmakers to understand how good the deal is. Because there is so much money to be made, filmmakers won’t want to pull out of the site. Amico continued by explaining he expects such a large fanbase for the site that it’ll be able to support itself. I asked him further about the content that they have on the site, ready to view upon launch. He explained that so far horror happens to be the main genre the site has seen. But sci-fi seems to be a close second. Again, the site only will have Horror, Sci-fi, and Fantasy films. But horror happens to be where their content is most leaning towards.
From there I asked him why only Horror, Sci-fi , and Fantasy? Why specifically those genres? He explained to me he believes that fans of those three genres are the least critical, and that fans of these genres tend to stay. As in, continue to support these genres, and specifically these genres. I asked if he ever plans to have any other genres on the site. Amico went on to say that, no, they probably won't support any other genres. He believes that if he was to have a larger array of genres on the site, it would “snaggletooth” its success. This is unfortunate to hear, at least for myself, and lots of other filmmakers. If this service is as great as it sounds, it would be nice to have it support filmmakers of every genre. I myself have 3 films in more of the drama genre. My 4th film is horror, which is nice. But I hate to have my other 3 left out in the dust. Maybe something will change in the future with this, if the site is as successful as we all hope. Then I’d like to think it would expand. On behalf of expansion, Amico did tell me that he does plan on expanding, just in a different way than I had thought. If the site does become successful, he is looking to make a separate company focused on music. But this separate company will continue to use the same technology. He also continued to explain to me that he wants to start a third company with this technology. But this one focuses more on faith based, spiritual, and family oriented content. Actually when Amico was first creating the idea of this site, he was planning to have it be that faith based site. Though through his partners they all decided to make it into this Horror, Sci-fi, and Fantasy film site. Amico mentioned throughout the interview that there are four partners with the site. I attempted to press him about these “partners”, who they could be, and their role with the site. Amico explains that they are the business side of the site's creation, that “everything they touch becomes money”, he goes on, and continues to talk about their wealth, and how a project like this will become successful because of their business sense. This intrigued me so I pressed Amico, and asked who these four partners are, if he could release any names. Amico sadly says that he can not give me further information about these partners, except for one of them, Mike Moffett. Amico explains that Moffett is working with the technical side of the site, and how it works, and that he is the “creative” side of the project. The little part of backing that Amico was able to tell me is that there is 20 million dollars worth of technology, and 2 years of work within this project. Including 110 IT specialists working within the site. These are big numbers to think about, and if this is true, it brings a lot of hope that the project will become highly successful. This isn’t just a passion project. This isn’t just a project that will go up one day, and disappear the next. This site with this kind of backing can have the potential to be huge! This makes me, as an indie filmmaker, excited. That even though I don’t specialize in these three genres, that whenever I do make a film within any of these genres, I can actually make some income from it. I love filmmaking, and I’d gladly do it for free. I’m sure a lot of filmmakers can say the same. But at the end of the day we need to make some money back if we want to continue this passion of ours. However with distributors out there burning filmmakers left and right it almost feels like treasure at the end of a dungeon you’ve been fighting through to get to, just to find out the treasure was a trap. Amico understands this, and he explains he has seen so many filmmakers burned from other distribution sites. He further explains that all these other distribution sites do four things wrong that he claims his site has solved for his new distribution site:
The first problem is getting distribution.
Once you make a film, it's almost impossible to get it on any kind of distribution site to begin with. With Amico’s new site, it will be much easier to get your film on the site.
The second problem is how much the distributor takes from your film.
Not only is there typically fees or contracts associated with your signing up on a distribution site. But in most cases a distributor will take the first $2500 to $70000 worth of YOUR revenue. They claim this is to promote your film amongst other things, but they almost never can prove this. However Amico claims that there will be no fees, and contracts for a filmmaker, and that the revenue split between a filmmaker and the distribution site will be extremely low compared to other sites.
The third problem is the contracts.
We have already gone through a little bit about contracts. But to review, most sites require you as a filmmaker to sign up for these insane contracts that keep your film on their site for ages. By the time your film is no longer contracted to be on the site. Your film will be dead, and basically forgotten if traction doesn’t hit right away. Amico’s fix to this problem is simple. No contracts. A filmmaker has no obligation to stay on the site if they do not wish to be on it.
The fourth, and last problem is how do you get your money out of the site?
Let’s say your film has made a good fair bit of revenue from whatever distribution site you sign up with. Now it needs to hit your bank account, but most distribution sites on average take 2 to 4 weeks just to get that money into your account. But not with Amico’s site. With his site you’ll be able to get your money out INSTANTLY!
This leads me to one of the most important parts of the website to any filmmaker looking to make this into a career. That is the financial side of it. Sadly this is also where a big part of why the site sounds too good to be true. The fact you can get your money instantly sounds great. Other distribution sites take weeks to get the money to you. You choose when it goes into your account. This is done through blockchain Ethereum technology. But let's backtrack there, what is Ethereum? In short it’s a type of cryptocurrency. This is my lead worry with the site. During our interview, Amico constantly mentions cryptocurrency, and how prevalent it’ll be in the sites creation and function. Crypto has had a Shaky history on the internet. Either people gambling with it, and loosing money or it being basically the new way of conducting the pyramid scheme. Crypto has had a sketchy history. So that begs the question, is this just another crypto scam? I don’t want to jump to that conclusion just based on this one little fact about the site. It's hard not to worry about the site's legitimacy based on the history of cryptocurrency and indie filmmaking distribution sites. But I remain hopeful and if this site is legit, and brings to filmmakers what we have been waiting for in ages. Than there’s a lot this site can offer, and great opportunity for filmmakers to create a revenue stream through their films. Amico says you’ll even be able to see the analytics of your page at any time! This could be like where is your film being most viewed, or if you have multiple films which one is getting the most views. Amico stated, “The more the film maker puts in the more the film maker makes.” The more films, and merchandise a filmmaker puts on the site, the bigger opportunity there will be to create a steady flow of revenue, and for any filmmaker. It's hard to stay away from that!
Now, we have gone through a lot of information here. But what does it all mean? To any reader, this site may mean nothing to you. However to us indie filmmakers, opportunities like this could be the difference between our passion being a hobby, and a career. It's hard not to worry about the site's legitimacy, but I want to be as hopeful as possible. Only time really will tell how successful, and profitable this site will be for filmmakers. Amico seems to be excited about its launch. He says the launch is to be expect in late March or early April. So good news is we don’t need to wait long! I truly want to see what this site brings. I know myself, and other filmmakers are on the edge of their seats just waiting to see this site. Amico claims this is his way of giving back to the community, that it's all he wants to do is give back. Talking with Amico, I can honestly say music and film are definitely the most important things in his life. He says, . “I just love what I do. To me in all my years, its looks to me like a curse. But you can’t get rid of the curse. So I do it, I do it because it's deep inside of me.” I just hope this “curse” as Amico calls it, actually turns out to be a blessing for all of us. Maybe this is the future of distribution, and maybe not just for indie films. Amico also believes that this technology will be stolen once its out. Most likely from big named corporations. With confidence like that, It's hard not to get hopeful. That just about wraps up my interview with Robert Amico. Lastly he stated that the site is in its beta testing phase which means it's almost fully finished. The name of the site will be “Unreel Live”.
If you wish to get to know Robert Amico a bit more yourself, you can find him on IMDB. You can also find his past film work like Bad President, Hollywood.con, and Near Myth: The Oskar Knight Story.
That’s it for my interview with Robert Amico. I hope to any reader this was interesting to read, and for any filmmaker reading this. Maybe you found some comfort in the site’s creation, or maybe you know to tread the waters with any film making distributor. Only time can really tell with Unreel Live. When it releases I will definitely be there to see it for myself. Till then we will just have to wait. Thank you all so much for reading.
-Written by
Jonah Stone
-Edited by Marie Osmola