I can’t recall exactly how I first found out about Stacey Parks, but wherever it was I instantly signed up for her newsletter. Something sparked my interest in her news letter that made me comment on her blog. She contacted me shortly thereafter and sent me a link to her new website, Film Specific. It’s something you really have to check out.
Stacey’s background is as a foreign sales agent, and she is currently employed as a sales executive for BBC worldwide. She’s also recently written a book: The Insider’s Guide to Independent Film Distribution
For the past month I’ve had the opportunity to check out Film Specific and in general I was impressed with what I saw. In the free section there is a 10 Part Distribution Crash Course that is an excellent primer on how to think about distribution, and make plans even before you start shooting.
When I first logged on last month, the info was a little sparse…but alot has changed in a month. There is a reasonably good amount of articles, even in the free section.
The member area has some very useful and unique information. The featured article archive, and ezines have some excellent articles. The case studies section is good, but as of right now there are only a few of them. I’d like to see more. The TV sales projections is just a short list of estimated figures, but if you know what to do with that its worth the price of admission on its on.
Unfortunately, two of the parts I was very interested in seeing, the distributor and sales agent profiles, as of this writing are a bit sparse. I think that those two sections were a bit too ambitious of an undertaking, as it just tends to be hard to get information from distributors on what they are looking for (because the answer is ‘what will make us money’).
On the technical side the site is pretty well organized. The only real negative thing I have to say about it in a technical regard is that the member section has a javascript pop-up when your session is about to time out. It takes priority over your screen and makes it your active window. As a person who tends to keep a few hundred websites open at once, I found this to be pretty annoying. If I’m going to time out and be logged out…then just let me log out.
But negative website comments aside, I think Film Specific is a good resource for indie filmmakers who new to the world of distribution. I also intend soon to purchase her book, as well as another one of her e-books, so look for a review on that to come soon.