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How did you first hear about Good Deed?
I randomly came across them while searching for distributors.
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Through a friend who had a friend that worked there.
Through our sales agent…
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They were one of the multiple deals that I received from my Producer’s Rep.
My producer’s rep sent the film. I was not familiar with them before we got the offer (aside from having seen Loving Vincent).
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From our sales agents…
We worked with a producer’s rep who helped pitch our film to various distributors and Good Deed was one of the ones who gave us an offer. I hadn’t heard of them before but after checking out their films and hearing from other filmmakers, they seemed to be a solid option.
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I first heard about Good Deed Entertainment while doing my own search online. I recognized two of their films and included them in my list of potential distribution partners to investigate further. Subsequently, my producers enlisted [REDACTED] as our producer’s representative, and they facilitated an introduction on our behalf.
What motivated you to work with them?
They offered to invest in marketing and publicity in addition to distributing the film, and we wanted to partner with someone who would promote our film instead of just release it. I felt strongly that I had expended all my marketing ideas at this point and wanted someone who could bring in fresh ideas. A popular distributor had also made a similar offer, but me and my team would be left alone to finance marketing leading up to release.
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Because they were kind, seemed interested in my film, and seemed down to earth. They were also very open to communicating with me about anything I asked and made themselves available when possible. I had a good feeling about them, they were open to negotiation, and I just liked them as people.
They were the best “legit” offer. All of the others we could tell were just kind of boilerplate offers from larger distributors, and we didn’t think we’d get any attention during our release.
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I really liked Erik. Even though I had never heard of the distributor, I did like that they had some recognizable titles on their slate.
We ended up going with Good Deed’s offer over a couple other distributors because they seemed to be a bit more personal. We felt we would get more attention from them, and they would put the work in to get our film out there. They also had a fairly good reputation in the industry and seemed to be straightforward and trustworthy. They only release around thirty films a year and some of the other offers we got were from distributors that release a ton of films and then typically don’t do much marketing or press.
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We had two offers from U.S. distributors—GDE being one of them. We also liked Andy Myers’ pitch to us. He clearly loved the film and it felt good to have the film resonate with someone who would be selling the film.
Of the four offers my film received, GDE was the only distributor to offer us an MG.
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Because overall they were our best offer, and they were very enthusiastic about the film and seemed to get it.
What went well?
The paper signing process was pretty easy. We went back and forth on a few things, but came to a good agreement for all, in my opinion. Their onboarding process and the deliverable process was easy as it could be, and they took time to take us through everything we needed to do. If we had questions, they answered them
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They gave us a lot of attention during the release, and spent a good chunk of funds on SEO placement, etc. Also, they sold our movie to a legit network, which netted us a large lump sum of money. That’s something we couldn’t have done by ourselves. They also got us great placement in online stores, etc., like large banners on the iTunes store, stuff like that. And they got us some decent placement for trailer drops, etc.
I got a small MG! They got us a premium cable deal! That was my dream scenario for my indie narrative, so it was pretty awesome! We did a limited theatrical! It’s every filmmaker’s dream to do, so this was definitely extra credit! The deliverable process actually went mostly pretty well. I’m pretty diligent when it comes to documentation, so most of it was delivered without much effort.
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So far, they have been very responsive and helpful answering any questions. They’ve been pretty upfront and honest about what to expect and have helped make the process as easy as possible. They were able to stick to the release date they set and get the film on all the major streaming platforms, which was reassuring.
So far, pretty much everything. They have paid on time and been very communicative. They got us a hit in [REDACTED] Trade.
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Initial communication was good. They involved the filmmaking team in creative decisions regarding key art. They pushed for a small theatrical release. They were super enthusiastic about the film and its potential for sales.
The film was well received and charted on [REDACTED] TVOD platform.
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They were very collaborative and had good instincts on the marketing materials.
While negotiating our contracts, GDE displayed flexibility by accommodating several deal points without significant resistance. They have also shown great flexibility in the film’s marketing, allowing us substantial involvement in creating art and marketing materials, which was critical to me. The onboarding process unfolded seamlessly, and their assistance during the QC (Quality Control) phase proved invaluable. [Specific instance in which GDE saved filmmaker money]. Post-release, Marco DiSilvo, the head of marketing, has consistently demonstrated responsiveness to our inquiries on sales and rental revenue. I sincerely appreciate his promptness and commitment to transparency in our communications. Andy Meyers, EVP of Distribution, has accommodated several meetings and helped us understand what we, as filmmakers, can do to help juice the Amazon algorithm by raising some engagement and awareness. Finally, Good Deed allowed us a small theatrical tour of the film.
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What went poorly?
While they invested in a publicist, there wasn’t any meaningful placement or marketing that came out of that investment. I don’t think it was as strong of an effort as it could have been. There were a lot of missed opportunities, and I didn’t personally have the resources or bandwidth to push harder.
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Literally my only complaint is that sometimes I had to follow up with them or message a few times to get a response, but that is completely normal—distro companies are so busy. Their social media marketing could be better—but then again that is hard to do for any company.
They did take a long time to pay us. But they didn’t short us at all. We got paid in full, buy it was just way after we should have been.
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The contracted PR person seemed disorganized, unresponsive, and not especially good at her job. TVOD has been a bit soft. They have been good at communicating and we are exploring different options to tweak the marketing and target demographic.
So far, we haven’t seen a ton of marketing and publicity for the film from them. I would have liked to see more preparation in regard to that. Also, communication on what to expect and what avenues they were going to pursue could have been better.
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Nothing really went poorly. Having said that, it would have been great if they were a “bigger” distributor to broaden the reach of the audience we hit. People are still discovering the film via word of mouth, but I heard from people who loved it that they were surprised it wasn’t a bigger hit because they personally loved it.
After the initial launch, communication went all but radio silent.
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We also had some accounting issues, which they remedied, but we do have to pour over our reports carefully.
My producers and I wanted a more transparent overview of their marketing strategy or their approach to ad spending—it didn’t come across as secretive, just somewhat disorganized or haphazard. The biggest snafu to this point might have been when they didn’t get any ads up over [REDACTED] time period). Good Deed Entertainment later clarified that a predetermined spending limit is in place for digital ads, and a competitive bidding process is involved. Our production companies handled all social media content creation, as Good Deed Entertainment lacks the in-house bandwidth or capacity for such tasks. We invested a substantial amount of our own funds in digital marketing. However, I foresaw this situation and wouldn’t have expected anything different at this level of distribution. For a variety of reasons, our press releases and review campaign could have been a lot better.
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Did they breach the contract?
All filmmakers answered “no” to this question.
Filmmaker Friendliness?
Very filmmaker friendly as we moved through delivery and leading up to release, but once the film came out, it’s been mostly crickets and quarterly producer reports.
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They are very friendly and kind, and they know so much about films and filmmaking. I felt like they were extended family, which is weird to say about distributors.
They were very filmmaker friendly. We collaborated on all materials, and they were also willing to do a fundraiser with [REDACTED] organizations. They were very open to our suggestions and did a good job incorporating them.
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Very friendly! Their operations manager, Nate, just resigned. I worked with him 99% of the time and he was great.
They definitely seem to be fairly filmmaker friendly and honestly believe in the films they distribute. By taking on less films, they try to be as approachable and available as possible, which is a big plus.
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They seem to really respect/listen to their filmmakers. We have made suggestions about release timing, marketing, social posts, etc., and they are always receptive.
They were initially super friendly and communicative. But, after the initial launch, attention and communication disappeared.
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They were great, very friendly. They helped us through the entire process.
They’ve been flexible and responsive—that’s about all I can ask for.
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What would you have done differently?
Fight harder to have a more concrete PR plan.
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Have A24 distribute our movie.
I would probably push a little harder on the marketing side to find a firm or person who was a better fit for our project. I think the person who did our publicity did some lift, but there was so little success in their outreach that I honestly wonder what they did at all.
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Maybe I would have asked when my film could be released before I signed papers because I had to wait a while for the film to come out, so just knowing what their upcoming slate was like would have been a good question to ask—I still would have gone with them, though.
While they gave us a lot of attention during the release (more than I think some of the mega large distributors would have), I feel like I could have devoted more time to guerilla marketing. But I was too busy getting a sound mix, title report, E&O insurance, etc. All of their marketing was pretty straightforward, and, while helpful, nothing really popped or got over 1 million views, etc. If you want something like that, it’s entirely on you.
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I would have been more adamant about getting a specific marketing and press plan from them early on. It’s something I asked about but should have pushed more to get details on or even something in the contract rather than just hoping that they would do everything they could to get it out there.
Maybe held out longer for an SVOD offer? But nothing really. So far, so great!
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Discuss more of their strategy for sales. We wish we had kept festival rights. GDE claimed they had someone in charge of festivals, but they did very little to push the film.
No. My primary concern revolves around the issue of value. The exorbitant fee structures imposed by Good Deed (or any similar company) on smaller films have prompted me to reconsider my approach with my upcoming project. My producers and I have put in immense effort to ensure the success of our movie both leading up to and following its launch, sacrificing a great deal for this opportunity. While I’m not inclined to self-distribute, I recognize the need to put in a comparable level of effort in the future. However, I plan to approach negotiations with a substantial marketing budget as leverage, aiming for a more favorable and equitable agreement. All that said, Good Deed Entertainment has been a good partner to date.
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Any Final Thoughts?
I highly recommend them. The most important thing is to know your stuff, get educated, and have a good lawyer before signing anything with any distributor.
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Nah, everything went well. It was my first movie, so I can’t say it went perfect, but not too much went badly. Also, we did have a rep help us negotiate with them. So maybe that’s why things went smoothly. We had an agent negotiating on our behalf—his fee was 7%. I don’t know, maybe things would’ve been worse otherwise.
Andy Meyers is still at the company and is generally very responsive when we do have questions.
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Takeaways
Good Deed seems to be a good fit for fiction features that do not possess a “name” cast, although their slate has some notable exceptions. Complaints were mostly limited to issue surrounding PR/marketing and communication, as well as the usual accounting problems, but on the whole, they seem milder than other ReportCards. What is a bit worrisome, yet not entirely unpredictable in this market, is that some of the newer releases do not seem to have gotten SVOD or broadcast deals. We will have to keep an eye on GDE to make sure this model is sustainable for them.
