Bottle Shock and the Trials of Film Distribution

Have you ever wondered what it's like to distribute your own movie? Wonder no more! We secured an interview with Brenda Lhormer, one of the producers behind Bottle Shock. The film is releasing wider this weekend; for more information check out their offical site.

The film stars Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, Eliza Dushku, and Rachael Taylor. Here's the official synopsis to get you acclimated: In 1976, a small American winery sent shock waves through the wine industry by besting the exalted French wines in a blind tasting, putting California wines on the map for good. Novice vintner Jim Barrett risked everything to realize his dream of creating the perfect hand-crafted California Chardonnay.

Now on to the interview!

Laremy Legel: After Bottle Shock was screened at Sundance, what were your expectations? It doesn't seem like the buyers at Sundance '08 were very active.

Brenda Lhormer, Producer: When we went into Sundance we knew that the buyers were going to be more cautious because in 2007 there were acquisitions made for a lot of money that didn't do very well at the box office. Grace is Gone is an example. There were several other movies that bombed at the box office too. However, the other message we were receiving was that because of the writers' strike we thought buyers would be looking aggressively for content because there wasn't a lot in the pipeline.

I think so many of us we were disappointed that there wasn't more of an interest in buying content. It wasn't just us. Only a handful of narrative features and a handful of documentaries were purchased. And that was it. It was really slow. Reality set in, and we said "well, I guess we're going to have to shop this around." We shopped it around and they still weren't biting so we decided to hook up with a releasing partner called Freestyle Releasing and self-distribute the movie.

LL: As someone in the middle of the rigors of self-promotion and indie cinema, what's surprised you?

BL: We thought there would be pent up demand for content due to the strike but that wasn't the case. We went around and shopped it after Sundance, our director Randy Miller took a DVD around to studios independent arms. But all of a sudden these independent arms aren't making it. They're closing down, so we've lost that pipeline.

LL: Talk about the amazing cast you guys put together.

BL: Yeah, even the harshest critics have said "What an impressive cast." Everyone loves Alan Rickman. I've been an Alan Rickman fan since Truly, Madly, Deeply but I had no idea he had such an amazing following. I really have to attribute that to our director and our casting director. My husband and I got the script in 2005 from a classmate at Stanford. We were running the film festival at Sonoma Valley at the time. We loved it, it was a no-brainer. A love story, a true story, a historic moment, a true underdog tale.

We thought "what director can we hire that can make a low budget look like a huge studio movie who happens to be connected to amazing talent?" He [Randall Miller] had a relationship with Alan Rickman already, Alan is starring in the movie Randy made before Bottle Shock called Nobel Son which will be out in the fall. So he had these connections which we knew would help us raise the money. He had a relationship with Bill Pullman, Eliza Dushku was a friend. Chris Pine was a new talent that Randy and his wife Jody saw in a play in L.A. because they heard he was a rising star. So he has a great eye and also relationships with veteran actors. It makes the movie very impressive.

LL: Once you decided to go ahead with Freestyle what have the hurdles been?

BL: Freestyle was the perfect choice for us because they're creative and ambitious. They come from that perspective of thinking outside the box to market a film. They have to be very creative on how to get the word out. They didn't buy us, we hired them, so we had to work as a team. So then it's a question of how can we get butts in seats without spending huge amounts of money? How can we compete with summer fare like Iron Man and Pineapple Express?

It's been really great, but difficult. Everything we do comes from "who can we hook up with?" Finding film groups, affinity groups, wine groups. How can we reach people without spending money? So between Freestyle and us as a producing team it's just been a ton of work. You're doing everything while hoping that if you cast the net really wide people will come and spread the word.

LL: In terms of the economic model you look at per theater averages each weekend and then is it a matter of convincing more theaters to carry the film?

BL: Freestyle has established relationships with the theaters, that's what they bring to the table first and foremost. They bring in that relationship. They also come up with the roll-out plan. They knew how much money we had, and how the movie will play. They picked the summertime, mid-summer. That has its challenges too, though. The Olympics. But if we would have delayed the initial roll-out into September we'd be competing with films that would be more challenging for us.

The theaters also had a ton of interest in the film. The theater owners had seen it, and knew about it. They knew the subject matter and they knew they wanted it in the summer when Bottle Shock would be a compliment to the slate of films coming out in August.

So we started on a Wednesday, more films are doing that, Wednesday is the new Friday. They decided to start in twelve major metros which would build buzz. Then we can roll-out into 67 new theaters this week. Then another 67 theaters on the 22nd and keep building it through September. That's the strategy. We'll extend our stay in the successful markets and open new ones because we've generated enough revenue.

LL: Where does the DVD release factor in to the economics?

BL: We got a great deal with Fox. They're going to be releasing the DVD which is fantastic, in early 2009. We're hopeful that the movie does well enough and everyone loves it so that there is pent up demand for the DVD. When it's about to launch we'll put out a whole new marketing campaign behind the DVD and with Fox behind us we feel confident about it.

LL: Are you basing success upon a certain dollars per theater average here?

BL: There is a goal we have per screen, and some of the markets are going way over goal. L.A. and New York, Washington D.C. Some are under performing like Houston, Philadelphia, and Detroit. In those markets we have to beef up our outreach efforts and hope we can make up for it on the second weekend.

LL: With the major studios it seems like the new goal is to rake in week one box office and then get to DVD as soon as possible. Whereas you're trying to build a buzz up week by week to get more theaters.

BL: Exactly. It's totally different. Like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 gets 4000 screens or something. We're like "we're open in 100!" But that's what you have to do with a limited marketing budget and limited places you can support a market with print and advertising. We have to be very careful, we can't open a market unless we can pay for a newspaper ad. It's the indie model these days. Because these other indie studios are closing down the Freestyle releasing model is going to be more popular and necessary.

LL: Was distributing on the internet ever considered?

BL: There have been several groups that approached us who wanted to release it on the internet when it was in theaters. There have been several films that have gone that route, even Steven Soderbergh was playing with that model.

Personally, maybe I'm old fashioned, but I love the experience of seeing it in the theater. I wouldn't want our film to be simultaneously released because it would take the magic away of watching our movie in the theater. We deserve the big theater audience. It's that type of movie. A stand up and cheer, inspirational film, enjoyed with a crowd. So we've rejected offers from online companies. TV rights are being negotiated right now though, and foreign rights too. So the internet discussion will come back in to play.

LL: What about the net in terms of publicity?

BL: Yeah, that's how we're getting the word out, thank God. We would die without it. We're working with Yelp on a market to market basis. We've tapped into online film clubs, wine clubs, and wine merchants. We're asking them to get the word out about the movie. So it's hugely beneficial. There's a lot of very creative co-promotion and the internet is the only way to get the word out about those promotions. We have a gazillion events we've planned through college alumni networks, business alumni networks. It's been this viral wildfire. I'll put it this way: it would be much more lightly attended without the internet publicity.

LL: In the actual history of the film, there were two vineyards right? You feature Chateau Montelena but Stags' Leap was competing too, weren't they?

BL: We loved the script but felt we needed to retool it in order to make it more dramatically appealing to a broader audience. We spent a lot of time in 2006 and 2007 talking about the script so that we were true to the story but didn't try to tackle too much. This was even before we opened our production office last June in Sonoma. We filmed 80% in Sonoma and 20% in Napa.

We didn't want it to be too niche. It wasn't a documentary. The story we're telling is the story of Jim and Bo Barrett, the father-son team. Jim owned the winery, bought it in 1973, and in 1976 their wine won the white competition at the judgment of Paris. We acknowledge that Stags' Leap won the red wine competition. And we acknowledge that Mike Grgich was the winemaker, not Jim Barrett. But the story is about Jim and Bo. The sidestory is about Gustavo Brambila who was a cellar rat at the time. He has a beautiful, inspirational story. He became Mike Grgich's assistant. So that's what we focus our story on. You can't tackle all the amazing stories in a 90 or 100 minute narrative feature. This was the story we wanted to tell.

There is another project in the works, another movie called Judgment of Paris that is in development. I know the writer who adapted the book. I have absolutely no idea where that project is in development though. If it gets made that movie is supposed to be more about Warren Winiarski.

LL: Okay, so give me a final pitch for Bottle Shock. Let's get those slower markets going!

BL: Everyone who has seen it says it's such a fun movie. It's a movie we need right now. Uplifting. I guess that does time well with The Olympics, eh? I hope people do get out there and see it and have fun with it.

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