Category: Persons To Know

* Annie Roney appears alongside Tiffany Shlain and other experts at the first-ever San Francisco #ArtistServices Workshop, co-hosted with the San Francisco Film Society – April 6 at The Presidio *Consulting Contributor Chris Dorr : You’ve been distributing documentary films for a number of years. How did you get into the distribution business and what led you to concentrate on documentaries? I had a spiritual crisis when after a few post-college jobs, I was unfulfilled and disconnected from my core. I took some time off to reflect on what I wanted out of my life and what made me tick.

What do you do? What’s your role in the indie world?I help filmmakers and media companies develop and implement strategies to maximize distribution, revenues, and audience. As President of Paradigm Consulting, I advise on domestic and international sales and marketing. I developed the concept of hybrid distribution, which has given many filmmakers greater control of their distribution, a larger share of revenues, and the ability to build core personal audiences.

Q: What is your background, how did you begin your journey to film art?
A: I was working in the music industry until they sued Napster. I thought that was a really dumb thing to do, so I started aggressively moving away from that industry. Iʼd already been working with Disneyʼs marketing department, primarily on Pixar films.

As part of our Creative Distribution Initiative, we tapped Alamo Drafthouse CEO Tim League to find out more about how the Austin-based movie theater chain does business. Keep reading for League’s thoughts on building his brand, finding new audiences, and branching out into partnering with Magnolia.For you and for the Alamo, how does a film that does not have an all-rights-scale distribution model in place build out the booking process for screening in your theater?In terms of the Alamo, we have a programming office out here in Austin.