Melissa Balin
Issue #28
Adieu, Cannes. Bonjour, eBay. This indie director puts her film on the auction block.
By Kurt Soller
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 1:10pm
Whether you’re looking for a pair of knock-off jeans, a spiritually shaped piece of toast, someone’s soul, or photographs of a family that isn’t yours, it’s all for sale on eBay. Last month, Melissa Balin added herself to eBay’s litany of miscellany when she used the site to sell the distribution rights to her directorial debut, Freezerburn.
“Distribution is the last frontier that’s yet to be rocked by independent filmmakers,” says the 31-year-old filmmaker, explaining her reasons for putting her film on the virtual auction block.
Based on Hamlet and set behind the scenes of a TV reunion, Freezerburn, with its minimal budget and use of digital technology, is a study of ingenuity under pressure. Its most extravagant feature is its cast, which includes everyone from model Rachel Hunter and Married with Children’s David Faustino to Balin’s thespian parents.
As a former producer with personal industry connections, Balin could have brought Freezerburn to Cannes and jockeyed for the best price before kissing her film goodbye, but she didn’t necessarily want that.
“I was looking for something where I would be able to stay involved in the process as a filmmaker loosely trying to protect the movie and also not be so personally affronted by the process,” she says. “Distributors don’t want to interface with the filmmakers because it is business and filmmaking is such a creative thing that they think the filmmakers might cry or something.”
EBay allowed Balin to monitor the whole process and remain “the keeper of the message” while conjuring up the feel of an “old-fashioned bidding war,” as she watched the virtual sale of a film that was paid for in part by the re-financing of her younger brother’s home. “Independent filmmakers get to a place where they’re backed up against a wall because they need to get their money out of the movie and maybe even move on with their lives,” Balin laments. “But they’re forced to sell a movie for less than which they hoped.”
Balin is hoping to help pave the way for young filmmakers “empowered” by digital technology but lacking the know-how, industry contacts, or support network necessary to help a good film get bought. “A film just has to make its money back and it has to find its best audience — it doesn’t have to be a summer blockbuster and the distribution world isn’t really set up to embrace that,” the director says. Balin hopes that the movie industry will be open to change and will be doing a national speaking tour at colleges this fall to share her experience and inspire young filmmakers to get their films out in the market in any way they can.
“If I’m trying to make a fun journey out of this place of desperation that distributors try to put you in,” Balin wonders, “then what hope is there is there for the kids in the middle in the country whose parents are shoemakers and have a story to tell?”
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