How can I get a tape distributor?

[Guest ShooterJay]

Some quick background...

 

I'm the co-producer for "Lobsterman's All-Star-Rasslin'" a TV show starring the Lobsterman, of Comedy Central's "Daily Show" fame, and featuring matches from his indy, AWA Promotions.

 

The basic setup of the show is this. LM and his cohost do some really stupid "Late Show"-esque studio segments, like interviewing dolls of celebrities, parodies of stuff like "To Tell the Truth" and Jay Leno's "Headlines," pies in the face, staging matches between action figures, and other assorted over-the-top wackiness. The basic thrust we're going for is "Stuff kids will like and college kids can get stoned/drunk to."

 

The actual wrestling matches are divided into three classes of worker.

1. Cruiserweights who wrestle the modern WWE style, with a small sprinke of indy highflying.

2. Pure lucha libre, with luchadors imported from Mexico.

3. '80's WWF-style, heavily-gimmicked fat lumps. Think "Bloodsucking Alien" and "Super Rhino" here.

Groups 1 and 2 mix, 3 keep to themselves. The key word here is "variety."

 

What I'm most proud of is that the show is a cut above 99% of indy TV shows in the US. We have total unrestricted access to a public access TV studio for the in-house segments.

 

For the matches, we run a two-camera shoot, complete with a switcher. The cameras are digital, meaning peak tape quality no matter how many generations we go down. We have state-of-the-art Media 100 and Avid computer editing systems, and a really flashy Compix graphics generator. I work for the access station, meaning my partner and I have almost $250,000 worth of editing equipment to produce these tapes at our disposal for free.

 

To summarize, our tapes, from a video quality standpoint blows the product put out by larger indys like CZW and XPW out of the water, and the matches are from young, experienced, 100% homegrown talent, with the main eventers being able to put out competent 15-20 minute matches that generally hit ***-***1/2 or over.

 

 

We're currently airing on two public access stations, one is the place we work at, the other is in Nashua, NH, the promotion's home. In September, the show will be running on Massachusetts' Channel 3, the one that comes with the AT+T cable package. We're trying to work out a deal with WNDS also.

 

What I'd like, in order gain a little more recognition and boost the fed's so-far pittiful live show gate, is to hook up with a tape distributor. Do you guys know of anyone I could get in contact with. Also, as a general rule, would we have to make our own tapes, or just send in a master for them to dub. Remember, it's digital, so video quality is not lost with dubbing.

 

Any help at all would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Guest J*ingus]

First of all, don't expect any kind of tape deal to boost your live gate.  CZW and NWA Wildside tapes are everywhere on the 'net and on Ebay, but they still don't pull in great crowds much of the time.  The main plus of videotape distribution is to 1.Make a little money, and 2.Spread some of your product out there so that the talent will get exposure.  

 

As for the tape distributing itself, if you've got all those video facilities at your fingertips, honestly the best way would be just to do it yourself.  You could cut some kind of deal with a dealer like SmartMarkVideo, Highspots, or RFVideo, but that leads to all sorts of complications: the deal might not be to your liking, you wouldn't get all of the profits, there are copywright issues, so forth and so on.  

 

So just buy a bunch of blank tapes and white boxes and make them yourself.  If you get to know someone who works at Blockbuster or somewhere similar, try to get them to steal a whole bunch of those plastic cases (don't worry, they throw away dozens of them all the time).  Get a website and a Paypal account to allow online purchases.  Try to keep the price per tape below $15, maybe as low as $8-$10 if you can afford it, nobody is going to pay much for an unknown product.  Promote the hell out of the videos on every wrestling-themed message board that allows you to (seriously, there are HUNDREDS of the damn things out there).  Read through a couple of "guerrilla marketing" how-to business books.  If you do any other tape trading/selling, always send a copy of one of your shows along with whatever else the person bought.  In short, be creative!  

 

And if you REALLY want to use all that video equipment to help your live houses, you need a TV show.  You're VERY lucky to work at the station and get all the stuff for free, so you're already ahead of 99% of indy feds out there.  However, which station it's on makes a big difference.  Channel 3 might sound like a great deal, and I'm sure it's relatively cheap, but trust me, hardly anyone (except the workers' families) ever watches a cable-access wrestling show.  I know, I work on one down here in Tennessee, and it gets frustrating at times.  Unless you've got enough sponsers to cover costs, it'll just turn into a money pit.  You have to be on a real broadcast station, and preferably not at 3 AM like a lot of indy shows.  So unless the network syndicators are asking for a ridiculous amount while AT&T is practically giving you the time for free, my advice is to skip Channel 3 and go straight for WNDS.  

 

Oh yeah, and you know what's often the very best advertising you can do for a fed?  Buy a commercial on your local UPN affiliate during Smackdown.  It's narrowcasting to a 100% compatable demographic, which most companies would kill to be able to do.  The spots can sometimes come surprisingly cheap, like a couple hundred dollars for a one-shot deal, which is not bad to advertise one of your biggger shows.