for scripts. These are small markets for big
dreams. Your chances of selling your first script to
a major studio are not that great. But your
chances of selling it improve vastly if you know
where to sell it and how. In this series, we exam-
ine what the niche markets are and how to sell to
them -- market by market. This issue: low-budget
(pulp), sci-fi and horror.
few producers took advantage of this emerg-
ing market. For many, having a film go
straight to video meant a mark of shame.
Making movies solely for VCRs was the
province of the porn industry. Yet a few vi-
sionaries saw the potential for stories told ex-
clusively for the home-viewing crowd.
ers, such as Charles Band at Full Moon En-
tertainment, found an audience
for their low-budget horror films
when traditional distributors
balked. Flicks such as Puppetmas-
ter, The Re-Animator, Trancers III
and Creepozoids could join the
likes of Sorority Babes in the Slime-
ball Bowl-O-Rama, Munchies and
Transylvania Twist in what became
a genre unto its own. These low-
rent horror movies were so bad
they were funny. And whether
humor was intended, these pic-
tures (sometimes referred to as
laugh at their tongue-in-cheek humor.
his team at Troma Entertainment. This super-
hero tale of a meagre mop boy at a country club
who falls into a vat of toxic waste and emerges
as a mutant man-thing who cleans up crime in
the town of Tromaville became a cult classic.
years, saying that part of the reason his films
go that route is because the major entertain-
ment conglomerates thumb their noses at any-
thing that's truly independent.
terial, more independent producers and pro-
duction companies realize not only the value
of direct-to-DVD productions, but have
found new audiences for them internation-
overlooked by major studio fare.
tailoring their titles to specific
niches. Within Maverick are faith-
based films, Latino, urban and
low-budget sci-fi and horror films.
appear to be fading, the markets
they first tapped have not faded.
In fact, the opposite is true. Di-
rect-to-DVD filmmakers at a pro-