Shipley Garners DVD Deal, Contemplates Next Act

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Wayne Shipley took a gamble in 2007 and it was a whopper: He plunked about $100,000 of his own money into making his dream of producing an independent feature come true.
The movie, a western then called "One-Eyed Horse," was shot on various locations, primarily in the Corridor, notably on Shipley Farm in Jessup and nearby Blob's Park. It premiered on July 22 of last year at The Diamond Cinemas in Baltimore.
Then came the next step. With the flick in the can, he had to find a distribution deal so he could (hopefully) recoup that 100 grand and set about making money.
Happily, Shipley has hit pay dirt with a distribution deal with L.A.-based Barnholtz Entertainment. His opus, rechristened "Come Hell or High Water," has the company's owner so impressed that he is dangling well-known Hollywood names like David Carradine and Peter Fonda in front of him as bait to come up with another movie concept.

The Deal
Shipley was planning to shop the movie when it became a wrap, but the magic of the Internet led to his connection with Barnholtz sooner than he had anticipated.
"Once we got the trailer on our web site, the acquisitions person for Barnholtz Entertainment found it and asked us to send him some rough footage," Shipley said. "I didn't want to do that, but I sent him the original 137-minute edition of 'One-Eyed Horse' when we wrapped post production last spring."
At that point came the call from Owner Barry Barnholtz, a co-founder of Trimark Pictures and a more than 30-year veteran of the movie business.
"During negotiations, we went through three different contracts," Shipley said. "One of the sticking points of the deal was that I wanted to keep the right to sell the full-length director's cut, which I am continuing to market on the web site."
That wasn't an issue because Barnholtz wanted to sell a shorter version of the film that his market - the customers of NetFlix, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and TV viewers - wants to watch in 96 minutes or less. He was going to handle the edit himself, but Shipley and Jeff Herberger of Longthrow International, the movie's director of photography/editor, did the "splicing," primarily at the editing suite in Herberger's house.
All told, Barnholtz acquired the rights for North America and U.S. military bases worldwide for 15 years, with Shipley retaining the international rights.
Financial terms of the agreement "are pretty well standard for indie filmmakers," Shipley said. "Barry paid me a guaranteed minimum upfront once I delivered the complete product.
"Then, once Barnholtz recoups its investment in the marketing, artwork and acquiring a Motion Picture Association of America rating, I get 25% of the sales," he said, "plus 50% of the rights if the movie gets picked up on Cinemax, HBO, Starz or any other TV outlet."

Numbers Game
Barnholtz, the CEO of Barnholtz Entertainment, was attracted to the quality of the story and the production, and the fact that he thinks that there is "a need for quality westerns in the marketplace.
"I did some research and noted that all of the country music artists that come to L.A. to play at the Hollywood Bowl sell out," he said. "Many people follow this genre and the big studios are not servicing that part of the market as much as the independent producers are."
Barnholtz gets about 50 submissions a week and he watches [at least part of] "almost 500 films a quarter. But if the story isn't taking me anywhere, I don't watch the whole film," he said, noting that his company will release about 40 films on DVD this year and that he has been involved with more than 800 video releases.
He noted that Shipley was very detail-oriented in this production practices. "He really got a lot out of his cast," said Barnholtz. "They did a spectacular job in this production and I'm just glad to be able to complement the distribution."
That's especially sweet for Shipley to hear, since working on the movie was a labor of love and friendship for most of the cast and crew involved, which has not gone unnoticed by Barnholtz.
"I would welcome a chance to work with Wayne," he said. "He had a lot of nerve to do something like this."
Mark Redfield, who stars as Justin Gatewood in "Come Hell or High Water," said that there were "a couple of factors that we had in our favor" in closing the deal with Barnholtz.
"One, there are not that many westerns being made, and Barry understands that and wanted to serve that audience," Redfield said.
The other was that Barnholtz and Redfield had made contact earlier this decade regarding a picture that Redfield produced and starred in, "Chain Saw Sally." "One of his reps, Elvin Butters, saw it at a screening and he almost bought it, though I went elsewhere on that occasion. But Barnholtz kept an interest in us."
It was when Barnholtz saw that Redfield's upcoming "Tell Tale Heart" was listed as being in pre-production on the Internet Movie Database web site that another contact was made.
"By the time everything pans out," said Redfield, "Wayne will do well with 'Come Hell,'" adding that "Barry was really straight with Wayne and not many distributors are. They're really just middlemen. But Barnholtz does everything himself, from manufacturing to marketing to distribution."
And Shipley still has those foreign sales rights, remember. "And the British love westerns, too," Redfield said. "This is a 'slam dunk' in English speaking countries, especially since no subtitles are needed; it should do well in non-English speaking countries, too."
After all, the western landscape is "part of America to the rest of the world," he said, "and one good thing about having the film cut [down to 96 minutes] is that it's less expensive to subtitle that way."

Encore
So now Shipley has gone from "never sure what would happen" with his cinematic exercise to having a movie industry vet offer him another deal that would include the services of two well-known Hollywood actors.
That has his gears turning already. "One thing my film is lacking is that I don't any internationally known actors. Having David [Carradine] or Peter [Fonda] in another film would allow me to find investors, too."
With his domestic deal in the can, today he's busy trying to find interested parties in foreign markets.
"I'm already looking into deals in the Philippines and Australia," said Shipley, who has a Washington, D.C.-based attorney ready to assist, since "It's always a slippery slope when you're dealing with intellectual property."