» Posts Tagged ‘distribution’
I’ve been keeping tabs on HTML5 video for my future transmedia project 3rd Rail, as HTML5 will almost certainly replace Flash video as the primary method of consuming online video… eventually. However, where we are right now is that Adobe is sunsetting Flash video but HTML5 is still in its infancy. Long Tail Video has released a very useful “state of HTML5″ report, and it’s very enlightening for anyone wondering what you can and can’t do with HTML5 video today. Let’s also embed some HTML5 videos right here and see if they work correctly in your browser: More »
Among the many news stories that I missed recently, comedian Louis CK’s self-released Live at the Beacon Theater video might be the story that I feel the most remiss about missing. Louis is not only one of the funniest men alive, he’s also a writer/director/producer/editor (you may know his show on FX, which he not only writes and stars in, but also edited the entire second season himself). Louis recently shared some of his thoughts on the hot button topic of Final Cut Pro (X) (included below), but the larger story is that his self-produced, self-distributed downloadable video has raised over $1 million, and he’s been completely transparent about where that money is going (much of which is to charity). Here’s a sample of the routine, which includes NSFW language/subject matter: More »
If You Hope to Have Your Film Distributed, Get These Free Documents from the Tribeca Film Institute Now
Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Tribeca Film Institute’s excellent Distribution 101 panel here in NYC. The panelists from HBO and Tribeca Films shared a lot of valuable information about deliverables — i.e., if your film is acquired, you do not simply send over the movie itself, but also need to have a cornucopia of legal documents ready, including photo releases, chain of title, music cue sheet, and an errors & omissions policy. Above and beyond the info on the panel, attendees were handed a nifty USB flash drive, which contained a number of very useful documents and templates. Now TFI has released these documents free; if you hope to have a film acquired by a distributor one day, do not miss your chance to grab these files now. More »
When I originally wrote, “Google TV is what independent filmmakers have been waiting for,” in retrospect I forgot the “is” at the beginning of the sentence and the question mark at the end. So far the answer to that question has been, admittedly and unfortunately, a resounding “no” — so much so that, despite being sent a Google TV by Google (in part because of writing that article), I still haven’t set it up. But when it comes to independent film distribution, the TV is the final frontier, and whether or not Google TV version 1 made an impact, version 2 is currently rolling out this week and looks to improve things significantly. Oh, and rumors are flying that Apple is apparently getting into the TV game for real (the current Apple TV is nothing more than a hobby). More »
'PressPausePlay' is a Free and Timely Feature Film on Art and Technology
PressPausePlay is a feature-length documentary on “hope, fear, and digital culture” that has been making the festival rounds for a while and is now available gratis on the internet. It’s highly recommended viewing at any price — you can buy it for $14.99 on iTunes or rent it for $3.99 on Amazon
Prescreen and FilmDIY are New Players in the Independent Digital Distribution Space
If VOD is the future of film distribution and Netflix isn’t paying indies much, we’d all better hope for some new — and successful — players in the digital film distribution space. Dynamo Player was one of the first out of the gate, and Distrify looks great. Amazon VOD and YouTube Rentals are also players, or you could always try to build your own VOD portal. Now there are two more options; here are the video pitches from newcomers FilmDIY and Prescreen: More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker/author Jon Reiss, whose brand new co-authored book Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul is 100% free (until the end of September) and 100% essential reading for filmmakers. Seriously: do not miss this book.
Two years ago I wrote a book Think Outside the Box Office which is a nuts and bolts guide to direct distribution and marketing for films that I wish I had when I released my feature Bomb It (about graffiti and street art all over the world). Last week marked the launch of Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul (SYFWSYS) a book that I wrote with Sheri Candler and The Film Collaborative – which is available for free digitally until October 1 and also available in paperback. SYFWSYS includes marketing and crowdfunding strategies, distribution spends, community building and detailed ancillary and digital distribution numbers for the following films: Ride The Divide, The Cosmonaut, The Best and The Brightest, Sita Sings the Blues, Note by Note, Bass Ackwards, Adventures of Power, American: The Bill Hicks Story, Undertow, For the Bible Tells Me So, and the webseries PioneerOne. What follows is an excerpt from one of my chapters in the book about the release of a film Ride the Divide. More »
There’s a nice article at Deadline about Todd Wagner, who cofounded Magnolia Pictures with Mark Cuban (also pictured). Wagner, who says Magnolia is not for sale (despite testing the waters earlier this year), shared some numbers regarding Magnolia’s films and their success on VOD. Not to get ahead of myself, but when you’re spending every waking moment thinking about your film, you also tend to think about distribution in a theoretical way. Man-child would be a great day-and-date VOD candidate, and not just in the cable TV world but also in the Amazon, iTunes rental, Dynamo player kind of world. Here’s Wagner on VOD for independent films — which in Magnolia’s case oftentimes brought in several times more than did theatrical — and how it’s just getting started: More »
When Netflix recently raised prices and separated out their DVD-by-mail and streaming pricing, there was a minor revolt among users. So many cancelled their service, in fact, that Netflix’s stock took a 15% hit. Still, I don’t think anyone saw this coming: from now on, Netflix will only offer streaming titles. If you still want DVDs by mail, they’re going to come from a new brand: Qwikster. Wow. Here’s the announcement: More »
Media futurist Gerg Leonhard’s presentation at DES may not concern filmmakers in the sense that he’s talking about how to make movies in the future. But he is talking about the way media will be distributed and consumed going forward. You can look at this presentation a couple of ways: “none of this has anything to do with being a DIY filmmaker” — or, in the era of the artist-entrepeneur, all of this has to do with being a DIY filmmaker (as both a content creator and a distributor). I think it’s worth a watch: More »
Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul is a free, awesome-looking eBook coming in September from some heavy-hitters in the indie film scene. The book is a series of case studies that “dive deep into the real numbers and real details of independent film distribution,” and will be released free in September during Independent Film Week here in New York — when I’ll be taking meetings about my first feature film, Man-child. You may have heard of it? I just launched a Kickstarter campaign and I’m counting on your support! How’s that for an example of selling my film without selling my soul?!? Check out the book’s video trailer: More »
Today saw the iTunes-exclusive album release of Watch the Throne, a collaboration between rap megastars Kanye West and Jay-Z. What does this have to do with independent filmmaking? Good question. Regardless of what kind of music you listen to, I think there are some lessons to be learned from the career arc of Kanye West, as well as the digital-first distribution strategy the duo employed for today’s album release. Caution: this post is not going to win any awards for organization or brevity. I’m going to ramble on here: More »
Twin filmmakers Michael and Mark Polish, whose previous credits include Twin Falls, Idaho and The Astronaut Farmer, have released their latest feature through iTunes — with zero advertising. Joining the advertising budget is the production budget itself, which officially clocked in at $0 (they didn’t count food and transportation, though even if you do, we’re still talking “no budget” filmmaking). Instead, social media — chiefly Twitter and Tumblr — have led to the film generating word of mouth online, and as a result For Lovers Only (iTunes link) has already made over $200,000. Shot on a Canon 5D Mark II, here’s a clip of the black-and-white, French New Wave-inspired feature: More »
Starting about three years ago I began brainstorming ideas for an internet-centric way of distributing independent films (as opposed to festivals, theaters, and DVDs). However, given I already run one web site, instead of pursuing these ideas in earnest I’ve spent the ensuing years working on getting a transmedia project and/or first feature off the ground (more on the latter soon — depending on your definition of “soon”). A year ago when taking a look at Dynamo Player, we saw the beginnings of what an independent video distribution widget would look like, and now newcomer Distrify has launched what looks to be a more feature-rich player. Several ideas I’ve kicked around (including an affiliate program) are implemented in Distrify: More »
'Iron Sky' Releases Lesson in Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing
Finnish director Timo Vuorensola’s forthcoming feature Iron Sky, which I’ve mentioned previously, has released a very nicely animated overview of their innovative production process to date. There’s a lot to be learned here when it comes to the future of film, both good and potentially bad; I’m a huge proponent of crowdfunding, but find myself hesitant to embrace the idea that crowdsourcing the creative aspects of a screenplay is a good idea. Call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in the “singular vision” of auteurs. Here’s their video highlighting the different creative and financial strategies they’ve employed to date: More »
While Netflix has been available on iOS since last year, it’s been conspicuously absent on the arguably most popular smartphone OS, Android. By finally releasing an Android application late last week, Netflix is moving closer to their goal of being on every platform. But their Android release is a perfect example of the fragmentation issues plaguing Android, as their app is currently only available on five specific phones: More »
Back in November I criticized Google’s Android operating system for lacking an iTunes-esque media marketplace. Android’s openness seemed a good match for independent content creators, except it lacked a streamlined way to sell media content. Yesterday, at Google I/O, the Big G finally announced an Android Movies Marketplace, as well as an Amazon Cloud Player
I’ll have more to come on RED’s NAB announcements (or strange lack thereof) in the coming days, but after a few visits to their booth, I thought the product that was being underreported was the RED RAY 4K playback system(s). The RED RAY Pro — announced long ago — was running flawlessly in a corner, and the RED RAY consumer version was on display as a mock-up. After spending some time with RED engineer Stuart English, the devices looked a lot more disruptive — especially for independent theatrical distribution. More »
I meant to post this months ago, but like so many stories on this under-staffed (single-staffed) site, it slipped through the cracks. Then the NewTeeVee article Forget Festivals, Go Online Instead re-brought it to my attention, and so here it is: if you haven’t already seen The Thomas Beale Cipher, the animated short directed by Andrew S. Allen and produced by Jason Sondhi (both from Short of the Week), here’s the 10-minute texture-tastic mystery in full: More »
Independent films are too hard to find. Their theatrical runs are restricted to art-house cinemas in select cities, their availability on DVD at a local brick-and-mortar (either to rent or to buy) is never certain, and when they show up on Video-On-Demand, it’s often only on one channel that might be located in the nether regions (channel 500 +) of your cable guide. Wouldn’t it be nice if indie film fans had a central place we could go to find the films we heard about six months ago on the festival circuit — but never had a chance to see? Now there is just such a central repository. More »
.gif)
jordan carr: Couple move examples of GH2 movies with virtually no budget that are super… New Nikon D800 Footage to Scrutinize: Music Video for 'You're On' by Euzen
jordan carr: Funny that people using hacked GH2s are getting superior results with thei… New Nikon D800 Footage to Scrutinize: Music Video for 'You're On' by Euzen
Ramiro: I agree, that's stealing. But there is a problem, in many countries (most … Are You Ready to Make Adobe a Utility? Creative Cloud to Launch Alongside …
Robman2: Points all well founded about freeware versus purchases, and intellectual … Are You Ready to Make Adobe a Utility? Creative Cloud to Launch Alongside …
Brenton: That´s if you are going for the upgrade... for those wanting to start… Are You Ready to Make Adobe a Utility? Creative Cloud to Launch Alongside …