» Posts Tagged ‘vod’
Vimeo Launches New Mobile Website, Plus Interface Improvements for On Demand Content
Vimeo’s latest advancements come in the form of an optimization of what already exists: their mobile website and On Demand platforms. Boasting that over 1/3 of their monthly traffic can be accredited to their mobile site, the new redesign aims to make it easier for users to find and view content, as well as connect with the community. By the same token, they have also updated the interface for the Vimeo On Demand homepage, making it look and feel a little bit more like platforms we’re used to. Click through to see the new improvements. More »
After Three Years of Distribution Pioneering, Online VOD Platform Dynamo Shuts Its Doors
DynamoPlayer, one of the first the to market in terms of the ‘direct-to-consumer‘ paradigm, has officially bit the dust. They will spend the next few months closing out accounts and letting users collect their remaining balances before they shut down existing video players in mid-June. By the end of June, the platform will be shut down completely. Read on for the press release from Dynamo. More »
If you can’t make it out to the Tribeca Film Festival this year, you still have a chance to catch the show. They have announced that they will be offering programming for the Tribeca Online Festival as well as video-on-demand options in order to engage new audiences. Not only that, but they are also holding their very first #6SECFILMS Vine competition which they hope will expand their desired extra-festival participation. This will be the fourth year of the Tribeca Online Festival, “a digital platform that offers front row access to exclusive Festival content and new storytelling opportunities.” Essentially, you can go to the TFF, but you don’t have to get on a plane or change out of your pajamas. Also, with the addition of the Vine competition, the communities of both film-lovers and filmmakers, either participating in house or online, will all come together under one roof. More »
If you’re tired of digging through Netflix or Hulu for harder to find films, there are some options out there for you to consider. MUBI (formerly The Auteurs), an “online cinematheque,” is a website dedicated to film culture, conversation, and criticism. They also have been doing online VOD streaming for a while now, but a new format has been rolling out in Turkey, Norway, and the UK, and now it’s about to launch in the United States. It’s quite a departure from the way most streaming sites are organized, but the site, which is partnered with The Criterion Collection and other art house distributors, already does things a little differently than everyone else. More »
Most cinephiles would argue that the best way to see a movie is on the big screen in a crowded theatre. Yet, many independent films and documentaries that tour the festival circuit only get limited theatrical releases if at all. Digital distribution has certainly broadened the reach of a number of films, but the magic of seeing a movie on the big screen with a crowd is lost. When you watch a movie alone in your living room or on a portable device of choice, the jokes aren’t quite as funny, the thrills aren’t quite as thrilling, and the tearjerkers aren’t quite as jerking. We as the moviegoing audience can actually do something about this. We can demand that movies we want to see are screened at our local theatres. How? With the launches of OpenIndie, Gathr Films and Tugg, several notable films from recent festival circuits plus older catalog titles are now available for one-night only screenings at your local theatre through new theatrical-on-demand services. More »
Netflix is undeniably a bargain for consumers. The variety of content it features is immense, even though instant viewing choices fluctuate somewhat frustratingly — but don’t expect the average consumer to be understanding about the rather ugly licensing problems that cause this. It’s hard to argue with the price, despite Netflix‘s problems. The removal of its native social component, splitting DVD/streaming subscriptions, its sensory overload/option paralysis layout, and its lame payouts to creators are all issues to take with the service. That said, anyone who appreciates the engineering behind modern content delivery can respect Netflix’s ease of viewing — possible via multi-device integration, and, more vitally, the number of encodings each video must undergo for that famous ‘instant view’ ability. More »
By this point, you probably know about what VHX has been doing for direct-release cases and various self-promoted media start-ups. It’s clear the project will continue to bring us a lot of great films directly — and a lot of success stories along the way. You may not, however, be totally in tune to the things the project is trying to do for video on the internet in general. There’s something to be said for socializing a video-based browsing experience — in a lot of cases, you may never easily find videos that captivate or interest you on YouTube or Vimeo, because unless they’re being shared on Facebook or Twitter by people whose tastes you trust, how would you come across them? This is just one example of why you may find yourself living in a very VHX future. More »
VHX Meets VHS, Taekwondo, and Ninja Bloodshed: The Triumphant Re-Release of 'Miami Connection'
If you were previously unconvinced that VHX is out to remodel the internet cinema landscape for the better, a recent announcement just may do the trick. The self-distribution provider — already instrumental in the release of such direct-to-audience success stories as Indie Game: The Movie (a key tale to be told for independent filmmakers) and a proponent of a revolutionary new model of self-release philosophy — is now offering another first. As of today, December 11, the joint Drafthouse Films and VHX-powered re-release of midnight movie/underground martial arts film Miami Connection (with physical media such as VHS, a first and maybe only for a VHX release) is now underway — and any non-enthusiasts of Taekwondo, ninjas, B-movie swagger, and what appears to be among the greatest films ever made, need not apply. More »
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uite a few services have tried to get in on the direct-to-audience movie sale, with choices of streaming and download to a number of devices and smart TVs. Redux is an aggregator of online video, and it attempts to find videos for you based on user interests and social sharing mechanisms. The company is pushing hard into the connected TV space with their own app, and they’re trying to recreate the experience of watching regular television programming with aggregated online video. One of Redux’s newest additions, Redux for Artists, is a distribution channel where filmmakers can sell their videos directly to consumers. More »
Prescreen is Suspending Operations, but Plenty of Options Still Exist for Indie Filmmakers
It seems like only yesterday (8 months, actually) that the curated rental website Prescreen appeared as one of the many new startups competing for eyeballs in the growing digital distribution world for independent films. Prescreen (technically still in beta) sent a message to users that it would be suspending operations for the foreseeable future and would notify members of future plans with the site. Just because Prescreen is shutting down, however, does not mean all hope is lost for independent film. There are plenty of other services still going strong. More »
If you’ve ever thought about, or have been in the process of distributing an independent film, you know that it’s an absolute nightmare, and whether it’s theaters or distributors, almost no one wants to give you a straight answer about actual numbers and how well comparable films might have performed. It takes a lot for a distributor to finally give up numbers, but yesterday at a SXSW panel, Gravitas Ventures did just that. They delivered with a case study, and some other films and their distribution numbers. More »
We live in interesting times when it comes to content creation and distribution. Whether it’s movies being simultaneously released for a fee and free, or using web apps for content delivery, creators are experimenting with ways in which they can maximize both exposure for their films as well as returns for their investors. Amanda Lin Costa gives an overview of some of the main new types of digital distribution, from iTunes to VOD, and the experience filmmakers have had with them — both the good and the bad. Great food for thought for anyone considering their project’s digital distribution options: More »
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 »
For its future as a streaming only service, Netflix is reliant on deals with content owners, a situation which has the service being described aptly as a castle on quicksand. As evidence of its constantly-changing library, Netflix recently lost Starz content but today added Dreamworks Animation films to their library. However, Amazon also doubled their Prime library today (which at $79/year — including an unlimited free two-day shipping tie-in — compares favorably to Netflix’s $96 annual fee). Competition is heating up, but I can’t help but note one other thing about Netflix: the design of their website and most of their apps is, and always has been, mediocre at best. Which is to say nothing of the connection between the service’s benefit to consumers and its detriment to content creators. 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 »
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 »
As is apparent in my post on Google TV, I’m excited about the future of VOD and what it could mean for independent film. Not because of cable companies and VOD channels like IFC and Sundance, but because a device like Google TV should allow us to surpass gatekeepers and deliver our content directly to the audience — without a middle man taking a cut. I’ve got some ideas in this space that I’ll be building out once my own feature reaches the distribution stage, but for now, Zak Forsman has posted an awesome tutorial at the Workbook Project on how to build your own streaming pay-site: More »
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