Workshop 5: The Future of Internet Video
Listen to the podcast of this article here.
Hi, this is Anna Callahan from Super Indie Films, and you’re reading the transcript of our fifth podcast for independent filmmakers. This podcast talks about getting your film to stand out from the crowd, what to look for in an online distributor, and the future of internet video. Let’s get started with:
Rate Me, Review Me! The problem of too many options
Scott Kirsner has written a lot on the topic of internet video and he says:
“The problem for those who hope to collect cash in exchange for video is that the amount of video available on the web is growing exponentially.”
There are a lot of films available now that the cost of filmmaking has gone down. Some of them are great, real gems that just haven’t put enough energy into finding their audience; others are quirky and fun, well worth watching on a sick day home from work; and some of them are first works that the filmmaker learned a lot from. Try to see things from the consumer’s perspective: you’re online and you’re in this sea of films where you can’t tell one from another. If your first experiences are that you spend money on films and you don’t like them, you won’t be back. So we want lots of films to go through gateways. Gateways rates films — film festivals are a great example, they’ve been very important so far and they’re going to continue to be extremely important throughout the internet age, if anything even more important than they were before because of the sheer number of films being made today. Other gateways include rating systems on websites such as OurStage and traditional film reviewers.
Other types of gateways don’t necessarily judge films as good or bad, but determine what types of people will like your film. Netflix recommendation system is a good example: if you like this film, then you’re going to like that film. You want your film to go through as many gateways as possible to make it distinct from other films.
The Perfect Match – What to look for in an online distributor
Before I tell you what to look for in an online distributor, you need to answer two questions for yourself. The first one is:
- Are you ready to give up the dream of becoming a wildly successful multi-millionaire overnight without doing any of your own marketing or distribution? Okay, it’s a facetious question, but you do have to embrace the idea of running your own distribution before choosing a site to sell your films on. The second question is:
- Have you done all of the festivals you plan on doing? A lot of festivals will not take a film that has online distribution. They want to be able to have a debut, so when you come out with your film you need to do the festival circuit first. After you’ve done the festival circuit then you can (and should) continue to use other gateways (getting more reviews and ratings), but at this point you can think about online distribution.
Things I would recommend you look for are the following:
- Never sign a contract that gives away any rights to your film. Own your film.
- Don’t sign exclusivity contracts. Any online distributor should allow you to use other sites as well. In the internet age they don’t have that much to offer. Unless they’re really guaranteeing you something fantastically fabulous.
- Don’t go with a site that has DRM, for a variety of reasons.
- Go with a site that has extremely fast downloads.
- Go with a site that pays a high percentage to filmmakers (for the obvious reasons)
- Use a site that has ratings and recommendations, that shows trailers, that has reviews — anything that helps your customer to know securely that they want to buy your film.
- Go with a site that has good compression; this means that their file sizes are small and the video quality is good (use iTunes as a benchmark)
- A good site should be able to do hi-def
- A good site should help you get your own film noticed in other ways as well.
The Future of Internet Video
This section is simply here to say that internet video is the future. Everyone knows that this is happening. The major studios are looking back at what happened in the music industry to the major record labels and saying “this is not going to happen to us”. They’re all on board, they all have sites, many of them are on iTunes, they have multiple ways that they are getting on the internet. Apple is coming out with hardware and there are lots of other hardware developers like Tivo getting involved; Netflix is offering a download service as well — everyone is getting on board. But none of these major players have independent filmmakers in mind, because y’know what? They’re not going to make that much money on an independent film, and that’s what they’re there for, they’re there to make money.
So what we need to do for ourselves is this:
We need to make sure that when internet becomes the main way that films and tv shows are distributed (because it will happen), we need to make sure that independent filmmakers are the coolest thing out there; that independent film is something that everybody knows about and everyone is downloading. Make sure that as you’re working on your own film you’re helping other filmmakers as well — we’ll have more fans, those fans will engage with us in a way they never could with the major studios, and we will all be better for it.
That’s the end of our five part series, thanks for reading. Look for more articles and podcasts at SuperIndieFilms News.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I loved your Blog here and agree that the internet provide so may opporunities for the distribution and consumption of digital content. That is why we have started a Digital Network – www>OurTvSpace.com to get in on the ground floor so that when Digital Convergence happens, we are ready! Come join us in our effort to build a new Digital Network! We also have a social network called http://www.OTSVillage.com which is the official network for the the new Digiital Channel! We are seeking to partner up with talent and crew to build content!
Keep up the great work here – I really love what you have done – and I will be back to keep up with your Blogs!
Thanks – and Best Wishes – Doug Kirkpatrick
http://www.OurTvSpace.com
February 4th, 2012 at 11:45 pm