Dive into the archives.
- Sundance Shorts free at iTunes
During the festival run, January 15-25, iTunes will offer for free 10 shorts screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The featured films are “Magnetic Movie”, “Countertransference”, “Acting For the Camera”, “James”, “Hug”, “From Burger it Came”, “Field Notes From Dimension X: Oasis”, “This Way Up”, “I Live in the Woods”, and “Instead of Abracadabra.”
At previous panels I have heard the idea floated about that a good idea would be to have features run online concurrent with their festival dates. No telling exactly what the repercussions of this would be for TV sales in particular (and slightly… [more]
- Distribution, Downloads, Democracy and Doubt
I was at a NYWIFT event the other night talking with some filmmakers about the necessity of distribution today- as in, is it time to toss the whole concept out with VHS and Pluto being a planet. It seems to me that distribution is responsible for my knowing about most of the cool films that I do- that without it people in the US might have remained blissfully unaware of the French New Wave, of Takeshi Kitano, or Down By Law. Now perhaps the magical internet has made everything different, but I wonder if some of the… [more]
- Sony’s “Open Market” could open the Digital Market- a little
TechCrunch reports today on a move by the major studios to protect digital media through a DRM scheme called Open Market. Rather than bow to the the individual protections of a single retailer, otherwise known as iTunes, the studios are working with about 30 different retailers and portals, including Amazon, Best Buy, Direct TV, Time Warner Cable, T-Mobile, Target, Wal-Mart, and others to create a system whereby any digital media available through the participating companies would be subject to third party encryption that would only work on registered devices. (Essentially, you could only play the movie on a device… [more]
- Indies get tactical, but is self-distribution the answer?
Anne Thompson’s recent post on ‘changing tactics’ for independent film distribution shows how tenuous things are in the game these days and how much digital is becoming a part of all distribution strategies. She proposes that self-distribution is becoming increasingly attractive and/or viable, with films like BOTTLE SHOCK and GOOD DICK entering into service deals rather than going the straight distribution route.
But the idea that “filmmakers don’t have to give away the store with DVD deals anymore” seems a little premature, at best. Especially for independents, revenue on digital download and streaming is not even in the… [more]
- iTunes and Indie Films - Meet the Middleman
In a nifty bit of synergy, Scott Kirsner over at CinemaTech has taken on the question “How to get your indie film on iTunes?” (a somewhat similar query to the very first post in the Infinicine discussion forum). Getting your film on iTunes does seem like a bit of an apex at this stage in the digital distribution evolution, not only because iTunes sales are so commanding relative to other download services so far but also because they charge a relatively high price and share it with the rightsholder. (As with any customer, terms will vary).
The… [more]
