http://sundance.org/artistservices en Copyright 2013 2013-05-24T18:57:31+00:00 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/83zWJGIfbEA/ As San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope—a man who keeps a discerning finger on the pulse of the indie film world—delivered his opening salvo at last April’s #ArtistServices Workshop, he addressed a curious dichotomy facing independent filmmakers. “The irony of the times is that despite the abundance of content today, people seem to discover less movies, find less things that they care about, and get stuck in echo chambers. How do we solve it?” There emerged a palpable frustration in his tenor that vacillated between anger and hope. How, in this age of seemingly unlimited content, are we so challenged with distributing and digesting that content? “This isn’t for you to solve, and this isn’t for me to solve,” Hope assured. “This is for all of us to solve. This is a collective enterprise.” With that call to action facing audience members, Ted Hope introduced a man whose work doesn’t directly resolve these issues, but rather aims to facilitate the creation of quality content that is in turn digestible. Duncan Cork is the CEO and co-founder of Slated, an online marketplace that matches filmmakers with investors and industry members to help fund and package their projects. Slated is unique in that it is comprised only of “Accredited Investors,” or, someone with an income of $200,000, household income of $300,000, or a net worth of $1MM, according to Cork. And fittingly, Slated requires a particular set of qualifications for films and filmmakers seeking investors. Among those stipulations are separate budget requirements for documentary ($250K-$1MM) and narrative ($500K-$15MM+) films, as well as a director attached to the project. The beauty of Slated is not so much that it is an exclusive funding hub, but rather that it is a market that suits both the artist, the industry and the investor and maximizes the probability of them finding each other. Since releasing Slated at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Cork says the company has received over 5,000 submissions, of which only 175 have been accepted. Perhaps those numbers provide a deterrent for some filmmakers, but that natural vetting process is what makes the business such an attractive marketplace for investors. Slated offers some semblance of security in the creative industry where financial returns are less than ideal. Duncan Cork pitches Slated to filmmakers with the ultimate selling point being access to capital. However, opportunities for official (secure) networking and the “multiplier effect” make the company a bona fide professional network for serious independent filmmakers. And maybe, as Ted Hope so envisions, Slated can begin to offer a solution to the artist/user disconnect by ensuring we support the best artists in helping them tell their stories. Check out Zach Braff talk about Slated in this recent interview with the guys from the film project "Kickstarted" (jump to 13:22).]]> Creative Funding, Independent Film, Independent Filmmaker, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Creative Funding Nate von Zumwalt 2013-05-13T17:03:15+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/creative-matchmaking-duncan-cork-and-slated-connect-filmmakers-with-investo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/kKEcWoAurik/ This has been an amazing roller coaster of a month working with my son Gilbert and Frankie on this Kickstarter campaign while they try to raise the budget for their new film "Snap Shot."  I've never seen two guys more persistent, creative and passionate about getting their film made than Gilbert and Frankie in my entire career. I'm really proud to be part of this project it has been a very humbling experience to see how projects like these bring our communities together. Thank you to all who have donated thus far, I hope all of you will spread the word and share the the link for the final push this week ending Friday Mar 29, at 3:00 PM. The first time I worked with Frankie on Modus Operandi it was amazing, I was overwhelmed with my trip to Milwaukee. When I got off the plane Frankie had the Milwaukee Police Department give me a police escort to my hotel. A police escort and not going to jail! On set in an abandoned 1930's movie theatre I pulled out a guys eye with a corkscrew, shoved a piece of dynamite in his eye socket, and blew his head up. I was really impressed by Frankie and his crew because it was a labor of love to them and I love working with directors that love what their doing and hes doing it for free! So thats when I say give me what you can and lets do this. I've never felt more at home any place, and thats any place in the world. Frankie and his crew were awesome! Usually somebody's got to have an attitude on set, I meen somebody's got to have an attitude. I was kinda pissed off somebody should have had a fucked up attitude on set but nobody! nobody! Please continue to support independent film, what these guys are doing is what it's all about. I'd rather work with passionate people any day of the week, thanks for looking -- Danny]]> Artist Services, Actor, Creative Funding, Entertainment News, Filmmaker, Independent Film, Independent Filmmaker, Partners, Kickstarter, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Festival, Festival Indexes, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Creative Funding Danny Trejo, Actor 2013-03-21T22:55:47+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/makin-indie-films-with-frankie-latina-is-tough-but-you-can-help/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/4fQeQ7wFp9Q/ Sundance Institute and the San Francisco Film Society are set to co-host the #ArtistServices San Francisco Workshop, Saturday, April 6, 2013 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM PST in the Palm Room at San Francisco Film Centre 39 Mesa Street - Suite 107 The Presidio, San Francisco CA 94129, with happy hour to follow. Join the conversation with industry experts as they discuss the latest technology and trends in Creative Financing, Digital Distribution, Guerrilla Marketing and Independent Theatrical Distribution. Get one-on-one advice in the intimate setting of The Presidio's San Francisco Film Centre. 50 Public Tickets Available for $50.00 each. There are some spaces available for Sundance Institute Alumni and San Francisco Film Society Grant and Filmhouse Alumni (First-Come, First-Served). San Francisco Film Society Alumni - request complimentary code here. Sundance Institute Alumni - request complimentary code here. SCHEDULE Opening Salvo by Ted Hope, San Francisco Film Society TIME: 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM PST American independent film producer and Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, Hope has produced close to 70 films, among them the first films of such notable filmmakers as Ang Lee, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Moises Kaufman, Bob Pulcini, and Shari Berman. Hope co-founded the production companies Good Machine and This Is That.Among Ted’s 23 Sundance entries are 3 Grand Jury Prize winners American Splendor (2003), The Brothers McMullen (1995) and What Happened Was... (1994). Hope is a champion of creative and community-based approaches to filmmaking and distribution, and through his Hope for Film blog and social-media is well known as a leader in the field. He recently launched the iOS app FLicklist, a tool to connect you with the films you'll love most. Creative Funding Profile: Duncan Cork of Slated.com TIME: 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM PST As Slated’s CEO, Duncan provides day-to-day creative and strategic leadership to the business and its partnerships. Duncan created the initial vision for Slated and subsequently founded the company in 2010. Prior to Slated, Duncan was the creative director of Katharsis, a consultancy specializing in strategy, user experience, product development, and design for clients in the entertainment, media and technology industries. Duncan moved to New York where he continues to design and develop the core Slated marketplace product - connecting filmmakers with financiers and industry professionals. Slated launched at Sundance in 2012 and has since aggregated film investors representing hundreds of millions of dollars, and has announced partnerships with some of the world's leading financing, sales, and film companies. Digital Cinema Mastering 101 For Indies: Graef Allen of Dolby TIME: 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM PST Manager of Content Services at Dolby Laboratories in Los Angeles, California. Graef has been with Dolby for more than nine years, working primarily in digital cinema mastering and distribution. Although some of her work is on studio titles, most projects are independent films or educational films for science museums. Graef spent 15 years on the staff of the Telluride Film Festival, working in production, theatre operations, and projection.  * LUNCH * Strategy to Know: Tiffany Shlain & Annie Roney Break Down EDU TIME: 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM PST Tiffany Shlain Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain (@tiffanyshlain) is a filmmaker, artist, public speaker and founder of The Webby Awards. Tiffany’s work with film, technology, and activism has received 50 awards and distinctions and her last four films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She just released a new film and accompanying TED Book called Brain Power. Her acclaimed feature documentary, Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, is currently screening around the world and is available on all digital platforms at connectedthefilm.com. It was selected by The U.S. State Department as part of the American Filmmaker Showcase to represent the United States. A celebrated thinker and speaker, she is on the advisory board of The Institute for the Future, has advised Secretary Clinton on technology and society, and presented the campus-wide Commencement address at U.C. Berkeley. Annie Roney Founder of ro*co films international, started the documentary film distribution company in 2000 and added ro*co educational in 2009. With a previous distributor she worked on all of the films by Ken Burns as well as Frontline and NOVA. She is based in Sausalito, California. Films in her ro*co catalog include: The Invisible War, How to Survive a Plague, Blood Brother, After Tiller, American Promise, Saving Face, Born Into Brothels, Jesus Camp, Street Fight, The Weather Underground, Promises, and Pray the Devil Back to Hell. What We Love Right Now: Samantha Howe of Blurb.com TIME: 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM PST Howe is the Senior Marketing Manager and Partner Strategist at Blurb Inc. Over 12 years of marketing strategy, business development and partnership management experience working in numerous roles in London and the U.S. She oversees global brand partnerships for Blurb, Inc. and formerly managed the international marketing for the company. Howe was a professional photographer with clients based in the U.K. and U.S. As a senior business development and marketing professional, Samantha has handled partnerships for brands as varied as Nokia, Wrigley, Sony Music, Flickr, Fed Ex and Volkswagen. True Disruptors Roundtable TIME: 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM PST Jason Sondhi / Vimeo.com A curator for Vimeo, Jason Sondhi's work bridges film and digital cultures, with a special eye towards audience-building. Selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of their "25 New Faces of Indie Film" in 2011, Sondhi is also the founder and managing editor of influential short film recommendation site Short of the Week. With both his website and role at Vimeo, he enjoys an ability to discover and present talented filmmakers to massive online audiences, a perspective he brings to bear in helping define and develop the new Vimeo On Demand platform. Malcolm Pullinger / Elevision.com Pullinger is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, who produced and edited the award-winning documentaries Winnebago Man, Following Sean, The Love Competition and The Key of G. His films have been released theatrically in the U.S. and Canada, have aired on the BBC, PBS, ARTE, and Channel Four, and have played at film festivals around the globe. Before co-founding Elevision, he served as the Producer and Creative Director of Wholphin, the acclaimed short film quarterly published by McSweeney’s. Jake Lodwick / Elevision.com Lodwick is an entrepreneur best known for creating Vimeo. Before that, he was CTO and product lead for CollegeHumor, and has served as an early advisor and investor to many successful startups, including Tumblr, Bleacher Report, and MakerBot. As a boy, he obsessively shot stop-motion video with his parents’ Hi8 camcorder, and as an adult has created dozens of short films, mostly for his own amusement. Chris Horton, Moderator Horton joined Sundance Institute in 2011 to launch #ArtistServices, an initiative that further extends the organization's mission of connecting artists with audiences. Through a series of innovative deals and partnerships, #ArtistServices provides Institute alumni with tools and resources that enhance creative funding and self-distribution opportunities. Recent projects include two films from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival: Detropia, winner of the U.S. Documentary Editing Award, and Indie Game: The Movie, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. Horton was previously the head of acquisitions for FilmBuff, a pioneering New York digital distribution company and sister company to Cinetic Media. Under Horton's leadership, FilmBuff acquired sales rights to hundreds of feature-length movies, including Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop and Chris Smith's Collapse. Takeaways: Joseph Beyer / Sundance Institute TIME: 4:00 PM PST Beyer currently works as Director of Digital Initiatives for Sundance Institute, where he managed the development team and launch of the Sundance Institute #ArtistServices Initiative under the direction of Executive Director Keri Putnam and the Board of Trustees. #ArtistServices provides exclusive creative funding, distribution, marketing and theatrical support to 4,000+ Sundance Institute alumni artists. Filmmakers are eligible for innovative universal and pre-negotiated deals to self-distribute their work to top digital retailers - all while retaining and controlling their creative rights and release plans. Beyer led the team that developed the first-ever collaboration with crowd funding leader Kickstarter.com to provide Institute alumni exclusive training and promotional support in creative funding. 100+ projects totaling over $3.9 million dollars have been successfully raised through the partnership since launching in January 2011.]]> Artist Services, Case Studies, Community, Creative Funding, Culture, Documentary, Director, Entertainment News, Filmmaker, Filmmaker Support Program, Grants and Fellowships for Filmmakers, Independent Film, Independent Filmmaker, Panels, Sundance Institute Lab, Technology, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Festival, Festival Indexes, Festival Home Page, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Columns, Partners, Kickstarter, Topspin Media Sundance Institute 2013-03-18T18:10:55+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/gurus-announced-for-artistservices-san-francisco-workshop/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/0DVgCYuYfoM/ Michael Cain is a documentary filmmaker and the director of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner "TV Junkie." Cain is seeking funding through Kickstarter to acquire music liscensing for his new documentary the "Starck Project." Click here to help the film achieve its goal. "Scientists have proven music evokes memory. They say if you remember the 80s, you weren’t there.” The STARCK PROJECT can help you remember. Almost 3 years into the making of this documentary I have come to learn we all have a story to tell. Many of us share common experiences yet our lives are very different. We can be jettisoned back to a place, a time, or an experience by just hearing a few beats of a song. For a particular group of individuals music takes them back to a time where they shared an intense and common experience at the infamous Starck Club. Their memories are interwoven through an inextricable bond. They are Starckers.  In 1982, a visionary Dallas entrepreneur, Blake Woodall, collaborated with the obscure French designer Philippe Starck to build the best nightclub in the world. A desolate and abandoned brewery building in Dallas was chosen as the club’s site. Their team was certain they could create magic in this barren wasteland, which at the time was occupied only by dirt, debris and chickens! The Starck Club now resides in the annals as one of the most famous and exotic nightclubs in the world alongside New York’s Studio 54 and Manchester’s Hacienda. The Starck Club turned a cheek to the conservative ideals of 1980s Dallas and created an environment free of the judgment, pressure, and cultural expectations of the time. The club also became a Mecca for rock stars, movie stars, fashion designers, and politicians. It was also the hub of legal ecstasy in the world. Unbeknownst to me, the seeds of the STARCK PROJECT were planted in 1986 when two Starckers, Wade Hampton and myself, shared a common experience. While we frequented the club at the same time, our lives didn’t intersect until 25 years later at the Sundance Film Festival when a mutual friend introduced us as "two people with a Starck script." After a year of suspicion went by we grew to trust each other and actually came together to make a documentary film, TV Junkie, which was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, premiered on HBO, and was part of the Governor’s Award Winning Addiction Series at the Emmy’s. Wade and I soon realized we shared a passion for bringing the story of the Starck Club and it's influence on Rave Culture and modern Electric Dance Music to a worldwide audience. At first we wrote scripts and then we set out to make a second documentary – the STARCK PROJECT, which we announced at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. We were blessed to bring on co-director Miles Hargrove whose love of music pushed this story to new heights, and award winning producers Melina McKinnon and Dennis Bishop. We have always known we would tell this story through music and that the images on the screen would complement the emotion and story arc created by the music. The question was, which music would most accurately represent the era and the Starckers’ common experiences? Fortunately for us, the music of the time was mostly discovered and brought to us by Sire Records and the incredible talents of Seymour Stein, who not only discovered the hallmark bands of the 80s but also coined the term “New Wave.” When co-producer Tom Huckabee brought Seymour, Andy Paley, and Risa Morley into the film, reality blew far past our original expectation and our budget, thus Kickstarter! Next, we defined the story based on the collective recounts of the Club’s founders, employees, patrons, and competition. Our crews travelled to Europe and across America to shoot over 120 interviews in an effort to establish the essence of the story. The likes of Philippe Starck, New Order’s Peter Hook; Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club’s Chris Frantz; and Book of Love’s Susan and Ted Ottaviano, Paul Oakenfold, Jason Bentley, Edwige Belmore, Tef Foo and DJ Tommy Sunshine are just a few of the amazing characters who have helped weave the story together. Some 17 terabytes of footage later, we are still on the journey to deliver that special place to those who lived it and those who will never get the chance to know a time before cellphones, AIDS and Facebook. A special time when a friend wasn't someone you just liked and followed online, but someone who was bonded to you by experiences and the music you shared forever. We invite you to please visit our Kickstarter campaign at here to learn more about the STARCK PROJECT and the opportunities to join in our labor of love.  My team and I wish you well. Warmest regards, Michael Cain, Producer/DirectorAnd the STARCK PROJECT Team]]> Documentary, New Movie, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Partners, Kickstarter Michael Cain, director, STARCK PROJECT 2012-10-18T20:54:49+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/an-80s-rewind-kickstart-the-starck-project/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/IvBnUmd7xUQ/ Daniel Junge is a filmmaker whose work includes the Oscar-winner “Saving Face,” Oscar-nominee “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner,” Emmy-nominated “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” Toronto-premiere (and Sundance Documentary Fund recipient) “Iron Ladies of Liberia,” and Tribeca award-winner “Chiefs.” He is currently using Kickstarter to raise funds for his new film “Fight Church.” Click here to help the film reach its goal. I've been very fortunate to get my previous films funded through a variety of angles—through ITVS's Open Call, through broadcasters like HBO, through Sundance Documentary Fund and other grants, and through tried and true method of hitting up everyone I know for spare change. For my most recent project, with co-director Bryan Storkel (Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians), we're going the Kickstarter route. It's been an education. First of all, I'm very impressed by Kickstarter and have fellow filmmakers who have used it very successfully. Some people think it's over-saturated now, especially for documentaries, yet there continue to be success stories there. But I've learned some projects are more viable than others. For those projects which tug at the heart strings of a very specific audience, it seems to be a very effective tool. Our film, however, is a little different story. FIGHT CHURCH is about confluence of Christianity and mixed martial arts (including Ultimate Fighting).  It's about churches that espouse MMA and about fighters who are devout Christians. Obviously this cross section is controversial, and the question our film poses is asked very directly by one of our subjects: "Can you love your neighbor as yourself while kneeing him in the face?"  I myself had skepticism about Christian MMA, but when you hang out with a guy like Pastor Paul Burress you can't help but be impressed with his devotion and earnestness. One thing you can say emphatically and without question is that nowhere in the Bible does it outlaw Mixed Martial Arts. Therefore religion is such that everyone has their own interpretation—sometimes a very passionate interpretation of whether or not it encompasses their lifestyle. The people who inhabit this lifestyle, fight, and are devout Christians believe that there are no contradictions there.  I have made a number of films that have faith implications including the murder of a Catholic nun in Brazil (They Killed Sister Dorothy, narrated by Martin Sheen), and I just did a film on acid violence in the Muslim world (Saving Face). In general, when I make these films I immerse myself in them, but they don’t profoundly impact my outlook on the world. We are not intending to be overtly critical of this sub-culture, nor are we intending to support it. Rather, we're giving these passionate people a voice and allowing viewers to come up with their own conclusions. I think the best documentaries come from this "middle way."  But what we've discovered is that this editorial approach is not necessarily what sells when crowd-funding. We're as happy to get contributions from devout Christians and hardcore MMA fans as we are to take money from people who are unabashed critics of one or both of these cultures. But we don't want to skew our film, or our fundraising, to appeal to either of these very dedicated audiences. This leaves us to fish for money from lovers of documentary film—and this is the audience I feel has already "tapped out" (pun intended) on Kickstarter. We're doing OK and with a last big push I think we'll make our goal. But it's been an education, and I hope other filmmakers who are considering this route will consider their film's editorial viewpoint (or lack thereof) and how that affects their ability to get dedicated audiences to fork out money early on. We are currently 50% of the way to our goal and have raised over $15,000. We have just 5 days to go. If you are intrigued by this project and would like to see it finished, you can visit our Kickstarter page to help out. Thank you.]]> Creative Funding, Culture, Documentary, Director, Filmmaker, Independent Film, Independent Filmmaker, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Partners, Kickstarter Daniel Junge 2012-05-30T23:24:57+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/kickstart-fight-church/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/4JYd-eJVLcI/ Destin Daniel Cretton is the writer and director of “I Am Not a Hipster,” which premiered in the NEXT category at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He is using Kickstarter to help raise funds for the film’s release. Click here to help the film reach its goal. At the beginning of last year, Ron Najor (producer) sat me down and said these words (I’m paraphrasing): “I want to make a movie with you. I don’t care if it sucks, I just want to make something.” Im not sure if he realized this at the time, but that statement was the most freeing thing he could have said to me. I felt free to take chances, to try something I haven’t tried before, to write a story without boundaries or fears.  When I started writing, I had no idea it would end up where it did. I initially thought I was just going to tell a fun story about San Diego’s indie music and art scene, a community I fell in love with while living there for 10 years.  My secret reason for writing this script was to have an excuse to work with two of my favorite artists: Dominic Bogart (an actor who never ceases to surprise me both on screen and stage) and Joel P West (a musician whose melodies have inspired me for years). Dominic had his work cut out for him, having to prep for basically every scene in the movie while also learning how to play and sing the five songs he performs (live). And in the end, I honestly have no problem bragging about both the acting and music performances in this movie, because I’m genuinely in love with both, and can’t wait for everyone to have a chance to experience it.  I Am Not A Hipster isn’t just a movie about “hipsterdom” or 20-year-olds trying really hard to be cool. Even though it’s a pretty fun movie, it’s not a spoof or a 90-minute joke. Somewhere along the way, it has become much more than that. It has become a story about a brother remembering how to laugh with his sisters; a son learning to relate to his father; a family struggling to love while grieving; and a young man realizing he can still sing in the midst of sadness. The only reason this story ended up where it is now was because I felt like it was okay to mess-up, and that mentality stayed with us all the way through production. When it came to decisions on photography, music, performance, wardrobe, the constant reminder to everyone involved was, take a chance. It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect, or a complete failure, just try something new and see what happens. So that’s what we all did.  We weren’t trying to make something that would make money, or reach a mass audience, or even play at Sundance. We were only trying to make something. It just so happens, that something premiered at Sundance this January and it was one of the most frightening and amazing experiences of my life. When the first frame of our film popped onto the screen in a sold-out theater in Park City, I literally thought I was going to die. But while listening to the reaction at the credit roll, and talking to people after the screening, I’ve never felt so proud to be a part of a team that decided to take a chance. Since Sundance, we’ve been taking the film to a number of wonderful festivals (Cleveland, Nashville, Philadelphia, North Carolina, Newport Beach, Arkansas, Seattle), where we’ve received some really great responses from audiences. Here’s a little video from a screening we did in San Diego: https://vimeo.com/42324671.  About a month ago, we decided to raise funds to release this film in the same way it was created. So, we launched a Kickstarter campaign (click here) where people can see some clips from the film and our time at Sundance, hear our story and decide whether or not it’s something they’d like to support. As a thank you to those who do support us, we’re offering rewards ranging from a pre-order of the DVD and soundtrack to a private screening and music performance in your home.  Thanks to everyone who supported us already, we’re over half-way to our goal! But we still have a way to go, so if anyone out there finds anything in this blog-post remotely interesting, please check out our campaign and let us know what you think!]]> Comedy, Director, Independent Film, Independent Filmmaker, NEXT, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival 2012, Sundance Movies, Festival, Festival Indexes, Festival Home Page, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Partners, Kickstarter Destin Daniel Cretton 2012-05-30T21:59:20+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/kickstart-i-am-not-a-hipster/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/uOHsFj17SiY/ The Film Collaborative works with Wendy Bernfeld who is both its Advisory Board Member and its EU Digital Distribution partner. In the past, many new media and VOD platforms – whether based on pay-per-transaction (TVOD), subscription (SVOD), free to user/ad supported (ADVOD) or download to own (DTO) -- came and went, to the disillusionment of those brave souls trying to explore and develop the new sector and audiences. Some filmmakers, sales agents, distributors who dared to license were wonderfully pleased with surprisingly good results for particular films (and not always the same ones that were mainstream successes in traditional media), but on balance, let’s face it, most were underwhelmed with the lackluster performance or transience of the various sites, and eventually became jaded about the whole sector. But it’s no longer a viable option just to sit back. Over the past 18 months particularly the digital/VOD sector (including internationally) has finally begun paying off well for filmmakers, producers, distributors, and sales agents… at least for those who are willing to take the time to navigate (alone or partnered with others) the complexities of the sector, play with creative ”windowing’’ while balancing opportunities from traditional media, and accept initially more modest revenues from multiple smaller deals across various platforms and regions (yielding cumulative revenues in a largely non exclusive sector). In addition to traditional media deals and VOD deal potential with IPTV, telecom, and cable offerings, and larger American sites (e.g. Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, iTunes), your film may well find interested audiences and homes on EU/international platforms…even if not picked up in the USA. HOW IS INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL DIFFERENT FROM THAT IN THE USA? The EU (beyond UK) deals with multiple languages, different tastes and appetites, different windows (vs consistent release patterns/dates per country), different platforms to navigate and balance against multiple different traditional media buyers, and, to be honest in general more work for smaller potential revenues from each deal/window. But on the plus side, films can find homes overseas in many markets and windows, even if not ending up in the mainstream or major US/UK platforms. The UK is at the moment probably the more stable and lucrative for English (the VOD market is already very competitive, with large platforms like Netflix, Lovefilm, BSkyB, FilmFlex, iTunes, and Blinkbox) but as soon as you ripple out to EU, digital distribution will take more work and art and generate relatively less money, especially if your film is only in original English language, and not already exposed in terms of promo/PR (theatrical, DVD release in the region etc.). However, there is indeed a growing appetite by now for art house, festival, docs, quality indie films, and foreign language films, if well curated, e.g. around festivals/brands/themes rather than as one-offs. WHO’S OUT THERE in EU and what are some of the key territories where digital is meaningful? Digital is immediately more meaningful in the UK, France, the Nordic region, and in Benelux, where there are already pc/mobile and tech-savvy customers and a willingness to view films in English with subtitles (vs. the dubbed regions of Germany, Spain, Italy etc., where one has to invest more to get the languages to cross over). Although publications often refer to figures noting several hundreds of VOD platforms in Europe, in my view there are only probably 100 or so that are worth talking about when discussing licensing—half of which the main revenue generators, and another half of which are still potentially significant buyers(depending on the film of course) In Europe, as in America, transactional VOD (pay per view) platforms are more established – some regional (per country), and others multi region (e.g. Acetrax, UPC/Chello, Headweb, iTunes, Playstation Network Live, Voddler, Xbox Live). Outside of the UK, one obviously enhances possibilities if addressing customers in their own languages and tailoring content to local preferences such film classification, advertising, and general consumer and cultural tastes. iTunes has only recently (in autumn 2011) begun to expand its footprint into Europe, including in the following EU countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Non-English stores include: Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, and Portugal. They also just recently launched in Brazil / Latin America as well. NETFLIX, Amazon (via Lovefilm), and Hulu are expanding their international footprint too. Netflix, for example, recently launched in UK/Eire, and is anticipated to roll into other regions such as Spain thereafter, and has already extended its occasionally original production commissioning activities to EU (e.g. Denmark – Lillyhammer deal, and more recently France (Gaumont etc) - Hemlock Grove series funding ). Lovefilm already has a presence beyond the UK (in Germany and Nordic), and is anticipated to expand regions. Hulu has not yet launched in EU but did launch already in Japan. As part of its competition rampup (in the US against Netflix in the SVOD market, it has also began commissioning original programming, (Day in the Life – Morgan Spurlock, for example, which was just picked up by Fremantle for distribution thereafter)….and also continues seeking special films or shows to do stunts around. We understand that they are trying to acquire more Spanish rights for the US…an important strategic move for other US players trying to expand their footprint in EU as well. Meanwhile in early 2012 the UK became a hotbed of activity for SVOD, with deals that would formerly have been nonexclusive (with e.g. Netflix, Lovefilm) being now struck on a lucrative exclusive basis, following the example of the competitive SVOD vs. Pay TV market in the US. So what are the other key EU platforms? Trends? Various international platforms are now becoming increasingly interested in licensing more art house, niche and festival films--not just mainstream titles. It is expected that some of the larger brand sites this year (e.g. those in UK like Netflix, Lovefilm, etc.) will expand the indie/art house and festival category further, and also be open to foreign language films (dubbed or subtitled as applicable per country audience as above). Most deals for art house/fest films, where not locally versioned or released in theatres or DVD, are on a non exclusive rev share basis, and in some cases where there is particular acclaim or cast, it can be coupled with a modest upfront, while if on an SVOD basis, flat fee deals apply (similar to non-exclusive Pay TV licensing deal parameters). But in countries where the Pay TV incumbent is competing against a new web player, such as a traditional Pay TV player “vs.” SVOD (like Netflix “vs.” HBO in the US, or Lovefilm/Amazon “vs.” BSkyB in UK), as above, the fees can be more lucrative, in the form of true flat license fees in the Pay TV range. – whether on exclusive or non exclusive basis, and thus matching or exceeding the normal price ranges before the competition. As well, when competition heats up over one category of title, it’s also not unusual to have the competitors round out, extend, or diversify their consumer offer and move into other genres, to try to distinguish themselves from the competition. This is happening in more and more countries-- for example the Netherlands, where HBO /Ziggo just launched in February and the local incumbent, Film1, responded by adding a branded art house/indie thematic channel (Sundance Channel). Key note: Deals are generally non-exclusive and thus if carefully staggered, one can license the film sequentially through various windows (TVOD, SVOD, AVOD, and if applicable, DTO) and in multiple regions. An example: one can first license a current film for transactional VOD (TVOD) on a rev share basis to cable and telecom VOD platforms (like France Telecom/Orange, UPC, etc) as well as (simultaneously) web based players (e.g. iTunes), then to subscription -based windows (premium Pay TV (e.g. HBO, Viasat) and their corresponding “TV Everywhere” offerings, thematic Pay TV, and/or standalone SVOD services . Thereafter, the film can move to other ad-supported services (free to consumer, web based, e.g. YouTube AVOD). This pattern can apply in multiple countries. As mentioned above, there are hundreds of local European platforms —both standalone web-based services and mainstream and/or local telecom and Cable VOD platforms that have online offerings of their own. VIASAT, for example, was historically a premium pay service, but now offers not only conventional Pay TV and ''TV Everywhere'' but also standalone thematic offerings to non-subscribers (SVOD to PC). Similarly, BSkyB just announced the upcoming launch of NOW TV - also aimed at non- subscribers (“Cord Nevers, and/or Cord Cutters”) – a thematic SVOD/low pay offering of films. Opportunities will only increase in 2012 and 2013 as more from USA players, sites, and OTT box offerings beyond Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon gradually cross over to EU/international markets particularly if the new services don’t limit themselves to mainstream offerings and tastes. Getting to the platform: As in the United States, some of the larger platforms (such as LOVEFILM, BlinkBox, Netflix, itunes) only take larger packages of films with a minimum volume, and are unwilling to deal direct with producers and distributors for “one off” deals. Until recently, most of the larger sites also focused mainly on mainstream films. In general, these services steer filmmakers towards conventional distributors, or aggregators/digital distributors like Movie Partnership (UK); but sometimes will accept dealings direct for certain films, or will go via an agent working on a flat fee basis (like Rights Stuff / Film Collaborative). In the latter scenario, the film IP remains in the filmmaker’s/distributor’s name, the money from deals flows to them directly and they get access and paid advice through third party consultants/agents/advisors. Up until now, having had a DVD and/or local theatrical release was quite important for enhancing deals. But increasingly now online sites are willing to handle more innovative windows, e.g. premiering films online, or Day & Date with other windows (or shortly thereafter). Lesser-known or library (catalog) films can usually find a home on a non- exclusive and on ad-supported (AVOD) basis, but more current films usually start with transactional (TVOD) basis and/or subscription platforms (SVOD)… If filmmakers have titles already encoded to the expensive iTunes spec, this can be helpful in wider distribution, but it’s not essential; many digital platforms are now willing to take delivery of indie or art house films even via DVD or a hard drive/ digital master. In terms of deal models, some aggregators (middlemen) take larger %s but then take care of all encoding and delivery fulfillment, while others who are more in an advisory or agent role take a lower share for deal making and platform access but leave you to arrange the encoding separately. In some countries (e.g. Brazil), platforms may not take English versions unless local subtitles or dubs are available, and work with distributors who create versions where necessary. These distributors co-curate packages with filmmakers based on experience of what “moves” best in the region so as not to invest in encoding or language versioning for films that may not generate enough revenue to justify it… A side note regarding subtitling, by the way: Film Collaborative is looking into software that helps facilitate dubbing in the same voice as the actor/speaker, but meanwhile in any case, subtitling for digital is getting less and less expensive and can be done via relatively inexpensive software or labs. If one has shown a film at a film festival in another country and plans to then distribute the film there, we’d recommend you ask the fest for access to the subtitles (if cleared for other distribution). Traditionally, Nordic, Benelux, and some other regions are fine with and prefer subtitles, while others (such as Germany, Spain, and Italy) require dubbing. However, in the higher-educated arthouse/filmfest world, one can often get away with just subtitled versions even in the dubbing countries. As indicated above, for better platform access, one may want to pick or join with new media /digital distribution specialists – particularly if your traditional sales agent or distributor, strong in conventional media (theatrical, video etc.) is however not active or savvy in the VOD landscape above (platforms, deal terms, contacts etc). Otherwise it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy that you then ”don’t make money in digital’’. It’s a balancing act of cost vs. services, and a lot of work in international! And filmmakers, whatever you choose to do with respect to your digital distribution, do not forget that one can also reach the whole wide world via one’s own website(s) and social networking pages by utilizing DIY digital distribution services (for more on this topic please refer to numerous past blog posts about digital distribution and DIY platforms and services at www.TheFilmCollaborative.org/blog and/or the Resource Place at www.TheFilmCollaborative.org/ResourcePlace). As for piracy: in various cases filmmakers can tap into or derive indirect benefit from these online communities. See for e.g. Sheri Candler’s case studies in www.SellingYourFilm.com., Some filmmakers partner with Bit Torrent, Pirate Bay etc to launch their films online, tapping into the audiences already there (e.g. Nasty Old People, The Tunnel). LET’S TALK ABOUT POTENTIAL FUTURE TRENDS: Diversification, Cross Platform/Transmedia: We believe 2012 will see continued consolidation of platforms and fuller diversification within the genres offered. Also as above, some key platforms (such as Hulu, Netflix, Yahoo, Endemol/AOL, Nokia, Canal+, Orange, ARTE, Channel4, ) are now also selectively commissioning transmedia and/or branded film opportunities.(although YouTube has not begun funding outside US yet). New funds and educational bodies (including MEDIA, Power to the Pixel) are increasing the emphasis on digital as a 360 proposition from inception of the film production process. Multi-Layered Business Models: Platforms’ business models are also starting to become more multi-layered to handle different genres, consumer price points, and windows. For example, AVOD platforms such as YOUTUBE and SVOD platforms such as Lovefilm are now adding premium transactional VOD (TVOD) in order to handle current films. And as above, SVOD players are expanding their offerings beyond just library titles, beginning to buy newer and newer films in order to compete against premium PAY TV. This trend is continuing in the newer launching countries, e.g. Holland and Brazil where new PAY TV and localized SVOD and AVOD entrants have launched (e.g. YouTube regional sites). YouTube is also commissioning Made for Web content (MFW), although first in English language countries. Festivals: Some European festivals have also recently started offering select titles on a TVOD basis. Rights Stuff recently worked with IDFA.tv to put around 100 films online—some on an AVOD basis and some on a TVOD basis—and in future more will follow. Certain other festivals (such as IFFR) have also begun to follow the US festival path of offering limited TVOD around or during the festival. This can open many doors for filmmakers, but also requires careful juggling and balancing when figuring out distribution patterns for conventional vs. online and new media….the balancing act is always key. Traditional Players add VOD as well: As to the more traditional PAY TV players, last year after EPIX began licensing international festival documentaries it then turned its focus more to co-productions instead of acquisitions. And over 2011/12,As in the US, many traditional PAY TV platforms are going cross-platform and on multiple devices (a la “TV EVERYWHERE”, and similarly the nonlinear online channels are often seeking multiple device rights and/or at least have an App). Thus balancing traditional PAY TV sale vs. digital media requires more attention in rights grants and windows, but offers more opportunity correspondingly. In terms of trends, it still seems like the bigger funds and platforms are still more focused on more mainstream content, however as above this is starting to expand in EU to a wider net of content and genres. REGIONAL EXAMPLES: VOD LICENSING PLAYERS AND WINDOWS in EU: For bigger indie titles and mainstream ones, there are usually about 5-8 or so VOD outlets that one can target per country. Most of these will buy TVOD rights and sometimes also SVOD and/or AVOD. Platforms include television-related services (IPTV, Telecom/Cable companies, etc), as well as online and/or mobile sites, OTT box offerings, and consumer electronic (e.g. connected TV) portals. For e.g. in Holland, a film or TV show can have various TVOD deals, not only with MSO like KPN, Tele2, Ziggo, and UPC, but also with web based services like Cinemalink.nl (for art house), iTunes, and the newly launched service from theatrical distributor Pathé (a Rights Stuff client), pathethuis.nl a bold move by a traditional theatrical exhibitor to also launch and embrace TVOD for a fuller offer to its film-loving audience base. That would then be then followed by Premium PAY TV and/or SVOD sales (e.g. Film1, Ziggo/HBO, Ximon, Mubi.com), then AVOD (YouTube, IDFA.tv) with various competing players per region. The same film can also attract interest of foreign platforms not yet launched in the region but scaling up behind scenes, poised to launch there (e.g. those seeking to next move after UK into, say, Spain or other Benelux regions/Nordic). And this is on top of the broadcaster based proprietary VOD services (e.g. RTLXL and Veamer (from SBS and public TV catchup sites. There are also various local equivalents of genre sits like Fandor or IndieFlix in certain EU regions. MUBI (www.Mubi.com) (co-owned by the rights holder to one of the most expansive libraries of art house cinema, Celluloid Dreams) is technically available everywhere, and is sometimes syndicated as an SVOD channel to telecom platforms (as in the case with Belgacom in Belgium). It is also on Sony Playstation. Last we checked, 60% of its audience was the US and most of the rest in Europe. Revenues from it for our films (TFC) have been small to-date, low 3-figures but it’s a good pedigree platform and perhaps revenues will increase. A few others in EU include e.g. Orange, Canal Plus, (France and, multi region), Telenet, Belgacom, (in Belgium), SF Anytime, Voddler Film2home, Headweb , Viasat etc in Nordic /other regions), Telefonica, … Maxdome (Germany), Sony-related Qriocity, Daily Motion (many countries in EU), Movieeurope, Zattoo. Sales agent Wild Bunch has also recently launched a platform service called FilmoTV. And as an aside, in Brazil/Latin America, the market has been heating up intensely in late 2011/12, with various TVOD and IPTV platform launches players, as well as competitive new PAY TV and SVOD services (eg Netflix, Netmovies, Terra) springing up or extending VOD. NewPAY TV laws (from fall 2011) are resulting in more potential competition, which is good news for filmmakers seeking new audiences over there. Our recommended approach to filmmakers seeking deals in this region is to partner locally, e.g. with ELO Distribution, with whom we work traditional and non-traditional (new media) players. These are just a few categorical examples…there are plenty more buyers and platforms emerging internationally, including consumer electronics manufacturers (such as Samsung and tablet and connected TV manufacturers in EU and internationally who are getting into the game either on the licensing front or occasionally even funding/commissioning Transmedia or mfw (Made for Web). However, these usually license fuller sites (like a Lovefilm or Snagfilms) and not individual one –off titles. Overall, there are a lot of small markets and platforms, and all this takes a lot of work but if one has built community around a film and awareness then the effort may pay off and add up to a nice revenue stream. Once the first deals are in place with platforms (deal structures, relationships, contacts, contracts) it’s easier to build on that and add new films to the deals with just short amendments or riders, so the effort at the front end makes years of future dealings run smoother. TRENDS RE: OTHER GENRES: Aside from art house, festival indie films, and docs, one area that we expect to see more SVOD licensing around is kids’ films. Various smaller sites also have a strong appetite for gay/lesbian, martial arts, and horror programming, graphic novels, and made for web/cross platform/Transmedia original productions…but one has to be selective. As to documentaries, the combination of a large number of doc sites in the EU with the heavy exposure of docs on public and conventional TV in EU means docs can be relatively harder to monetize here, unless well curated and packaged, for e.g. under a larger brand/festival, like IDFA. WINDOWING: Typically films follow the sequential windowing described above when moving through the Transactional, Sell Through, Subscription, and ADVOD windows. But for certain films it it can be clever and compelling to have windows intentionally reversed or out of sequence. For example, premiering a film ONLINE or day-and-date with another cross-promoted window ahead of theatrical, and heavily emphasizing social media marketing can allow producers to build (and engage with) the audience before the film is even out. The key is to know your audience and try to tailor the marketing and distribution patterns accordingly…producers can be more active these days to heighten the chances of film success. More and more platforms are open to this REVERSE WINDOWING (which began successfully in the US, e.g. with Lars von Trier’s Melancholia), . For example, in Holland, the film Claustrophobia launched online first and its success via social networking ultimately brought it a theatrical deal. In another case, Submarine NL’s film ‘’Molotov Alva’’ (a second life documentary released online virally first) later secured a HBO sale on premium pay tv, and in another film we worked with (the documentary Surfing and Sharks), intensive social network/audience engagement before and during the film’s festival exhibitions helped not only to enhance the potential audience for the film ahead of commercial released, but also to attract wider sponsor support. Ultimately, the visible online appetite for the film (including the number of Twitter and Facebook followers amassed in a very short time) helped result in a stronger all-rights distribution deal as well. There are various new platforms focused on these models that are launching and expanding reach in EU– e.g. EU1 (The Makers Channel), which just launched in the Netherlands and will soon expand to other EU regions. One part of the site is business-to-business (geared towards talent, directors, actors, producers, etc.) providing for online pitches and related crowd sourcing and crowd funding (like Kickstarter). The other component is business to consumer, and allows exhibition of works online, on a rev share VOD basis… which will be coupled for the first time with TVOD exhibitions on UPC/Chello/Ziggo (the Cable TV VOD platform partners) thus giving much wider audience reach than conventional web VOD to PC. In some cases films can also combine a theatrical (conventional or event theatrical local) release for the films “day and date” with or in staggered creative windows. We are working with two English film cases in NL already, and as this site expands to other regions and to wider English crossover, this will open up many more opportunities (in some ways similar to what you see already in the USA on Tribeca/Sundance with exhibitions on cable households (TVOD). SHOW ME THE MONEY: Even where indie features have no theatrical or DVD release, if there is some cast and acclaim from festivals, and the film is new/current, TVOD is possible . This is usually on a rev share basis (with %s ranging from 50-50 to 70-30, with various deductions to negotiate). In SVOD/PAY TV, flat fees are normally paid instead of rev share, usually, along lines of comparable non-exclusive PAY TV license fees for indies. For example, in medium sized, non-English language EU countries, we’ve seen SVOD flat fee prices range from 5K-50K per title where it’s been theatrically or DVD released, etc, while with less exposure or more niche, sometimes the flat fees can be lower and more aligned with AVOD. In AVOD, deals are usually rev-share, (50-50 to 70-30) with sometimes a small upfront fee. In a medium-sized EU region, MG’s (Minimum Guarantees), when given at all for indie film, can range from a few hundred dollars (plus rev share) to 1-2K for higher end material. The very largest platforms may get away with no upfront fees at all due to their scale and reach, but smaller EU sites may well, depending on the film, offer something modest. When you do multiple nonexclusive deals, these can add up and help defray some costs of versioning, digitization, deliveries, etc. As to revenues generated from VOD once the license is done: again it is platform and film specific, and one cannot generalize. We’ve seen certain cases where niche foreign language art house films yielded 40K in 2 months of non-exclusive TVOD revenues across a few platforms, , while other titles from the same distributor yielded only 1-2K in the same deals/time period. Things are similar with SVOD – fees can range in one small non-English EU country from 5k to 40k for a single SVOD window license fee (non exclusive) – so the key is still in our view still to engage in a reasonable number of deals in each country across various windows, platforms and business models. IN SUM: SOME TIPS FOR GOOD RESULTS IN DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION: We strongly advise building audience for the film before release, even while the film is still being made. Engage in social media marketing around the themes of your film and the cast: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (promos) etc. This not only enhances the audience and reach of your film, when it is released, but potentially your distribution and/or digital deal making as well. Once a deal is done and even after the film is sold, it still helps for the producer or distributor to take an active role in social media marketing, e.g. to direct attention (via social media etc.) to scheduled exhibitions of the films on various platforms licensed. Many platforms in EU are still showing viewers EPG’s with clumsy alphabetical “listings’’(as opposed to the type of creative Netflix/Lovefilm recommendation engines and suggestions), so helping viewers find the film will in turn increase returns. As for digital deals: We’d also recommend that individual producers who cannot afford tailored individual advice consider combining forces via producer groups to collectively fund some serious upfront advice – help each other curate more attractive packages of their better material, so easier to sell on to platforms directly or indirectly – and grouped in many different ways (theme, genre, category, audience etc.). If necessary, try to have “split rights’’ deals. If the person to whom you are entrusting the film in an “all rights” deal is less strong in digital and likely to “sit on” new media rights, you can explore splitting these rights /sharing them non exclusively with the distributor and another specialized digital distributor, case by case. Rights Stuff has often done this working with sales agents and distributors and producers directly to maximize digital distribution. Work with festivals (both traditional and online), who can play an increasing role in EU as they cross over to the digital space and VOD offerings. But be careful about the scope and duration of rights granted vs. other traditional and digital media, to maximize potential in all areas. Don’t abdicate completely, ie don’t’wash your hands of the film once you put it in someone else’s hands (the conventional sales approach) – keep involved along the way, gain as much learning as possible, split revenues, resources, knowledge base, contacts … and lever the outcomes to your next and future films. Final notes: Pricing of films on the transactional side is relatively commensurate with that in the US, however non USA SVOD and AVOD markets are smaller with lower revenue per deal. . We did not include VIEWSTER in this article but feel free to check them out. They are a consumer-facing platform that also supplies other platforms (i.e. functions like an aggregator). They seem to favor films with cast, more commercial films and those with a bigger profile. www.Viewster.com This content appears courtesy of The Film Collaborative / Orly Ravid, Editorial Consultant]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Distribution Wendy Bernfeld, Managing Director of Rights Stuff and The Film Collaborative’s EU Digital Distribution Partner 2012-04-24T04:56:35+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/brave-new-world-digital-distribution-beyond-the-old-world/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/jXCRQr3XCXM/ 1.  CARVE OUT DIY DIGITAL: Distributors and Foreign Sales companies alike often want ALL RIGHTS and including ALL DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS. No matter what, at least CARVE OUT the ability to do DIY Digital Distribution yourself with services such as: EggUp, Distrify, Dynamo Player, and/or TopSpin, off your own site, off your Facebook page, and also directly to platforms.  Platforms and services can almost always Geo-Filter thereby eliminating conflict with any territories where the film has been sold to a traditional distributor and often times a distributor will not mind that a filmmaker sells directly to his/her fans as well in any case. 2.   PLATFORMS ≠ AGGREGATORS ≠ DISTRIBUTORS: Platforms are places people go to watch or buy films. Aggregators are conduits between filmmakers/distributors and platforms. Aggregators usually focus more on converting files for and supplying metadata to platforms and that's about it.  Marketing is rarely a strong suit or focus for them but it should be for a distributor, otherwise what's the point? Aggregators usually don't need rights for a long term and only take limited rights they need to do the job.  Distributors usually take more rights for longer terms.  Sometimes distributors are DIRECT to PLATFORMS and sometimes they go through AGGREGATORS.  It makes a difference because FEES are taken out every time there is a middleman.  Filmmakers should want to know the FEE that the PLATFORM is taking (because it's not always the same for all content providers though usually it is other than for Cable VOD, for example) and know if a distributor is direct with platforms or goes through an aggregator.  Also, filmmakers should have an understanding what each middleman is doing to justify the fee.  On the aggregator/distributor side, we think 15% is a better fee than 50%, so have an understanding of what services are included in the fee. If a distributor is not devoting any time or money to marketing and simply dumping films onto platforms, then one should be aware of that. Ask for a description in writing of what activities will be performed. Companies such as #SAS partner New Video (worked on our case studies Bass Ackwards and Note by Note) function well as both a distributor and an aggregator. 3. THINK OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS AS STORES AND CUSTOMIZE A PLAN THAT IS RIGHT FOR YOUR FILM: A film should try to be available everywhere however sometimes that is too costly or not possible and when that is the case one should prioritize according to where the film’s audience consumes media. Think of digital platforms as retail stores. Back in the DVD days (which are almost gone), one would want a DVD of an indie film in big US chains such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video but especially a cool, award winning indie would do well in a 20/20 or Kim's Video store because those outlets were targeting a core audience. With digital, it's the same. While many filmmakers want to see their films on Cable VOD, some films just don’t work well there and delivery is expensive. Some films make most of their money via Netflix these days and won't do a lick of business on Comcast.  Other films do well on iTunes and some die there whereas they might actually bring in some business via Hulu or SNAG. Docs are different from narrative and niches vary. Know your film, its audience's habits and resolve a digital strategy that makes sense. If money or access is an issue, then be strategic in picking your “stores” and make your film available where it's most likely to perform. It may not be in Walmart's digital store or Best Buy's. Above all, if you dear filmmaker have a community around you (followers, a brand), your site(s) and networks may be your best platform stores of all.  Though there is something to be said for viewing habits so I do recommend always picking at least a couple other key digital storefronts that are known and trusted by your audience.  4. TIP FOR CABLE VOD LISTINGS: By now many of you may have heard that it's hard to get films marketed well on Cable VOD platforms. Often the metadata either isn’t entered or entered incorrectly and it's nearly impossible to fix after it goes live. Hence, oversee the metatags submitted for your film and check immediately upon release. Also, since genre/category folders and trailer promotion are not always an option for every film, it is the case that films with names starting in early letters of the alphabet (A-G) or numbers can perform better. Then again, there's a glut of folks trying that now so the cable operators are getting wise to this and not falling for it. All the more reason to focus on marketing, marketing, marketing your title, so audiences are looking for it and not just stumbling upon your film in the VOD menu. There are only going to be more films to choose from in the future, not fewer. 5. ART for SMALL: Filmmakers, if there is one thing I must impart to you once and for all it's this:  TAKE GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY!!!  Take it when making your film. Remember, most marketing imagery if not all for digital distribution (which will be all of "home entertainment") must work SMALL so create key art and publicity images that also work well small and in concert with the rest of your campaign. Look at your key art as a thumbnail image and make sure it is still clearly identifiable. 6. KNOW YOUR DIGITAL DISTRO GOALS AND PLAN AHEAD: I have seen distribution plans wasted because a vision for the film's path was not resolved in time to actualize it properly. If your film is ripe for NGO or corporate sponsorship and you want to try that, you will need loads of lead time (6 months at least!) and a clear distribution plan to present to potential sponsors (who will always need to know that before agreeing).  If making money is a top concern, then know how YOUR FILM’s release is mostly likely to do that and plan accordingly. It may be by collapsing windows or it may be by expanding them. All films are different and that's why it’s best to look at case studies of films with similar appeal to yours. And if showing the industry that your film is on iTunes matters to you for professional reasons more than financial then know that is your motivator but know that getting a film onto iTunes does not automatically lead to transactions, marketing does. 7. TIMING IS EVERYTHING | WINDOW WATCHING: Digital distribution often has to be done in a certain order if accessing Cable VOD is part of your plan. That is not the only reason to consider an order and an order is not always needed, but it can be a consideration.  Sometimes Cable VOD is not an option for a film (films often need a strong theatrical run before they can access Cable VOD) and, in this case, the order of digital is more flexible and one can be creative or experiment with timing and different types of digital. However, Cable VOD's percentage share of digital distribution revenues is still around 70% (it used to be nearer to 80%) so if it's an option for your film, it's worth doing, at least for now. It is very often the case that if your film is in the digital distribution window before Cable VOD (on Netflix for example), that will eliminate or at least dramatically diminish the potential that Cable MSO's (Multi System Operators) will take the film or even that an intermediate aggregator will accept it.  There is more flexibility with transactional EST (electronic sell through) / DTO (download to own) / DTR (download to rent) services such as iTunes but much less flexibility with YouTube (even a rental channel) or subscription or ad-supported services such as Netflix (subscription) or Hulu (which is both). Films that opted to be part of the YouTube/Sundance rental channel initiative (such as Children of Invention) could not get onto Cable VOD after. The Film Collaborative has to hold off on putting films in its YouTube Rental Channel if cable VOD is part of the plan.  Of course, there are exceptions to every rule due to relationships or a film proving itself in the marketplace, but better to plan ahead than be disappointed. Companies such as Gravitas are also programmers for some of the MSOs so they have greater access to VOD, but they too discourage YouTube rental channel distribution before the Cable VOD window and they do Netflix SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand), distribution after. In general, people often do transactional platforms first and ad-supported last with Netflix being in the middle unless it's delayed because of a TV deal for example. This is not always the case and some distributors have experienced that one platform can drive sales on another but in my opinion it depends on the film and habits of its audience.  You should know that Broadcasters such as Showtime will pay more if you do your Netflix SVOD after their window rather than before. WINDOW WATCHING: If you for example stream or distribute digitally before Cable VOD for example you will often lose that opportunity so timing is key.  And of course festivals will often not program a film if it’s available digital or at all commercially.  For documentaries one has to be mindful about the EDUCATIONAL window (though this usually most relates to DVD).  Broadcast and SVOD are competitive with each other so compare options in terms of fees and timing for best distribution results and maximum benefits.  Sometimes VOD is best BEFORE theatrical (it’s called Reverse Windowing and Magnolia does that for example, sometimes).  Sometimes Ad Supported VOD (AVOD or FOD (free VOD)) (e.g. regular HULU) or Broadcast airings are seen as useful for maximum awareness, relatively significantly revenue generating, and/or good for driving transactional VOD.  Whereas sometimes AVOD or FOD is seen as cannibalizing business and is delayed.  So again, know your strategy based on both your audience / consumer and your goals. 8. THE DEVIL IS IN THE DEFINITIONS DEVIL IS IN THE DEFINITION: Remember that the term VOD means or includes different things to different users.  The terms in the space are becoming more customary but they are not fully standardized so be sure to have ALL terms related to digital rights DEFINED.  And the space keeps changing so be sure to stay current. There is no standard yet for definitions of digital rights. IFTA (formerly known as AFMA) has its rights definitions and for that organization’s signatories there is therefore a standard. But many distributors use their own contracts with a range of definitions that are not uniform. When analyzing distribution options, be aware that terms such as VOD can mean different things to different people and include more or fewer distribution rights and govern more or fewer platforms. Consider the term “VOD”. In some contracts, it’s not explicitly defined and hence can mean anything and everything. IFTA is clear to categorize it as a PayPerView Right (Demand View Right) and limit it to: “transmission by means of encoded signal for television reception in homes and similar living spaces where a charge is made to the viewer for the rights to use a decoding device to view the Motion Picture at a time selected by the viewer for each viewing”. However in some contracts, it’s defined as “Video-on-Demand Rights,” meaning a function or service distributed and/or made available to a viewer by any and all means of transmission, telecommunication, and/or network system(s) whether now known or hereafter devised (including, without limitation, television, cable, satellite, wire, fiber, radio communication signal, internet, intranet, or other means of electronic delivery and whether employing analogue and/or digital technologies and whether encrypted or encoded) whereby the viewer is using information storage, retrieval and management techniques capable of accessing, selecting, downloading (whether temporarily or permanently) and viewing programming whether on a per program/movie basis or as a package of programs/movies) at a time selected by the viewer, in his/her discretion whether or not the transmission is scheduled by the operator(s)/provider(s), and whether or not a fee is paid by the viewer for such function/service to view on the screen of a television receiver, computer, handheld device or other receiving device (fixed or mobile) of any type whether now known or hereafter devised. Video-on-Demand includes without limitation Near VOD (“NVOD”,) Subscription Video-on-Demand (“SVOD”,) “Download to burn”, “Download to Own”, “Electronic Sell Through” and “Electronic Rental,” for example.  This example includes everything and your kitchen sink. One has to ask if a definition of VOD or another type of digital right includes “SVOD” (Subscription Video on Demand) and includes subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus. Why does this matter? Well if the fee to the distributor and/or to you is the same either way then it may not matter. If there’s a difference in fees depending on the nature of distribution, then it will.  Recently an issue in a deal came up with respect to distinguishing ad-supported specifically from general “free-streaming”.  Is ad-supported governed by a “free-streaming” rights reference?  Why wonder, Just spell it all out; better to be safe than _____. Another example, if a contract notes a distributor has purchased “VOD Rights” but does not define them, or defines them broadly, then do they have mobile device distribution rights as well? The words “Video-on-Demand” sometimes are used only to refer to Cable Video on Demand and other times much more generally. In a “TV Everywhere” (and hence film everywhere) multi-platform all-device playable universe, the content creator needs to know. The devil is in the definition which you must read carefully BEFORE you sign on the dotted line.  Know what you want for and can do for your film in terms of distribution and carve it up and spell it out. 9. PLAN FOR FUTURE: Digital distribution in Europe is not as mature as it is in the US but it’s growing.  The key platforms and categories of VOD now may not be key down the road.  Again, do deals wisely and plan for the future.  One way may be to set revenue thresholds for contract terms to continue.  Or allow for terms to be reviewable and adjustable into the Term. 10. IF YOU CANNOT MAKE PIRACY YOUR FRIEND by lets say monetizing it or using it to drive awareness… then think about shortening the time between your release windows and when you first start handing out DVDs and getting a lot of buzz for your film. Many folks would happy consume your film legitimately if given the opportunity in time.  Some piracy cannot be helped and can either be monetized or just enjoyed.  There are anti-piracy services one can employ as well.  In my experience, DVD is a bigger source of piracy than digital. 11. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS / OTHER WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF IN A DEAL: Before giving rights away for longer periods of time think about the future.  For example, the category of DTR (download-to-rent) is growing as is SVOD (Subscription VOD).  So you will want to make sure your splits are strong in your favor, especially for growing categories, and Cable VOD and transactional DTO (download-to-own) or EST (electronic sell through) are strong too and btw, some of these terms include each other.  Instead of merely focusing on rights classes even within the category of VOD one may also want to address gross revenues so that one can get an appropriate share of revenues at certain gross revenue thresholds.  You may want to have terms of a deal be reviewable for contracts with a longer Term.]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Distribution Orly Ravid, The Film Collaborative 2012-04-16T04:54:31+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/tips-for-navigating-digital-distribution/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/pP8QpNPsQtA/ As indie filmmakers, we often don't have millions of marketing dollars (or any at all) to spend on turning our films' titles into household names.  Getting "organically" ranked highly by Google and other leading search engines is the single most cost-effective way to created a sustained marketing presence for your film. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is akin to a dark art that every savvy website owner undertakes in an effort to get their site(s) ranked highly by Google, and to a lesser extent Bing and Yahoo.  To be put in the top five most highly-ranked sites in a given category is the Holy Grail of SEO.  Appearing "above the fold" before a Google user needs to scroll down to see more results gives the website a nearly priceless stamp of approval by Google's secret algorithms and is worth hundreds if not thousands of times more than any kind of paid internet marketing, hence the steady stream of spam emails we all receive from SEO "gurus" promising to get you more highly-ranked for a big time fee.  At the end of this article I'll give you some great resources to get started on your own.  Note: While it's not our full-time gig, my company would also consider choice projects for SEO analysis on a limited case-by-case basis. Most of what we've learned here at our indie film production and distribution outfit has been through hours and hours of internet research as well as even more hours spent trying different strategies on our own bevy of sites across our One World Studios Ltd. brands.  That said, any SEO expert worth their salt will tell you that Google is constantly tweaking their ranking algorithms and introducing varied ways for sites to be tracked and ranked so what works one day may not work forever, thus making SEO truly a dark art!  The following basic tenets have worked for us however, so let's begin. To start with: Your domain name is the number one thing Google looks at when it starts to judge your worthiness and appropriately index your site.  Many films use their title with "movie" or "-movie" after it so Google knows that it's a film.  You can get more creative if you like however if you think that people may search for your film with different words than the film's title or if you have some kind of catchy phrase associated with your film that is more memorable than the title by itself.  I'll be using our sites as guinea pigs today so let's start with our new Ouija movie, I Am ZoZo; a feature that we shot entirely on Super 8mm.  For this film we registered the domain www.iamzozomovie.com and for our previous motorcycle movies a couple of our highly-ranking sites are www.choppertown.net and www.choppertown.com. Now that you have a site to work with it's important to set up Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools so you can be indexed properly and you can see how your traffic is reaching you, etc. allowing you to make changes and tweaks over time.  Also, make sure you have an updated sitemap.xml file in your site's root folder, this is very important to be indexed by Google.  A sitemap essentially gives Google's "spiders" and "bots" an instant and cursory understanding of how all the various pages of your site are interlinked with one another so that it can place you in the proper category quickly and efficiently.  Use this site to generate a sitemap now.  Here's ours for iamzozomovie.com. Now that we've prepped our site, let's get our hands dirty: When building/rebuilding your site it's important to take stock of what you have and what you want.  Take a step back and determine what your site is for; does it sell something like a DVD or book?  Does it provide information to other people?  Is it exclusively for promotion of your film?  Once you've determined that, sit down and start making a list of various search terms and keywords that you'd like to be found under in Google.  (Use the Google Analytics tab "Traffic Sources" to see how people are currently actually finding you.) Remember, it's relatively easy to get highly ranked for the title of your film or brand if it's original or novel, but the real key for the indie filmmaker is to get ranked highly for words more general than your film's title. From Choppertown.com's analytics showing how the site was most recently found: Another example: I Am ZoZo is about a Ouija board possession and it was shot entirely on Super 8mm so we have several interesting "hooks" and terms that we feel we'd like to be found under.  By signing up for AdWords (optional) and using Google's Keyword Tool, we can see how many times some of our various ideas for keywords are actually being searched and also what kind of competition exists for advertising under those keywords.  Hint: More general words may seem to be more desirable and they're certainly more costly for advertising, but they aren't always better for your site because the traffic you generate may not be "qualified traffic".  Just getting tons of people to look at your site doesn't mean as much as getting tons of people who really like your content to visit your site.* So in this example I searched for the most general term I could think of "Ouija" and luckily, it's not very competitive, but reasonably popular.  Now do this for each site you own and each individual page of each site.  Write down all your favorite terms that apply to each page of content you have and get ready to apply them to your site. If you get one useful tip from this article it's this: Google likes it when each page of a site has proper indicators as to the specific nature of the page's content and content that matches those indicators. Now let's see how it's done: We now have a list of various keywords for our main index (Home) page ranging from general to specific such as: Ouija, Ouija boards, the Ouija, and La Ouija (never would have guessed this one), Ouija game, and down the line.  Also since it's a film, we want to add in words like: movie, movies, videos, media, caught on tape, real stories, etc.  That's just the Home page, we now go through each page of our site and try to think of different, but still related, words that we want each page to highlight. In the example of I Am ZoZo, we shot the entire film on Super 8mm, which is quite different (yes, some have even called it crazy.)  Google loves unique content because usually readers do too, so I've set up a page focusing on the production aspects of our film that don't relate to the story of the film, but rather the fascinating experience of shooting on film in general and on Super 8mm in particular.  Our story is based on true Ouija tales we collected over the years so this becomes another unique page and so forth.  Remember, the idea is to show Google that your site has both interesting and unique content that really relates to what it claims to be about.  Note: Some SEO scam artists make fake pages on your site that are filled with just keywords and little or no original content.  Beware these scams because if the Google bots discover it they can ban your URL permanently! Now that you have the basic layout of your site and what each main page is going to be about, get down to writing content that uses the keywords you chose to focus on.  Google loves text, so feel free to write lots of appropriate and useful information for your readers.  As always, "content is king".  This is tricky because A) writing isn't easy...and B) just because Google loves tons of text, your site still needs to function well in regards to UI (User Interface).  In layman's terms; your site needs to be good for the visitors, not just Google bots.  The combination of the technical and creative has always fascinated me, so I enjoy working this piece of the puzzle on my own sites.  It definitely takes practice, with constant updating and critiquing from friends and colleagues to find the effective mix that makes both your readers and Google happy.  Hint: Also give credence to paragraph headings and section headings within each page because Google looks at them to further index the context of the content on your site. Examples of keyword usage above the fold on the I Am ZoZo website: More technical details: Anchored keywords (Anchor Links) and hot-linked words are also important ways to indicate to the "bots" that certain content on your site is more important and to be focused on for indexing.  (This is also an important part of your Social Marketing strategy which may be the topic of a future article since it needs its own focus and attention.)  The gist is this; if you have a page on your site, either a top-level page or deeper level pages, you can and should occasionally make a link in your text to those pages if they relate directly to the content.  For example, on the front page of our website relating to our first motorcycle movie "Choppertown: the Sinners", you can see lots of text and anchored links leading off to other sites we own as well as deeper into the Choppertown.net site itself. *I know you're saying, "Dude, that site looks so ten years ago!"  True, the format might be due for an update, but Google LOVES this site because the information is accurate and text-based so we use it to help pull up our other motorcycle movie-related websites and social network.  Note: Google loves older sites and this one has been around since 2004, so if you give the SEO treatment to an older site you can expect bigger gains.  Also note all the targeted keywords used on this page such as: Motorcycle Movies, documentary, custom bikes, motorcycle videos, etc. Digging Deeper: Now that we've tried to fill our site with compelling, well-written, smartly-keyworded information it's time to go behind the scenes and make some more improvements that Google demands. You need to make sure each page's "title" is descriptive and full of your most important keywords.  The title is what appears in your browser, way at the top above everything else in the grey area.  Google looks at this as much as anything else!  (Remember it then matches that info against what it perceives to be the actual content of the site, so again SEO spammers beware.)  The title for Choppertown.net reads: Choppertown: the Sinners - a custom motorcycle movie on DVD about biker culture featuring Kutty Noteboom, Jason Jessee, James Intveld, Rico Fodrey, and Cole Foster. Notice it has our most important keywords first.  It's a bit longer than Google normally likes (15-20 words) but close enough.  We wanted to put in the names of some of the more well-known personalities from our film so anyone Googling them will also find the film. From IAmZoZomovie.com: I Am ZoZo is based on a real Ouija board experience gone wrong - ZoZo is a real Ouija spirit. He is pure EVIL. This Ouija movie was shot entirely on Super8 mm. Remember, do this for EVERY page on your site.  Blogs and other template-based site programs have spots for you to enter this information, usually right at the top.  Hint: On blogs your post's titles are already used for this, so plan your blog posting titles accordingly! Note about menus headings: As with Anchor Links, the words you use for your Menu Headings are important as well because Google looks for certain "standard" words that it can index quickly.  For instance: Home, About, Contact, Store, and Blog are very common.  Both from a user perspective and Google perspective try not to monkey around with these too much.  However, where a lot of people fall short in terms of SEO is they leave the menu name as the title of the page.  This is the case if you look at the grey bar at the top and you just see "Contact"  or "About".  This tells Google no specific information about the page and is a wasted opportunity for SEO. Digging even DEEPER: Visit a website you like - or even your competitors' sites - and then select "Get Info" from the menu bar (⌘-I on a Mac, Control-I on a PC.)  The little window that pops up has all sorts of useful information. At the very top is the title as we discussed.  Below that is "description" and "keywords" or "tags".  There are places to enter this info on each blog post or web page you make.  Again, they should be DIFFERENT for each page/post and APPLICABLE to their associated page.  Try to put in keywords for each page that you really want to stress to Google are important.  The description is also indexed and important for all the above reasons, but it serves a very important marketing purpose as well; it's the sentence or two that you see when you do a search on Google!  So it's important to make this BOTH Google friendly and reader friendly so that the reader will actually CLICK your site's link after they find it.  (Yes, Google does consider POPULARITY in its ranking algorithms.) Yes, it's a Popularity Contest: Google also adds into its algorithm the amount of traffic that goes to your site and where it's coming from. HUGE WARNING: Those SEO spammers that have been emailing you often mention "link-building" and the like.  Stay away from them unless you have already vetted the company because many of them create link farms of random junk websites just to provide you with thousands of inbound links.  When Google's bots realize this they PENALIZE YOUR SITE.  Getting quality inbound links takes time and effort and some companies are willing to help you for a fee, but honestly you are your own best judge from what other sites in your space you would like to get inbound links.  Any time the New York Times or IMDB or Hopeforfilm writes an article and links to your site (hopefully with Anchor Text) Google perks up its ears and moves you up its rankings because it already deems those sources as worthy.  Hint: A good technique is offering original articles to various blogs you like in exchange for cross-linking each other's content.  If your site is still small and the other is huge it may be a bit of a Catch-22, but we all know the indie film business is about jumping hurdles as we come to them!  If your article is interesting, the bigger blog might just reprint it and link back to you. More Technical Details - A great technique not for the faint of heart: (Before trying this technique BACK UP YOUR SITE.  Really!) Every page of every website in the world is actually a file document (similar to a Word or Excel document that ends in .doc or .xls, web documents often end with .html)  Instead of your written content only, each web page file also contains lines of code that tell a web browser how to present it to the end user on a computer screen, tablet, or cell phone, etc.  The actual File Name of the page file is a big determiner when Google scans your page.  For instance, you design an "about" page and fill it with all sorts of useful information about your film, then you go in and add all the other details we've discussed such a s a descriptive title, keywords, etc.  Don't just save it as "about " even though your page's menu has an "about" button leading to this page.  Instead call it for example, "best-your movie's subject-movie" or the like.  As long as the file name is still somewhat related to your actual content Google will love it.  On our film's site the "about" section's page is called best-motorcycle-movie.html. A word on Page Speed: Recently Google made it public that they also factor in your page's loading speed when determining rank.  This is a new development and in response to both the increased use of cell phones and tablets for internet browsing as well as the ever shrinking bandwidth of the internet "pipes" as more and more sites and users get online.   There's a million ways to make your site load faster and many of them require some technical knowledge to fix, but a good place to start is by running your site through http://gtmetrix.com and researching the errors it comes up with.  After reading Google's announcement about speed and rankings, we put all our sites through the test and found lots of little problems that needed fixing.  We went from a 69% "D" rating to an 86% "B" after addressing some of the simpler issues.  That's the thing about SEO, it requires constant vigilance and tweaking! A picture is worth a thousand...and a video is worth a million: It's important to address the images and videos that are a mandatory component of any filmmaker's site.  Remember Google has separate search sections for both images and videos and you want to be found there as well! First, it's important to make sure that all images have been properly "optimized" for web use either through Photoshop or a cool Wordpress plugin like "smush.it" so that they will be small in size and load very quickly.  Make sure each image's file name is SEO friendly by naming it something descriptive like "I Am ZoZo-keyart"  or "Choppertown-motorcycle-DVD" and make sure you add all requested metadata when you upload it.  Usually your design program has places for you to input this data such as "description", "caption", and "tags".  Fill out everything to give Google more to chew on! The same goes for video.  I recommend uploading your clips and trailers to YouTube and then embedding that onto your site (I know Vimeo looks better) but let's face it, you want YouTube is Big Daddy when it comes to sharing video and you want every click to count!  (Also Google owns YouTube so it tends to offer up those videos first in search for better or worse.) SEO and getting clicks for your video is probably its own article too, but many of the same steps apply; how you name your video is key so call it something that has the keywords for how you want to be indexed.  Don't just call it "I Am ZoZo Trailer"...call it "I Am ZoZo Trailer (the Ouija movie based on real experience gone wrong)".  Fill out a good description for it (with a link back to your own site of course!) and put in lots of appropriate tags. Last Step: Every time you change anything on your site, make sure you update your sitemap.xml file and then resubmit it to Google!  This lets Google know that your site is active and attempting to provide current information to readers. To Sum it All Up: Choose a useful domain name Register for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Check that you have a sitemap.xml file and make one if you don't already have it Make a list of keywords Write great content with Anchor Links Make sure all your site's page titles are appropriate, short, and descriptive Add your metadata such as descriptions and tags Get inbound links from qualified sources Check your pages' file names (optional) Optimize your pages for speed Do SEO on all your images and videos Update your sitemap The Proof is in the Pudding: So after all that work, here's the results... Not one, but three of our sites are listed on the front page of Google under the coveted and targeted term "motorcycle movie". ...And we've even made it to the front page for "Ouija movie" as well.  Note: We were ranked even higher until yesterday when Universal announced that it is going into production on a low-budget Ouija movie of its own.  Like I said, it's a constant battle but honestly I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks as always to our supporters who help us keep the dream alive. Stay independent. Resources: Top-ten SEO Blogs as listed in the article "Top 25 SEO Blogs" by Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips. Search Engine Land SEOBook SEO Moz Matt Cutts Search Engine Watch Search Engine Roundtable Search Engine Journal Online Marketing Blog Pronet Advertising Marketing Pilgrim Special thanks to: Allen Chou of indie distributor Passion River Films who first mentioned the word SEO to me back in 2006 and Eric Leuenberger of Zen Cart Optimization who gave me lots of great SEO advice around the same time. ...and of course Orly Ravid's Film Collaborative, a fantastic indie film resource. About One World Studios Ltd: One World’s first feature documentary "Choppertown: the Sinners" focused on a renowned group of California bikers known as the Sinners.  Produced in 2004 with a stack of credit cards, this award-winning documentary heralded a return to the values of a simpler time and spawned a worldwide cult following culminating in a seventeen-country European theatrical tour sponsored by Dickies.  After selling 20,000 Choppertown DVDs out of an apartment in West LA, One World principals Zack Coffman and Scott Di Lalla were able to quit their part-time jobs, making and distributing films full time since 2005.  "I Am ZoZo", the award-winning Ouija movie shot entirely on Super 8mm, is their sixth feature and first narrative. About Zack Coffman: Hometown: Dundee, NY  Education: UCLA (World Arts & Cultures), Yonsei University Korean Language Institute.  Resided in Seoul, Korea from 1992-2000.  Professional highlights: Head of Acquisitions, HMJ Films (Korea.)  Asian correspondent, Variety.  Line-producer and location manager for several Korean films including Korean/Philippine co-production Weekend Warriors.  Translator, Korean International Trade Association.  Co-founder and President of independent film company One World Studios Ltd.; a feature film production and distribution corporation in Los Angeles. Contact/Follow Zack Coffman: Facebook, Twitter, zack@choppertown.com This content appears courtesy of The Film Collaborative / Orly Ravid, Editorial Consultant]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Marketing Zack Coffman 2012-04-09T19:56:35+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/seo-lifeblood-of-the-indie-filmmaker/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/Lf9nmhtkwCo/ Sheri Candler, social network marketing guru/strategist can be contacted at info@shericandler.com or sheri@thefilmcollaborative.org and found at SheriCandler.com To start with, I’d like to say that filmmakers should focus on the word social and less on the word marketing. This type of promotion is about relationship building and it is really difficult to build a relationship that starts from the premise that you are only there to sell something. Also, I take the position that all artists should be connecting directly with an audience not on a project-by-project basis, but on a personal one. Instead of starting over again for each project that is incredibly wasteful of time and money, you strive to keep building up the audience base for all of your work, really for you as an artist with a unique vision and a unique voice. No one else can tell the story the way you can. We all sell every day, we sell a concept of ourselves in how we speak to people, how we present ourselves and I think we inherently understand this. But before I want to do business with someone, I want to know I can trust them, and that I am not being used. I think many corporations still don’t get that about this medium yet. People don’t join your Facebook page to be your word of mouth sales force. Building up trust with your audience is paramount and you do that by giving first. You have to give something, and often for a long time, before you can ask. In fact, if you do this right, you won’t have to ask, they will ask you, they will offer to help. Don’t attempt this begrudgingly or because everyone says it is something you are supposed to be doing. Start from the place that you are trying to find the people who would love what you do and you want to interact with them. Unless you are anthropophobic, this should be human nature, to connect with kindreds. There are people in the world who are like you and now you have this amazing tool to find them wherever they live in the world. Leave behind the notion that this is about numbers, this is only about sales, this is about buzz and think of it as a way to meet those who will love what you love. All of that other stuff is a by product of this. It will come, but it won’t come immediately and you need plenty of time to build up to that and it will take consistent effort daily. I realize this is not the stance that most businesses take or understand. They want numbers, they want quantifiables. Utilization of social is no longer something that needs to be justifiable for business goals. Along with advertising, it is a business tool, increasingly a major one. Internet users expect to find you on social platforms whether or not you feel like that benefits the bottom line yet. It is and it will continue to do so. Also note that this will not be your only tool when you are ready to start selling. Publicity, advertising, and email communication still very much have a place in your overall marketing efforts, but if you build a following consistently, your reliance on those more expensive tools will be minimized. The key platforms for social network marketing: I believe pretty much any site on the web is a social networking site. Any place where people can post links, comment, upload information, follow others has a social aspect to it. So those could be blogs, forums, publication websites (New York Times, WSJ), photo sites like Flickr, video sites like Youtube and Vimeo, podcast sites like BlogTalk Radio, streaming sites like Ustream. I think people hear social networking and mostly think Facebook and Twitter, but really to be effective in reaching an audience, you have to know where they particularly hang out and it may be on Facebook and Twitter, but it also may be a LinkedIn group, or on Amazon, Meetup or certain blogs. Any priority ranking to them? It is hard to argue not being on Facebook since they have over 800 million users worldwide and 435 million are using Facebook from a mobile device. While 155 million of those users are from the US, 43 million are from India and the same from Indonesia. Other top countries are UK, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. Based on Alexa rankings, the top social networking sites for the US market are: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MySpace Google Plus But there are surprising ones in the top 15 such as: Tagged, deviantArt, Orkut, Ning and CafeMom. It really depends on who your audience is and what they respond to, where they spend their online social time. You will have a mixture of sites, not just one and you will need to test which ones are giving you the most interaction. Maybe your audience really loves watching videos or they really love deep discussions at the end of blog posts. You will need to test what posts are popular and elicit interaction, even from your own website, which I will say you also need. You should never be totally dependent on a third party site. Just ask those who had free Ning sites instead of websites. When the free option went away, they risked losing their communities and had to pay to upgrade or start from scratch again. The same with Facebook and their EdgeRank algorithm. If Facebook deems that one of your fans doesn’t interact with your page enough, they remove it from their newsfeed, often unbeknownst to that fan. Since you haven’t been able to message them directly, there really isn’t a way to bring them back into awareness of your page barring spending money to advertise. A website you own is the only true online real estate you can control. It is the central hub of all of your activity, everything else is just a spoke on that central hub. Collecting email addresses is also extremely important, but that is for another post. There is no magic formula for being successful at social, everything has to be tested and the results will vary with each project. Does it depend on the nature of the film? No. The decision to be social really isn’t up for debate anymore. Americans spend 22% of their online time each day visiting social networking sites, 65% of all adult internet users have a social network account of some sort. This is not a fad that is going away, the upcoming generation doesn’t even know a time that social networking didn’t exist. It will get bigger, not smaller. Deciding which sites to spend time on will be determined by the kind of audience with which you need to connect. What are key tips for social network marketing? Get a personal account going on the sites where you think your audience hangs out and start using it. I am astounded at agencies that sell social networking solutions and don’t have much of a presence themselves on social sites. How can you advise how to use them when you don’t personally do it for your own business? How can you handle someone else’s account when you don’t have one of your own? Every filmmaker hoping to connect with an audience needs an account. Start by listening first. This is best accomplished when you don’t need to build an audience by tomorrow, you know what I’m saying? If you have this pressing need to start connecting, people can sense it right away and they won’t interact. It is like the insurance guy who walks around a networking event handing out cards, not actually speaking to anyone other than sales pitch. No one likes it in real life and they don’t like it online either. This is not a one-way message medium like advertising. If you want to speak, but not interact, just buy an ad. Listen first, determine how best to interact and then dive in. You are now a publisher. No way around this, it is just the way it is now. A new term for this is social business. A business that can collaborate, share insights and knowledge, and provide value to their audience is going to be way more profitable and sustainable than those who remain closed off from them. This means publishing content of some sort, either generated from your production or generated by your fans, but probably a mixture of both. It needs to be entertaining, insightful, worthy of discussion and sharing, and pulls the audience back for more again and again. We just entered an era of waaaay more work than we used to do. Not one piece of creative advertising, but hundreds of pieces in different mediums and across multiple channels that are meant to lead to discussion with the brand (yes, you are a brand) and with others also connected to that brand. What are some key mistakes? Some "Don'ts": Waiting too late to start and using social only to self promote. Remember, self-promotion is about helping OTHER people. It sounds counterintuitive, but when you help others, THEY promote you. If they don’t, then you weren’t really helping (the help originated through clearly selfish motives) or you just haven’t connected with the right people. A couple of examples of filmmakers who really get it right: I hate to give the same examples, but the best I’ve seen as far as sustainable interaction (meaning they aren’t clearly doing it just to promote their latest project and then drop out of sight again) are Kevin Smith and Edward Burns. They are consistent, they interact, they use multiple mediums, they don’t use social as a one-way shill mechanism and I don’t think they have an outside agency cultivating their communities. I also really admire Tiffany Shlain, she has a great grasp of the power of social networking even though she advocates unplugging (gasp!) for a day each week. Her film, Connected, is about the power (and the curse) of the Internet to connect people, but Tiffany was doing this long before she made the film. I know there are now more and more filmmakers building up their own audiences, but they may have only started in the last few years and they didn’t come out of the old machine so their followings aren’t as large as those examples. People like Gregory Bayne (Driven), Zak Forsman (Heart of Now), Kirby Ferguson (Everything’s a Remix), Jennifer Fox (My Reincarnation), Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere) are all building up their own followings, not just around their films, but around themselves as artists. Even people like Hal Hartley and Abel Ferrara are now starting to embrace social networking and crowdfunding. I really hope to be able to list tons more doing this every year. It is completely perplexing to me that those who already do have a following from the traditional machine, do not reach out, really have no idea who watches their films and have no interest in knowing. This mentality is not going to serve them well with the consumers coming up in the world today who are used to interacting, who expect to have a dialog. The only thing I can think is, well, no one is popular forever, no one retains power forever. There will always be a new crop coming up behind and I think indie filmmakers who are embracing this concept now are well positioned to be the new crop. This content appears courtesy of The Film Collaborative / Orly Ravid, Editorial Consultant]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Marketing, Partners, Facebook Sheri Candler, Independent Film Marketing And Publicity 2012-03-26T21:54:31+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/the-keys-to-the-social-network-marketing-kingdom/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/5Uer50H2WZA/ We all know that the vast majority of folks make their film-viewing choices based on what they are hearing about a film — be it from friends, traditional media, the blogosphere, or social media. They’re not likely to go out of their way to proactively research a film, and if they haven’t heard anything about a film, they aren’t likely to see it. Whatever you want to call that...be it “buzz,” “word-of-mouth,” “going viral,” etc…it is the name of the game in contemporary grassroots marketing. But how much can a filmmaker actually control that? We all know the ways they can try — by playing film festivals, hiring publicists, engaging their community via social media, reaching out to organizations, etc. Of course it helps if a film is actually good…really good, in fact….as the last thing today’s marketplace needs is another mediocre film. And the values of passion and hard work can’t be overlooked here either, as creating buzz and engagement for a film is often arduous and time-consuming...and for many filmmakers nearly as daunting as making the movie itself. Often it feels like independent films are at the whim of the zeitgeist, and the most important aspect is timing, and the receptivity of the marketplace to the ideas in the film. Consider the cycle of elections, and the way political/environmental/social issue docs can explode into national consciousness around certain hot issues. Given the time it takes to make a film, it’s hard to know whether anyone can actually craft a film to hit at just the right time to capture a “trending” topic. In the case of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize winner Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, all the factors mentioned above came together in the final months of post-production to land the film this January at Sundance as an unlikely “buzz” film of the Festival. On the surface, it’s a straightforward documentary by a first-time filmmaker about a Chinese artist/ political dissident completely unknown to the majority of U.S. filmgoers. Hardly a guaranteed formula for indie marketing success. But just below the obvious, the twitterverse was ablaze promoting the film; the Kickstarter campaign was raising funds and attracting attention; art magazines were giving the film covers; and filmmaker Alison Klayman had already done numerous appearances on CNN, MSNBC, and The Colbert Report as well as print features in the likes of the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and The Hollywood Reporter. A few weeks later (by mid February), the trade publications were filled with the announcement of its purchase by Sundance Selects, and the New York Times was running a feature article about the film’s upcoming Summer 2012 release. How does something like that happen for a debut filmmaker with no special access to funding, shortly after finishing a film about a Chinese artist? Well, of course this wasn’t just any artist — Ai Weiwei is an internationally renowned art star and political provocateur whose unyielding criticism of the Chinese government has earned him legions of friends, enemies, and fans alike. And Weiwei isn’t just an average political dissent, he is a dissident for the digital age, who because of the rigors of Chinese censorship has taken his activism specifically to twitter through linked computers to the West, and therefore has mastered the art of social media all on his own. This is the study of a modern documentary subject, who is just as likely to be able to spread his/her own message through the media on their own, through the accessibility of social media, even in free speech-challenged China. In this case, it becomes the story of the filmmaker that becomes the mouthpiece of the subject…which many might argue is the way that it should be. Filmmaker Alison Klayman began her work with Weiwei in 2008, as a recent Brown University graduate living abroad in Bejing and working as a freelance journalist. Her housemate was curating a show of Weiwei’s photography, and Klayman was asked to make a video for the show. Klayman and Weiwei hit it off creatively, and Klayman began to follow Weiwei as his documentarian — capturing his daily life, his frequent battles with the Chinese authorities, and his travels abroad for major international art shows. Weiwei’s daily use of blogs and videos to spread his artwork — especially his videos criticizing the government’s response to the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province — became a driving narrative in the film, as well as a grassroots vehicle for spreading Weiwei’s fame and fan base. When the Chinese government finally cut off his locally-sourced blog, Weiwei was able to migrate his work to an network of twitter-linked computers that China is unable to control. As such, his network was able to dramatically expand globally, while remaining accessible to tens of thousands of Chinese willing to access these quasi-legal networks. From 2008 through 2010, Klayman’s documentary follows Weiwei through major international art shows, startlingly intimate private moments, and incredible courage in the face of political adversity. And whenever Weiwei had a run in with the Chinese authorities, the encounter went instantly viral, through a devoted staff who filmed his every move and posted it immediately to twitter. In late 2010, Klayman returned to the States to begin editing, without the financial means to complete the project. As such, in addition to applying for grants, Sundance labs, and bringing well-connected executive producers onto the projects (largely through connections in the art world), Klayman strategized and launched a Kickstarter campaign, scheduled to go live on March 29th, 2011. And that’s when the film caught lightning in a bottle. Only four days after the Kickstarter launched, Ai Weiwei suddenly disappeared on April 3rd…apparently arrested by the Chinese Government but without any official announcement or confirmation of his whereabouts. A global outcry went up throughout his social networks, the art world, and then the international press caught on to the story as well. As a journalist and Ai Weiwei’s documentarian, filmmaker Klayman quickly emerged as the “journalist of record” on the Weiwei story, and the international press began flocking in her direction. Suddenly, it was the twitter feeds that Weiwei’s staff and Klayman had been maintaining throughout the documentary filming periods that became the main source of worldwide news for Ai Weiwei updates. Klayman and her social media teams ramped up their efforts in the U.S. and China, and started working on a rotating schedule to provide 24-hour updates on the story for several months. For all of 81 days, as Weiwei’s secret detention continued without any official response from the Chinese government, the international press continued to feature Klayman’s twitter updates on the story, and interviewed her about the story for numerous high-profile news programs. Of course, Klayman was careful not to try to turn the story into a shameless plug for her movie…after all, her friend and colleague was “disappeared” and detained, and concern for his well-being was the first priority. But inexorably, in today’s hyper-media culture, Klayman’s sudden thrust into the mainstream became completely entangled with the finishing of the film…and catapulted the project into a far larger spotlight. The film’s Kickstarter soared above the original asking goal of $20,000 to a final tally of $52,175 from 793 backers…even though it was only originally expected to bring in money from friends and family. The film attracted additional producers and lab invitations that Klayman freely admits it probably wouldn’t have. All in all, the film became a “cause célèbre” for an issue in the news, a fact which filmmaker Klayman could hardly have counted on while making the film. When Weiwei was finally released — with a dubious charge of more than 2.4 million dollars in tax evasion — support from the community-at-large continued to pour in, with donations to the cause ultimately exceeding the amount of the fine. And filmmaker Klayman was finally free to turn the enormous pouring of goodwill towards deliberate promotion of the film, helped in large part by the incredible networks built during the crisis on twitter, and to a lesser extent, on Kickstarter and Tumblr. It is also worth noting here: because the Kickstarter campaign included a number of incentives/prizes towards donation, the film now had a wonderful amount of merchandise it could also now leverage towards wider buzz about the film. Given this backstory, we can demystify the process of how a small film sometimes gains “buzz” beyond expectations…as was clearly the case with Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and its incredible fortune of timing combined with passion, hard work, technical savvy, and community networks. Sometimes a film that seems the most difficult to market actually has the most subtle niche communities that can be reached…whether they be political activists, art-world enthusiasts, devotees of Asian culture, social media junkies etc. However, according to filmmaker Klayman, perhaps the greatest takeaway is this…. in today’s hyperlinked/hashtagged environment, it is critical to remember that today’s documentary subjects no longer solely rely on their documentarian to spread their message, and social media makes potential distributors and activists of us all. Sometimes, today’s filmmakers just need to choose their subjects wisely, and hold on tight for the ride. This content appears courtesy of The Film Collaborative / Orly Ravid, Editorial Consultant]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Marketing, Partners, Kickstarter Jeffrey Winter, The Film Collaborative 2012-03-22T14:38:58+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/ai-weiwei-the-buzz-maker-a-study-in-viral-marketing/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/kzk3DztQ9vo/ Ryan Gielen of marketing service company, Believe, helps explain how to best work the platform visited by 85% of Americans and hence enjoying an Alexa ranking of 3. How is YOUTUBE (YT) best used for marketing indie films? The best use of YouTube is for audience building before, during and after the filming process. The perfect version of this would be a filmmaker who spends the year leading up to her shoot vlogging about the fundraising process, casting, producing, and any fears, hopes and challenges they’re facing. These would be posted regularly, and interspersed with funny or interesting scripted content with a homemade feel, nothing too precious. These videos would establish her voice and build a small but loyal audience who happen to like that voice. Then the filmmaker would upload a few homemade videos from set, showing off cast, crew and creatives and continuing the themes established in pre-production: it's important to think of you audience as peers, they're going to be cool with talking shop, so she would provide tips & tricks along with a personal look at the process. In the 6-12 months following production, the filmmaker would continue to create and post videos on a set schedule, with material growing progressively more produced, while remaining entertaining. Again, interspersed with scripted, themed content. For instance, if the film is about a chef, the filmmaker would have a homemade, super-low-budget cooking show about how they get by on a freelancer or indie filmmaker living. Every tenth video would be a clip from the film or a trailer or some piece of fun marketing material. Maybe three or four total in the 6-12 months of post-production. All the while, she would be interacting with fans, commenting on other filmmakers’ videos and channels, subscribing to channels and YT’ers with interests related to her film. Assuming her film—like most of our films—does not get a huge distribution deal, and she partners with an aggregator to make the film available on Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and VOD, she would then post those links on her YouTube channel and script and upload a personal vlog about where people can find the film. Finally, she would spend the next year creating and uploading funny or interesting videos along a regular schedule, interacting with fans and producers constantly, and would remind people once every three months that they can find her film on the relevant outlets. This is how she could build and maintain an audience—if she’s going to be making films for a while, it’s a good investment of her time and energy. People will connect with her and her voice, and will look for ways to engage others on the filmmaker’s behalf. Kevin Smith and Miranda July are two great examples of filmmakers who have used a similar approach to attracting and growing an audience, albeit on different platforms. (And Sundance alum Ari Gold is a great example of a robust YouTube user who also worked with Believe for the release of Adventures of Power. More about this below.) Key techniques and best practices for building one's audience or community via YouTube YT is built on eliminating the distance between producer and user. This is the single most important thing to remember when trying to market on YouTube, and here’s why: along with the ability to create and upload self-produced content comes the desire to interact with other creators, peers. So, YT is built and populated by tens of millions of people who interact with content and producers horizontally, not people who want to passively accept content dropped vertically from studies above. If you decide to step into their world, you have to understand and respect their mindset and tailor your marketing accordingly. In short, it shouldn’t feel like marketing. Producers who succeed on YouTube create videos that feel homemade, personally delivered by a real human being, not a big Hollywood team directly to the individual audience member. This is why producers who present themselves to the YT community do better than filmmakers who only present their film, or their trailer. YT is not a dumping ground for deleted scenes and outtakes, it’s a place people come to be entertained. Finally, YT’ers do carry over some traits of traditional television audiences—they like content they can count on. Videos that feel like standalone material aren’t worth connecting with, because there’s no promise of future entertainment. You have a dramatically higher chance of getting subscribers- and having your videos shared—if you upload regularly, on a given day, at a given time, with fresh content. So… the take homes are: Interact with every audience member, from day one. They’re your peers as well as audience. Don’t just market. Create content that seeks to entertain. Post consistently, for a long time. These three things turn a lot of filmmakers off, and I understand that. We want to make films, and leave the marketing to others. That mindset—while totally understandable- is why so many films are just sitting on shelves. Marketing is a lot of work, but if you invest the time wisely and follow the three simple guidelines above, you can build an audience. Key tagging and captioning techniques Tagging and captioning are generally self-explanatory, in other words: you want to add keywords or tags to every video, and you want them to reflect the most common search terms that would lead to your video. Don't just throw in tags that are words found in your title—approach this from the point of view of someone who is looking for a similar video to yours, and ask "What keywords would they enter?" For instance, you've decided to create and upload a weekly series of videos examining all the outlets indie filmmakers have for self-distributing their films, one outlet each week. This week you're uploading a video about how to maximize the attention you can bring to Netflix. Your audience is indie filmmakers, producers and marketers. Some obvious tags: #indie #film #netflix #name of your film. These tags are going to position the video to appear in searches by indie filmmakers and people looking for ways to rent indie films on Netflix, both of which are your audience. Next you want to hit #how to #promotion #marketing #self-distribution #digital. These are going to pull in indie artists in other fields, who may want to apply your ideas to their products- a book or an album, for instance. These producers of indie art are also consumers of indie art, also your audience. Finally, someone who is looking to drive eyeballs to their Netflix release(s) is probably going to be looking for ways to measure their results, or may already have them in place. Good keywords include: #analytics #understanding #clicks #views #CPC (cost per click) #CPM (cost per thousand), etc. Three important caveats: This is a generic example, clearly. The best way to decide on keywords is to do a couple searches, find related videos, and look at their keywords. If the video has a lot of views, or seems similar to yours, grab the relevant keywords. Doing a handful of test searches from your desired audience's perspective is a great way to stumble upon keywords you would not have thought of. Your video title and description are more important. They should be keyword rich. The title should be short and the description should be long (up to 5,000 words). Don't name the video solely based on the content, also name it based on the relevant, meaty search keywords. The single greatest factor in the success of any video is inbound links. Period. Tagging, title and descriptions are useful in the long run, they can't be ignored, but Google's recent algorithm change has solidified organic, quality inbound links as the single most important factor in the ranking of any website, product, video. How do you generate views on YouTube? There are three basic ways to drive eyeballs to your videos. Share them across social networks, and encourage others to do the same. Get postings and links from websites with large audiences already. Advertise your videos online and on mobile devices. We (BELIEVE) do a proprietary combination of all three for clients large and small. I know those three bullets are vague, but we are currently writing an eBook on the subject and we can't give away everything. But that should tell you just how rich the subject is—there's enough material on executing the above three steps to literally fill a book. Some examples of films BELIEVE has worked on that worked well via YouTube marketing Some films we can’t discuss at the studio’s or filmmaker’s request, but here are two excellent examples of YT marketing that we have worked on: Ari Gold, Adventures of Power Ari and his team created an entire 70-video YouTube promotional campaign featuring original videos, deleted scenes, constant updates and interaction- all free to the end user. Their videos have received over 500K views, gained over 3,000 subscribers, and three of his videos even reached the front page of YouTube, officially going viral. The YouTube fan base has led to stronger DVD and digital sales. My film, The Graduates The Graduates was the #1 comedy on Hulu for months, and remains in the Top 10 all-time after two years. We’re competing with major studio films and stars and have held our ground for two full years. Though filmmakers remain skeptical about Hulu, we’ve had a wonderful, profitable experience there, and the hundreds of thousands of people who have seen our film have in many cases followed us across social media, bought the film or the soundtrack, and remained responsive to the projects we’ve released since meeting them. The majority of our viewers discover the film through a few consistently updated YouTube channels and webseries. Two of the strongest performing videos are linked here. You’ll notice they appear to have nothing to do with the film or product they’re selling: Marketing Adventures of Power with a Halloween music video; 197,000+ views; Officially viral, making it to the Front Page of YouTube. http://goo.gl/G53Uv Marketing 1800Recycling with funny “Fail” videos; 3,000,000+ views; Three videos officialy viral, making it to the Front Page of YouTube. http://goo.gl/cnkk9 There are two of over 100 pieces of content we've taken viral for clients big and small. Couple this with a consistent output of content and some audience interaction, and you have an active and growing Subscriber base. "Why does this matter, or how does this help?" are the questions we hear most often when explaining the value of a successful viral video or webseries to a potential client. Taking the examples above, there's obvious value in getting hundreds of thousands of people to interact with your material. Couple that with a widely available film, and the viral video that had nothing to do with your movie just became a great ad for you and the film. People who are truly entertained by the viral video will visit your channel and poke around, and that's when they're most receptive to marketing materials like the trailer. You've won them over by not marketing at them, and now they will seek out your marketing. As the price of digital goods rapidly drops toward zero, filmmakers who build an audience on YouTube will have a huge advantage when it comes time to ask people to pony up for a ticket, a download, a soundtrack or a t-shirt, because not only will they want to spend (to help you keep producing content) they'll also share the videos, becoming advocates who advertise on your behalf. What are some good benchmarks in terms of reasonable numbers to shoot for in terms of trailer view, etc.? This is a complicated question, because we can assist clients in getting any amount of views, so it completely depends on two things: your budget, and your audience. If you've spent time developing an audience, you have to spend a lot less to get and keep people interested, which is why we provide so much (and such specific) advice on audience development before, during and after filming. If you've done nothing to develop an audience, it's going to cost money to get real eyeballs on your marketing material. Simply uploading a trailer to YouTube is a good step- it's about as basic and necessary as a website- but it doesn't guarantee a single view. I would focus the benchmarks on content creation and interaction with fans- try to create and upload one new piece each week for a year. If you have a good concept and you interact with fans, your material will stand out, because you're a filmmaker, after all- making interesting content is your life. Any other good marketing platforms you work with to market films? We use Twitter and Facebook, of course, but there is no silver bullet. You must create content and interact with fans. The digital revolution continues to bring prices down, but the upside is that the same outlets that bring prices down also corral audiences into niches. 85% of the country visits YouTube, every conceivable niche is represented there, and they're all looking for entertaining content. It can be a massive platform for any filmmaker. Another upside of the digital and social media revolution is that with so many on-demand options, audiences are seeking and finding more and more independent films, months and years after their release and sharing their discoveries with friends. The need for an "opening weekend" is moot. Don't get me wrong, if you can have a big opening weekend anywhere, take it. But if not, your movie on Netflix or Hulu will look just as fresh in a year as it does today. We advise clients to keep their YouTube and social media presence just as vibrant and fresh two years after their release as on Day 1. Releasing an indie film today is much closer to opening a small web-based business than it is to releasing a studio film. How do you distinguish marketing on YouTube via distributing on YouTube? I wish we could speak intelligently about the YouTube screening room, but it's so new that we don't have a lot of work to point to. It appears studio films are gaining some traction there, but it's too new to have numbers and benchmarks. One important note that may work with earlier comments: As the YouTube Screening Room grows and people become more accustomed to buying professionally produced content while visiting YouTube, it will be hugely advantageous to have a large audience within the YT ecosystem already. The ability to direct your Subscribers to your film without having to leave their chosen social media is incredibly valuable. But, again, its value is proportional to the size of the audience you've developed. More about BELIEVE: Believe handles YouTube, Facebook and Twitter campaigns for clients in the entertainment industry. We scale campaigns to project budgets, provide rich targeting across all social media, and deliver an audience to your film. We're filmmakers so we understand the challenges that artists face when it becomes necessary to take marketing into your own hands. For more information about BELIEVE and their services visit believelimited.com or contact ryan@believelimited.com This content appears courtesy of The Film Collaborative / Orly Ravid, Editorial Consultant]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Marketing, Partners, YouTube Ryan Gielen, Executive Producer, BELIEVE 2012-03-15T22:22:35+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/making-the-most-of-youtube/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/bU3Mw64kj2I/ Ross Evison has been editing in the film advertising/marketing arena for 12+ years. Creating trailers, promos and TV commercials for major blockbusters to independent features all around the globe. In 2008 he created Dark Soup Films as a back bone for his directing work. He has written three feature scripts, worked as an editor on two and is currently looking to direct his first feature film from his own screenplay. I’m a filmmaker in my own right, but for the past 12+ years I’ve been working primarily as a freelance editor of film trailers, promos and commercials all over the globe. In that time I’ve cut a lot of material, some you may have seen, some you won’t. I’m going to share with you some of the pointers I’ve learnt in the edit room trenches to help get your film out there and find its audience. A good piece of marketing material is a bonus and a must for any film, on any budget level. It entices, informs and most of all let’s the audience in to your film. But how can micro budget films create a piece of advertising that helps their film get noticed in this world of constant, instant content? You may have a great idea for how to market your film, which is fantastic and any fresh idea is always a plus, but the following is for those wanting to make their regular trailer sing all the more, it’s not meant to dictate exactly how to do it, but give a broad overview which can help improve your piece. Firstly the big lesson is the trailer is not the film. A lot of low budget trailers suffer from wanting to put too much information in the allotted time. Don’t get bogged down trying to explain everything from A to Z, that’s the film’s job. (I know, there is a common gripe that trailers show too much but that’s an entirely different blog post) The best way to do this is to choose a story through line for your trailer, which, shock horror, may not be the story you originally thought it was, but that’s ok, it’s marketing, you’re looking for the best way to get an audience. All films have their strengths, so play to them. Filmmakers are often precious of their own work and find it tough to choose what is the best part of their story. That’s why getting a third party to cut your trailer or promotional material is often the best way to go. Now, if you don’t have that connection or can’t afford to pay someone to do that, then it’s up to you. But you have to be ruthless. I would say the simplest approach is to think of the trailer as a visual synopsis. Approach it as though you’re writing a synopsis or at very least a logline, then build around that. So, here are some basic tips for creating this, these are fairly generic and I feel are pretty common for most genres: Choose the story through line and stick to it. Don’t introduce too many motifs or characters choose whose journey it is – if you’re fortunate to have a known performer, albeit in a minor role, utilise that fact. Don’t name check people who nobody knows. Know the end, the theme and feeling you want to leave the viewer with. The trailer doesn’t have to be as linear as the film – often better if it isn’t. Don’t have random moments that come out of nowhere – sounds contradictory to the above point but you can put scenes in any order as long a the through story is being followed, don’t be afraid of mixing it up. Writing copy (the voice over or captions) is tough, unless you have a way with words, don’t try and be too smart, serve the film rather than attempting to be clever with you words. The copy should encapsulate your through line story and can be helpful to skip through this. However, if you don’t need copy, don’t use it. If the film is strong enough let it do the talking. Stick with simple graphic captions – often the best way if you’re not graphically skilled. Voice over is not a must, and bad VO can alienate the viewer (don’t cheapen it with a fake American accent, if you’re a Brit and can read the lines, be a Brit, just be confident. Failing that, stick with captions). Don’t let shots and moments out stay their welcome. The perfectly constructed moment you created in your film CAN be trimmed right down in the trailer, don’t worry it doesn’t ruin your film. It will always be perfect in the film. Say something once, for example you may have two characters saying pretty much the same point in two different ways, cut one out you don’t need the other. Move on. What’s the score? Now, music is also a big tool and I find it super important. If you are cutting your own trailer and have no more cash in the bank then you won’t be able to afford the new big music cue, or the old classic track that may set your tone up perfectly. So be creative, if you have music in the film that works, use it. There are plenty of music libraries out there and musicians itching to build their portfolio of work who may be willing to write you something unique. Ask them or perhaps you can barter with one, they may need a music video and you need some music; exchange your talents. Don’t settle if you feel the music cue you’ve chosen isn’t working. Often a change of music can be all the trailer needs, it may help dictate the pace for the edit, it can assist with any emotional moment you’re wanting to create. The wrong music can be a misfire and can ruin your trailer. How long? A good length is from 90 seconds to 2 minutes, any extra is unnecessary. Hollywood movie trailers generally run at 2’30”, but often I feel they are too much, and they certainly can labour the point. Remember to keep building the trailer, make the story move forward, running on the spot is a waste of time. The 3 act structure, like the majority of story telling, works great. Set up you place and characters at the beginning, have some fun in the middle then push the turning point into the final act where you either have your final promise of what’s going to happen or throw in some jeopardy. Escalate, escalate, escalate then stop! The final image is important, if your film is a horror, end with horror, it’s a comedy, go out on a great gag, if you’ve made a rom com, then make sure you end on some rom and com. Spend time on your trailer, you’ve just put your heart and soul into your film (I hope), so don’t quit yet. Keep the quality control up, spend time on the sound mix, if you haven’t yet competed your feature fully then give your trailer a colour correct. If a line of dialogue doesn’t work or the delivery is wrong or perhaps you want a character to say something more concise than how it is in the film, then ADR it, there is no rule to say you can’t. Again this is not the film, you don’t have to implement what you do in the trailer back into the finished film. At the end give it a polish, then, when you think it’s done, go over it and buff it once more. Never forget you’re telling and selling the story. If you’re still having trouble, imagine you’ve made your film and someone asks you what it’s about – listen to how you explain it, did you get it across, was it engaging for the listener, do they want to see it? If so, then that’s your trailer, you just told it to someone, now go cut it. And finally, do some research, watch trailers, watch them all the time, look at the nuances, how they build the story, create the gags or the scary jumps, how they turn the emotional moments all with editing short hand. Watch the genres that suit your film. Trailers are a niche promotional tool and can often take a team of creatives to bring them to fruition, but that shouldn’t stop you just going ahead and creating it. One last thing, approach it with a whole new sense of how to tell your story, keep it fresh, this shouldn’t be a chore and keep in mind that this is: YOUR FILMCOMING SOON My website is www.darksoupfilms.com it has a couple of my trailer edits on there but mainly my writing and directing work. Here are links to a couple of trailers I’ve edited in the past. Big BudgetThe Bank JobThe International Low BudgetThe 27 ClubStepping Into The Fire Follow me on twitter: @darksoupfilms Originally published on Make Film Teach Film]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Marketing Ross Evison 2012-02-14T16:39:20+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/tips-on-cutting-a-trailer/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/2Ri4pqKtZ0s/ Lance Weiler doesn’t like to do things half-way.  As a self-declared “Story-Architect for Film, TV and Games,” Weiler is considered a thought leader and pioneer in the mashup culture of #transmedia.  His early influence and consultations helped shape the very structure of the Sundance New Frontier Lab itself. At the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City earlier this year, he launched his most ambitious multi-layered narrative yet: Pandemic 1.0   “I honestly did too much in retrospect, but I firmly believe any future #transmedia projects interacting with the Film Festival will benefit from our experiences.  They’ll be able to study what we tried and learn important lessons from it.  Activating projects like this within large live events has challenges for sure, that’s part of what we learned,” Weiler said from the Sundance Resort in Utah. Pandemic 1.0 was a transmedia storytelling experience that spanned film, mobile, online, real-world, social gaming and data visualizations into one narrative experience. Over the course of the 10 day Festival the story unfolded in pieces, enabling viewers-slash-players to step into the shoes of the protagonists themselves. Weiler and his team wanted to accomplish some key objectives with the project: how could they get data visualizations into a system elegantly?  How could real-world and online interactions push and flow their narrative?  How could mobile devices and applications fuel discovery of physical locations and events?  And finally, how could tactile objects become a part of the experience and central storytelling devices? (Weiler admits to a kind of tech-fetish with toys in his work, Pandemic 1.0 would eventually feature some of his crazier toy ideas).  “I believe when audiences can touch something, physically connect with an object, well that’s a powerful point of entry into a story,” he added. The Pandemic 1.0 story experience starts when a mysterious sleep virus begins to affect the adults in a small rural town, and the youth soon find themselves cut off from civilization and fighting for their lives.  Will they survive?  Can we then survive? Weiler’s plans for the Pandemic 1.0 presentation began in 2011 when he shot and created the project’s central media component: a 9 minute short film that introduced his characters and set the premise of his story in motion.  The film was shown as part of the Short Film Program at the Film Festival, as well as embedded within the Sundance Mobile Apps and featured in the YouTube Screening Room. So launched a series of #transmedia experiments that would eventually include such elements as geo-caching of physical objects embedded and tracked with NFC (Near Field Communication) codes, QR (Quick-Response) codes, UPC Codes and GPS Mapping as well as a physical “Mission Control” installation at the Film Festival’s New Frontier exhibit space.  “Mission Control” aggregated and visualized all the data points being received by the game mechanics and algorithyms Weiler’s team set up to automatically spread, grow and stall the pandemic that gives the project it’s name – all actions that were based on the interplay and actions of the users-slash-players. The central nervous system of Pandemic 1.0 was it’s cause-and-effect narrative as seen on the website Hope Is Missing.   It was designed to mashup and mixup the content and data being generated by users and reconfigure it to unlock geosocial and story clues that would inform how players tried to “survive” the catastrophe. Twitter was also huge for the project's success.  Over the course of the Film Festival, the project hashtag (#pandemic11) was Tweeted almost 5,000 times, adding more data to the mix and allowing players to follow even more layers of discovery and story.  Actors with the project had scripted Twitter feeds that also fed the narrative and shifted and changed based on the game play of the project, conversely the actions of the audience affected how long the characters would live or die within the world of Pandemic.  50 Nexus-S game phones provided by Google challenged users with morality questions that were later extracted and visualized through Microsoft Surfaces in the “Mission Control” installation. All of this data and all of the connections within the project emphasized a kind of hyper-relationship between the Global and the Local, which was exactly what Weiler and his team wanted and envisioned.  In the end there were hundreds of story touch points, dozens of technology platforms used and multiple-layers of narratives and interactions that defined the complex world of Pandemic 1.0  “I think if I had it to do over I’d probably see the opportunity to do more with far less.  I think we could have accomplished the same results with probably one-third the project scope.  That’s something I’d approach differently,” Weiler shared with the New Frontier Lab audience. “I would also make our calls to action clearer, more straightforward …” he added.  “I would look and study the interactions I was asking of the audience and focus only on those that directly affected the outcome of the project and story.  I’d love to hone those calls and strengthen the experience with the story itself.  In some ways it’s like rewriting, I did three complete drafts of the project narrative with my writing partner.  Rewriting is key, it’s what I learned at the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab.  I think in rewriting, you find more of the story … or a more focused version of it I guess.  I’m deeply interested in how the themes are manifested,” Weiler said. “I also learned I’ll always want more time, more staff to support what we’re doing, better back-up plans in case something doesn’t get discovered or doesn’t roll out the way we expected or wanted, those things apply to every project I’m a part of these days,” Weiler laughed. With Pandemic 1.0 he may get his chance: plans are in place for a new updated version of the project, Pandemic 2.0, to roll out next year.  Weiler’s spirit to experiment and push envelopes with his work only increases with each project or chapter he completes.  His latest endeavor is a children’s media literacy collaboration called “Robot Heart Stories” which he launched 7 days ago.  It’s a cross cultural artspace designed to connect kid's ideas for stories with animators who will help bring them to life.  They plan to take all the creative work and literally blast it into space next year, so every Kid-Creator can “look up in the sky and ‘see’ their work in the stars.  Pretty cool, huh?” Weiler explained. On the ground at the Film Festival, Weiler’s expenses were broken down into components.  His short film cost approximately $3k to complete, his onsite installation and project expenses were approximately $20k and he estimates the partner and technology in-kind donations he received were likely valued at $250k.  You can follow Weiler’s work and thoughts on #transmedia on his blog LanceWeiler Dot Com (if you can keep up).]]> Case Studies, Documentary Film Program, Feature Film Program, New Frontier, Technology, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Marketing Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives for Sundance Institute 2011-10-25T17:51:09+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/transmedia-lessons-from-lanceweilers-pandemic-1.0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/AA-QE6zQSXE/ “This is the natural evolution of entertainment – going beyond the screens and traditional forms to allow audiences to live and participate in more ways with immersive worlds,” Susan Bonds said simply. On Sunday October 22, Bonds, CEO of 42 Entertainment, presented the opening keynote to the Sundance inaugural New Frontier Story Lab. 42 Entertainment creates genre defining participatory and cross-platform entertainment often described as “alternative reality games (ARGs).” These rich worlds extend beyond film screens, game consoles, television shows, book pages, and music albums, allowing audiences to “live” the story in unforgettable ways that intersect when, where, and how they live. More than any other form of interactive media, these ARGs create strong, passionate global communities and galvanize them into a powerful hive mind of collective intelligence. Susan has produced over two dozen successful transmedia projects over the past decade, working with properties like Halo, The Dark Knight, TRON: Legacy, and Resistance 2, including a case study which she presented on Year Zero, an alternate reality collaboration with Trent Reznor. “My business partner, Alex Lieu, and I received a message through our website that caught our attention because it was from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. He found the ‘info-at’ email on our site and was reaching out about an idea he had for a concept album. That’s how it started,” she explained. Reznor, a longtime gaming enthusiast and innovative artist, was looking for a partner to help him create something special for his next album. He was thinking about the social-political climate of the time (2007) and wanted to stimulate a mass conversation around issues of freedoms and privacy that he was concerned about in the zeitgeist.  “Technology and connectivity has allowed for more personal experiences which can also be collective. Story and world building provides a way for us to participate and share experiences together. We’re not alone,” Bonds pointed out. Year Zero was a futuristic fiction where Reznor envisioned a society plagued by losses of freedom and where art and the expressions of art became a way to fight back against tyranny. Through meetings and discussions, they devised a strategy for an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that would bring to life the themes of the concept album, which was named Year Zero, and give the audience a role in uncovering both the experience and the music. Using unique engagement and game mechanics, puzzles, physical objects, online content, street art, and finally live events, they created a huge interwoven set of media that would eventually lead to the release of the album and launch it into the world.  What they conceived together, what happened next, and how a global community was built around this experience is now the stuff of #transmedia legend. Starting while the band was one tour, the project teased into existence with a hidden message embedded in a Nine Inch Nails T-Shirt that when decoded, read simply “I Am Trying To Believe.” And the audience proved instantly that it was. Within 15 hours the message was “received” and the audience was down the rabbithole. Using the built-in fan base for Nine Inch Nails and working from the assumption of their hive-mind collective intelligence to decode the experience, Bonds and her team slowly and precisely set the narrative afoot with an ever-growing and ever-more mysterious rollout. The distributed narrative world of Year Zero had been launched and would be represented by dozens of strange websites that users were self-discovering and contributing to, quickly. “We’ve never seeded or involved ourselves on community boards during an ARG. We’ve had backup plans in case something goes wrong, but we’ve never had to use them,” she pointed out. “We respect the audience, their intelligence, their ability to organize and decipher -- and that has made the difference for us. Sometimes content creators and studios don’t respect them enough.” Knowing that Reznor’s music was the bond that held the community of Nine Inch Nails fans together (and using a statistic that said that 90% of people who “found” thumb drives would open them), the team planted five unmarked USB drives at a concert in Portugal, counting on at least one being found. One was, in the men’s restroom. When the user opened it, they found it contained a new (never been heard) Nine Inch Nails song along with white noise that seemed to contain hidden messages. This became, by design, a key tipping point in the awareness of the ARG. Within minutes of discovering the music, the fan had shared this crucial clue with the growing community intrigued with the mysterious messages being collected all over the Internet. Fans used spectrograph analysis of the white noise on the drives to discover further clues in the form of audio visualizations that matched previously established icons of the game as well as new clues like phone numbers. “We run every project like some of you out there do, there has to be a strong script, a strong plan. We have a director and a producer on every project and everything runs through them, how else would it work?  It has to be a consistent world, it has to be big – that’s what people connect to. It also has to have a flexible structure that feels alive. People want to be a part of something,” Bonds answered to a question about scripting the story out. The true success of Year Zero was being able to transfer the “what if” scenario playing out in the future to present day, with the audience organizing into Art is Resistance groups, discussing serious issues, and even creating pieces of original art, a graphic novel and other unique ways to spread the Year Zero movement. Bonds points out that you cannot tip the scales with only a core group of built-in fans or supporters for the project or its source material – you must design to broaden the audience and levels of engagement at all times organically. “There is a science to this – direct participation, amplification, audience build. There are ways to predict and up-step the experiences to deepen audience engagement, but the creators must keep the right tempo for releasing both new content and in unusual ways on multiple levels to make it work. Tempo and rhythm are important. The trends show 8-12 weeks of active engagement is prime for running an interactive narrative/episode, although we have ARGs running right now in years two and three and who knows how long the echoes of Year Zero can or will go.” Bonds said. The length of the Year Zero campaign in active live production was 12 weeks. During Year Zero, hundreds of elements were developed including music videos that were more like short films, advanced viral distribution of new tracks of original Nine Inch Nails music, posters and phone messages, heat sensitive CDs, survival kits, tattoos, street art, and eventually a surprise private concert for 100 die-hard players. Bonds is the least surprised at the intersection of creative mediums with technology. She pointed out that young directors and producers like Zach Snyder are the first generation that grew up fully immersed in modern game culture and they are bringing those DNA experiences into their approaches to creative forms. Asked about the return or ROI on this type of work and Bonds says that there is more measurement available for this type of internet centric work and direct correlation than for other more traditional mediums. Time spent in active engagement is a differentiating factor – earned media is another. The active participation is amplified through social networks, online press and buzz, as well as multiple content platforms/usage that each have their own unique reach. When she started 10 years ago in the field, she says “We didn’t have a name for it then either,” telegraphing the reluctance of everyone in the screening room to even formalize the fun with a rigid taxonomy. It's too exciting to still be an explorer in new lands. #Sundance #NewFrontier.]]> Case Studies, Documentary Film Program, Feature Film Program, New Frontier, Partners, Facebook, Sundance Institute Lab, Technology, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Marketing Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives for Sundance Institute 2011-10-24T20:25:06+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/authentic-content-susan-bonds-dissects-trent-reznors-year-zero/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/WORyR4yNwDc/ Jon Reiss is a filmmaker who also helps filmmakers strategize and execute the releases of their films and train their PMDs.  His new book is a collaboration with The Film Collaborative and Sheri Candler titled Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul to be released in September.  His latest “film” Bomb It 2 will be released on iTunes and other digital platforms later this year.  He can be reached at: Reiss.jon@gmail.com, Facebook, Twitter In 2005, I started a documentary project that became Bomb It.  The resulting film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007, was released on DVD, iTunes and Netflix via New Video and has had an extended life on VOD (Gravitas), web series (Babelgum), various foreign sales (PAL DVD this month on Dogwoof) etc.   As many of you know, my experience releasing Bomb It inspired me to write a manual for other filmmakers to release their films in this new distribution landscape: Think Outside the Box Office. Chris Horton approached me to write a post on how I would release Bomb It in today’s distribution landscape (and knowing what I know now). I’ve actually thought about this a lot (mostly kicking myself for what I could have done better!).  One caveat to this post – we are still in very early experimental times and the tools, techniques and strategies continue to evolve.  In addition, hindsight is easy. What I hope this post will do will provide helpful insight into how what I learned can help your process.  1. Better Integrate The Distribution and Marketing into the Filmmaking Process We actually did a pretty good job of engaging fans for Bomb It early on, considering the tools available and our resources. But we could have done more (although the technology/facility with much of what I mention didn’t really exist in 2005 when we started): More organizational and partner outreach – and earlier in the process. Earlier sponsorship engagement. Utilized more crowdsourced content for our website – encouraged fan submissions of material and been faster with turnaround on submitted material.  Art, poster-design, and trailer-editing competitions. Allowed mashups of footage (might still do this). More activity on a broader range of social media (not as possible then as it is now – our new Facebook page grows by 500-1,000 a month now – 4 years later). More engagement with prominent blogs and websites. My producer Tracy Wares did a great job with outreach during the production, and was able to attract 5,000 MySpace. But by Tribeca she was too busy producing the film and then left when we premiered at Tribeca (she had to get a job) – at the beginning of distribution.  I’m sure many of you are in the same situation.  Hence: 2. Engage a Producer of Marketing and Distribution The concept didn’t exist for Bomb It – I created the concept in reaction of not having someone like this for Bomb It. (It’s why the first article I ever wrote on the subject, for Filmmaker Magazine, was subtitled “Or how I “invented” the Two Month Window and spent six months wanting to kill myself every day.” Recently, I just brought on someone to train as a PMD for Bomb It 2. I can’t say enough how important it is to have help, a lot of help, in this process. Part of what I do now is help train and supervise PMD’s for other filmmakers. For more on the PMD you can check out my chapter in the free ebook: The Modern Moviemaking Movement. 3. Budget for Distribution and Marketing We should have taken at least a third of our budget for Bomb It and used it for distribution and marketing (Hell, we spent/wasted $25,000 opening the film at Tribeca: $10,000 for a publicist, $5,000 for an event the City of New York shutdown at the last minute, plus travel, street teams etc. But we sold out and turned away at least 200 people per screening). Some of this money would have gone to pay the PMD.  It would have also allowed us to create some of the merchandise outlined in item 7 below.  You can have the Think Outside the Box Office budgeting chapter for free in an E4M exchange (see point 5) to the right (or left). 4.  Crowdfund for Audience Engagement I would have at least done a crowdfund campaign to raise part of the distribution budget.  For instance, Gregory Bayne recently incorporated the theatrical screening booking process into his Kickstarter campaign for Driven.  And Joke and Biagio raised $45,000 on Kickstarter for distribution of their film Dying To Do Letterman. 5.  Engage Social Media from Inception If you don’t have an audience you are sunk. It’s easy to put your stuff up for sale online. It’s hard to get people to want to watch it (even for free). It takes time to develop audience.  Start early. Find the social networks that make sense for your audience and use them. We spend a lot more time on Flickr now – some graffiti writers only have a Flickr account – no email or even cell phone.  Twitter didn’t exist when we began the process, nor did Facebook “like” pages.  But we now have 11,000 fans on the Bomb It personal and “like” pages, and we are just starting to use Twitter (as does our audience). You can have your PMD handle your film sites/pages – but you as a filmmaker need to handle your personal sites. You need an authentic voice. To help manage the process I use Hootsuite, which I like much better than Tweetdeck – especially for the Mac.  You can follow and like me to see how I use Twitter and Facebook – Same with the Bomb It Page.  But I also recommend you check out Tiffany Shlain, Kevin Smith and especially Ed Burns.   People say you can’t monetize using Twitter, but by being engaged with his fans Ed was able to push “Nice Guy Johnny” into the top 10 on iTunes when he released it by appealing to his fans on Twitter.     6.  Utilize widgets for fan acquisition early in the process  Topspin didn’t exist when we released Bomb It on DVD.  Their technology for fan acquisition is perfect for Bomb It (and many films) and I wish I had it to use in 2007.   You can see “like for media” in action on our Facebook page.   You can also see an “email for media” widget on the TOTBO page.   And while you’re on the Bomb It or my personal “like” page, check out our Rootmusic “BandPages”.  7.  Develop More Win-Win Partnerships Earlier We created a number of promotional and corporate partnerships for the release of Bomb It – Urb and Arizona Ice Tea to name two.  But we could have done more, but this work is labor intensive and a PMD can really help here. In the last two years we have started working with Meeting Of Styles and The Estria Foundation as promotional and screening partners. My new PMD will be expanding this network for Bomb It 2 as it appears appropriate. More creative corporate engagement would have been great – although it is hard when you are dealing with people who most of society considers criminals. 8.  Focus on Live Events instead of Traditional Theatrical I learned in releasing Bomb It that events are more powerful than week long runs (however, I would still have done my theatrical in NY and LA for the reviews – and/or I would have used Tribeca as my NY theatrical and let the reviews run then.)  Having a PMD would have enabled me to use Tribeca as my NY premiere and to follow up with my live events close afterward.  My live events would have involved having a DJ remix the music live at screenings; having graffiti battles at screenings; having panel discussions and debates after screenings (most of which I have done since – but not on a large coordinated scale). I would let the local organizers determine which event would work best for them and their local organizational support.   Mike Dion and Hunter Weeks did a great job of creating events and utilizing a combination of local and national partner organizations for their release of Ride the Divide.  I go into depth into their process in my section of Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul, my new book that I am writing with The Film Collaborative and Sheri Candler due out on ebooks and iPads this September. 9.  Created More Merch Geared for My Audience for the Release I always wanted to do a Bomb It book/DVD combo: no time.  A PMD would have made that happen.  Since releasing Bomb It I have also wanted to do a vinyl soundtrack and a toy – perhaps as an enclosure for the DVD or USB pen as created here by DataRock.   Or a DVD/Vinyl package like this for Frownland from Factory 25: In fact the toy/DVD-USB works better for my audience than the book/DVD.  I have considered doing it now – but the time and money involved don’t seem worth it several years after the release. 10.  Licensed my digital rights on as many platforms as possible sooner Digital was in its infancy in 2008 – at least for monetization.  But it is really emerging now and once you put it up for download (ETS) or rent (broadband VOD) I would get it up on as many of these platforms as possible - giving thought to potential lucrative exclusives and strategizing streaming and SVOD appropriately.  I would get the film up on a DIY Broadband VOD service such as Dynamo, Distrify or EggUp in order to handle everyone who can’t or won’t use traditional services.  Since so many of my audience engage in peer-to-peer activity, I would talk to James King about putting Bomb It up on VODO.  Perhaps I would have done a series on VODO as part of the cross media experiment. 11.  Thought Outside of the Film Box In other words – I would now have embraced the cross media aspects of Bomb It earlier in the process – from inception.   We knew we were producing more content than we could accommodate in a feature.   Our main plan was to produce more features!   We eventually output many webisodes via Babelgum as well as some timed with the release.   But this was only scratching the surface of potential ideas.  We recently (fall 2010) launched the Bomb It  geo-location iPhone app – and how I wish I had launched this 6 months to a year before I released Bomb It. In fact – I should have had it before I started shooting so that I could have preloaded it with photos when I was shooting the film!  Alas – the iPhone didn’t exist when I was shooting Bomb It. There are constantly new and exciting ways to engage audiences and create media.  One only has to look at Tiffany Shlain and what she is doing with Connected or Kevin Smith’s new Topspin powered website, or what the Cosmonaut folks are doing in Spain (who Sheri Candler writes about in our book) to get a small glimpse at the future.]]> Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Artist Services Home Page, Marketing Jon Reiss, Director and Author 2011-07-24T20:29:50+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/10-ways-in-which-i-would-release-bomb-it-today/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/U-1iMMrZ5fc/ There was a reason the film industry buzz humming through Park City seemed particularly insistent during this year’s Festival. Whether it’s because two of the critical stand-outs from last year’s Festival - Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone and Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right - fared well at the box office, or because the economy appears to be slowly recovering, nearly twice the 14 films sold to distributors during the 2010 Festival have been acquired this year, 27 as of now. Nine of 16 U.S. Dramatic Competition films were picked up by distributors (one of them, Terri, was sold pre-Festival; check out the latest tally of films that have sold so far). “This Sundance will go down in history as the one that pulled the independent film business out of the economic recession,” veteran film industry sales agent and producer Cassian Elwes, who’s brokered many distribution deals at the Festival over the years, tweeted on January 27. “We are at a new crossroads - this crossroads between the power of distribution and money influencing creativity.” - Morgan Spurlock In the midst of an active sales environment, the discussion of alternative forms of distribution was also notably prevalent in Park City this year. In fact, while filmmakers such as Lance Hammer (Ballast) and Marianna Palka (Good Dick) have recently pursued new ways of putting their work before audiences, the 2011 Festival put the self-distribution conversation on center stage. It’s no longer enough for indie filmmakers to be creative and know how to direct; now they need to be businesspeople who know how to get their films in front of audiences. During the Festival, Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam announced a new initiative to provide the Institute’s film and theatre artists with access to top-tier creative funding and marketing, and the endorsement of the Sundance name. The initiative also aims to provide artists with access to a variety of leading distribution platforms to be announced later this spring. The changing distribution landscape is “a great opportunity for the Institute to expand support for our artists and to energize audiences around independent storytelling,” said Putnam. On Monday, January 24, Festival favorite Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) premiered his funny examination of product placement in movies, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, in which he transparently sidles up to advertisers to get them to pay for the cost of making the documentary in exchange for advertising their products in his film. The next day, Kevin Smith premiered his dark, subversive splatterfest Red State to a sold-out crowd who listened to his alternately angry, hopeful, and wistful announcement that he and his producing partner Jon Gordon were going to bypass traditional distributors altogether and take the film on a Red State U.S.A. tour in March and hopefully release the movie nationwide on October 19, the date his iconic movie Clerks was released 17 years ago after its Festival premiere. The two directors are on opposite ends of the distribution spectrum: Spurlock’s laugh-out-loud film arrived at the Festival with a multitude of marketing deals already brokered with various companies; Smith has created an unsettling movie some distributors would be hesitant or unable to find an audience for, but they’re both tinkering with the traditional distribution model and finding some hope in the process of connecting with filmgoers. Curious about how product placement and branding function in mainstream Hollywood movies (and how the practice influences artistic integrity), Spurlock decided to ask any company that’s game to advertise their products in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. Ultimately, 15 do, including JetBlue, POM Wonderful, Merrell shoes, and the island of Aruba.  In exchange for exposing his audience to the companies’ products, those companies agreed to promote the film. As the rollout for the film’s marketing begins, in every location of Sheetz, a mid-Atlantic convenience store chain, there will be cardboard cutouts of Spurlock and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold collector cups. JetBlue will air ads for the film, featuring Spurlock, on the TVs on their planes for six weeks before the film is released. “At Hyatt Hotels, it’s going to be me as you turn on the TV saying, ‘Welcome to the greatest hotel you’ll ever experience,’” Spurlock explained at his Festival premiere. The deals he makes in the film aren’t make-believe, so when Spurlock went knocking at distributors’ doors with a whole host of cinched-up marketing plans, he made the distributor’s work that much easier. Spurlock’s model isn’t realistic for most - or any other - documentary makers, but Spurlock said the film “shows the possibilities of working with advertisers.” He stresses that he didn’t allow any of the companies in the film to have approval over final cut. “We really did have carte blanche to be as creative as we wanted,” he said, and some of his ideas were shot down by the companies (he wanted to give away a Mini Cooper car to someone who would name their newborn Mini Cooper). “There’s a real creative power when you empower an artist and I think that the more advertising brands that do that and step away from trying to have control will really create a revolution in film and television,” Spurlock said at the premiere. It’s hard to imagine Kevin Smith getting cozy with advertisers, particularly after his charged announcement at the Red State premiere on January 23. Calling his plan to self-distribute Red State his “indie 2.0,” Smith said he was fed up with distributors who spend four to five times a movie’s budget to market a film and thus make it nearly impossible to recoup costs. Ads, publicity, marketing: Smith ranted at his premiere that most distributors don’t know how to spend money smartly and creatively in any of those arenas. He says he does - particularly at a moment when social media is a better use of marketing dollars than billboards or newspapers - and he’s going to do it himself. “We believe the state of film marketing has become ridiculously expensive and exclusionary to the average filmmaker longing simply to tell their story,” Smith and Gordon explain on the Red State website. “When the costs of marketing and releasing a movie are four times that film's budget, it's apparent the traditional distribution mechanism is woefully out of touch with not only the current global economy, but also the age of social media.” Smith’s maneuver around traditional distribution isn’t ideal for every filmmaker - particularly those who don’t possess his genius for marshaling coverage - but the move, coming from a veteran filmmaker who’s worked in both indie and studio film, offers a little window of hope indie filmmakers can consider. Despite the extra perseverance self-distribution requires, and the threat that a self-distributing filmmaker would spend more time on the business of film than making new films, the flux the film industry is experiencing doesn’t have to spell doom for filmmakers. The revolution Spurlock referred to at his film’s premiere excites him. “It could be fun; it could be different,” he said. “We are at a new crossroads - this crossroads between the power of distribution and money influencing creativity.”]]> Documentary, Producing, Technology, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Festival, Festival Indexes, Festival Home Page, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Institute Home Page, Distribution Claiborne Smith 2011-02-07T22:01:14+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/red-state-and-the-greatest-movie-ever-sold/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/8cJVbYfxBn8/ Last night a group of independent producers and directors gathered in the mountains of Utah to kick-off Sundance Institute’s second annual Creative Producing Summit. ‘Creative’ immediately earned its keep as Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, gave his keynote address crediting Netflix’s success to its creative entrepreneurial nature. Along with Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, a conversation ignited about how independent film distribution continues to evolve with new possibilities and challenges looming around the corner. Signaling perhaps the metaphor of how far the indie film business has shifted, it was notable to observe that in today’s new world order, it was not always clear who was at the Creative Producing Summit to learn and who to teach.  A dynamic Q&A followed with hands raised from indie film newbies to veterans John Sloss, Craig Emanuel, Peter Broderick, Josh Braun, and Ondi Timoner—all in the same boat of navigating the unchartered waters of the future of distribution. What was clear was the excitement of opportunities for film that never existed before. Filmmakers listen up: Netflix says it’s not as hard as you think to get your feature available to their 15 million subscribers. Netflix’s success began with the humble beginnings of a living room office and co-founders licking stamps, as Reed Hastings replayed Netflix’s conception, "It started because I got a $40 late fee on a rental." Annoyed with the mid-nineties model for watching movies at home, Hastings found inspiration in an effective system for home delivery while living in England. He cited how each day families simply sit out their empty milk bottles on their doorstep to be refilled—it could be one or three or none. Once Hastings applied this “delivery upon demand” to video and confirmed a DVD could withstand being mailed in the U.S. Postal System, Netflix began the journey of bringing movies to homes everywhere. Finding the right audience for the right film is one of the biggest issues filmmakers and producers face with traditional theatre distributors. Netflix is striving to bridge the gap of connecting a niche audience with a niche film by applying algorithms to promote user preferred content. So when Producing Summit Fellow Anthony Deptula asked “How can indie filmmakers use Netflix?” Ted Sarandos responded, “We don't need all 15 million users to see a film for it to work, we only need the right 100 to see it and it can build." His tip was to spread the word of your film with your core base and have them “save” your film in their Netflix queues. When enough people save a title, Netflix buys and puts into circulation an appropriate number of copies, and as more people watch the film it gains traction on the “You Might Also Like” sections. More people with similar tastes rent the film, and Netflix buys more copies of the film with the increase of demand. This system has clearly been working to help small independent and foreign films reach audiences beyond their limited runs. But Hastings was quick to remind us that global distribution is still an uncracked nut due to licensing practices and regulatory laws, for example, the iTunes video store is only available in five countries around the world. Even with these uncertainties, Hastings is confident about one thing, “In the next 10 years it will absolutely be a completely streaming on-demand world." Netflix will test the future very soon in Canada by launching a streaming-only version of Netflix.   As the future of film and technology intersect and accelerate, there are many questions left to be answered. Some as obvious as how to make subtitles work with streaming, some as untenable as piracy. The Creative Producers Summit opened with a good case and point: through ingenuity Netflix has changed the way we see films. Now if the collective brain power of the film industry can tap into a creative solution for global distribution, the whole wide world may start to see things differently. Click here to read about the closing night remarks at the Creative Producers Summit.]]> Documentary Film Program, Feature Film Program, Technology, Artist Services, Artist Services Indexes, Festival, Festival Indexes, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Distribution Bridgette Bates 2010-08-21T20:03:16+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/a-new-world-order/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artist-services-articles/~3/IZW8NjaHPkw/ In October, it wasn't uncommon that Sundance Film Festival Shorts Programmer Jon Korn added an extra hour of screening time to his routine 12-hour block.  However, instead of picking up another title from the pile of literally thousands of unwatched films, he turned his focus to the online ether.  Labeling it 'the only type of multitasking I can do,' Korn ended up perusing his favorite sites:  Funny or Die, YouTube, and countless other online destinations, all in search of putting together our 2010 Shorts Program.  “I’ll check out anything, whether it’s forwarded by friends, found on Twitter (@kornlock), or hiding in the darkest corners of the internet,” says Korn. “The egalitarian nature of how we find stuff online is so rad; cats on ladders, remixed blockbusters, or pure conceptual art – it all has to stand up on its own.” For years now, the Sundance Film Festival has stood behind the idea that shorts filmmakers who post their work online are not only okay to screen to an audience in Park City, but are in many ways encouraged to utilize both  forms due to the limited opportunities that routinely exist for short films. Sometimes, perhaps often, online audiences are different than the crowds that attend film festivals, and at other times, the screening experience simply works differently in a packed audience than it does in the solitude of one's apartment, home or  office, etc. While not everybody is hip to films being exhibited in both mediums (at least simultaneously), more and more festivals are in support of letting the films live and thrive in both worlds. “I think that the only way for festivals to stay both relevant and necessary in an online world is to completely embrace the internet as both a source of material and a platform for exhibition,” Korn continues. “As a festival programmer, I feel like it is my job to present our audiences with the best films I can find, regardless of whether they have been available on the internet. I don’t think our audiences care if thousands– or even millions– of people have seen the material online as long as it is good.” “I think at this point it is silly for a festival not to accept a film because it has been online,” comments Max Joseph, co-director of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival short, Let’s Harvest the Organs of Death Row Inmates. “The world of web video is revolutionary because it is the democratization of filmmaking.  Anyone can make a film that anyone else can watch.  THIS is why filmmakers make films– to communicate their ideas and stories with as large an audience as possible. For film festivals to ignore this, or, worse, discourage it would be against the spirit of independent filmmaking.” Joseph continues: “What's interesting about online video is that it is a completely new format.” Before the web, a short film ran anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes and generally had a proper beginning, middle, and end, with sympathetic characters and a clear narrative.  These shorts are still being made; however, they are not the shorts that thrive on the web,” the GOOD director declares. And Joseph has the resume to prove he knows a thing or two about web video. Over the last three years, he– occasionally aided with the help of Harvest co-director Chris Weller– has produced and directed over 50 videos for GOOD (www.good.is), in which the videos were streamed on YouTube, MySpace, and DailyMotion. Two of Joseph's GOOD projects were screened in the Documentary Shorts Program at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and met by an audience that was ready and responsive to the format Joseph mentions.  “The format is currently wide open for new conventions, new ideas, and new narrative structures.  Videos of hamsters playing pianos or Tay Zonday singing Chocolate Rain or Jeremy Konner's Drunk History (Note: two new Drunk History segments are part of the 2010 Festival, while the earlier episodes can be found online  at www.youtube.com/drunkhistory) are evidence of the new formats and conventions that web video has spawned," Joseph adds. " This is the age of the "viral" video and the conventions and formats are completely wide open to interpretation.” Another so-called 'double threat' of the web/fest hybrid of filmmaking is 2010 shorts filmmaker Bobby Miller, director of the film TUB, who has worked for the Onion News Network (theonion.com), Next New Networks (NextNewNetworks.com),  IndyMogul.com, and the online animation network, ChannelFrederator.com. Bobby created the Webby Award winning show, "The Best Short Films in the World" (TheBestShortFilmsInTheWorld.com),  where he showcased clips from all sorts of short films, went on to interview many of the directors, and garnered a few laughs in the process.  “The bits in between were written, directed, hosted, and edited by me and would usually track a storyline about my character,” recalls Miller. “I'm told the Webbys are considered the Oscars of the internet.  But, I keep trying to impress dates with that and they never know what the Webbys are.  Anyways, it beat out Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at the Webbys for Best Variety show for the People's Choice Awards.  That win was thanks to an online video campaign I made called: DontLetJimmyWin.com (you can find the campaign that Jimmy Fallon went on here." As for his views on festival exhibition, Miller comments: “I don't think putting a short film online should disqualify you from a festival. Most people can't attend festivals, just out of sheer ‘I don't live near it’ reasons,” Miller remarks. “Having said all of that, I totally understand the idea of exclusivity.  It's the reason why TUB isn't online and won't be for a bit.  I'm sorta a weird case in that respect, but considering I make online content every week, I was really excited for this to be something you can only see in a theatre for a while.” “The future of everything is online, we have entered the Golden Age of the Dilettante,” claims Alexei Tylevich, whose film N.A.S.A. A Volta was a film that Korn originally saw on the web and asked them to submit for consideration for the 2010 Festival. Tylevich remarks, “Not accepting anything that has been on the web already severely limits the available selection of good films produced in a given timeframe. Films should be judged on their merits and not based on methods of their temporary distribution.”  So will the online experience ever replace the experience of seeing something in a theatre?  “No. Never,” claims Harvest’s Joseph. “If you've ever visited or seen an ancient amphitheater you will find that 3000 years of technology has barely altered the live audience experience.  Sitting in a dark place with a bunch of other people allows for a greater suspension of belief and an ultimately more intense experience.  Features may have to become more optimally cinematic, meaning that they will have to evolve to better optimize the theatre experience,” Max states while citing the James Cameron pic Avatar. As for the future of online video, it's quite clear that features will (and have) follow the lead the short form has cemented in the online universe.  YouTube, Hulu, iTunes, and countless other sites such as The Auteurs which is more geared toward the art fare audience have embraced the digital age, and people seem to be flocking in numbers.  Not just the audience, but filmmakers and creators as well. “If you're a micro budget indie filmmaker, than it's pretty much a no-brainer that you MUST be distributing your film online,” the TUB director suggests. “It's really inspiring to see all these truly independent films attacking distribution in a grassroots way.  It's hard not to get excited about it.  And makes me super pumped about making my first feature, which I hope will be soon.” As for the future of online video, Festival Shorts Programmer Korn looks forward to the days ahead: “I dream about a service that would allow me to watch anything, from anywhere, at any time, for a small fee.  The money I pay would be split between the filmmaker and whatever entity pointed me towards the material. Thus the curatorial role played by film festivals (and everyone else with opinions on film) would still be vital and integral to the process..” Max Joseph weighs in, ''I thought for awhile that once YouTube and the other online video outlets adopted higher video quality that the general format of online shorts would lengthen along with the audience's ability to tolerate amateur video," recalls the Harvest director.  ''But I don't think this evolution will make obsolete the short attention-span web videos that have been kicking ass on the internet for the last few years.  This is cinema for kids procrastinating while doing their homework, people commuting to and from work, office workers stealing a couple minutes of distraction, stoners looking for a media fix, or executives passing a joke around.  The one-cycle cinema of the short viral web video is going to be here for a while and will (if it isn't already) become its own art-form.” Be sure to check out www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom for a look at the online offering of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival shorts roster.]]> Animation, Documentary, Dramatic, Short Films, Festival, Festival Indexes, Institute Site, Institute Indexes, Distribution Todd Luoto 2010-01-21T03:14:22+00:00 http://www.sundance.org/artistservices/article/the_digital_distribution_of_short_films_an_art_in_itself/