The Sundance .com Festival
from the name-change dept
Despite the efforts of folks in Hollywood to lock down everything and put up tollbooths for all online content, it appears that some more independent film makers recognize that giving away content online can have strong promotional value. That's why about two-thirds of the short films being shown at Sundance this year will also be viewable online. It sounds like it's only streaming, which is a start -- but they could get even more value out of offering it in really downloadable form, so that people could watch the video wherever and however they want, while also passing it along to friends to build up more buzz.
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Independent films
Http://www.turnhere.com
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No Subject Given
I'm all for using the internet without fees to help generate buzz for artists that don't have large corporate ad budgets, but I also think it should be limited to giving enough of a "taste" to push people to purchase the product (maybe a video on demand offering or a more traditional online order service). At any rate, my basic point is that it's nice for artists to use the net to get their stuff out there, but they should be able to be make a living from it too.
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Re: No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
These are independent film makers who are trying to make a name for themselves. These are short films that are unlikely to be seen in anything other than a festival.
So wouldn't it make a lot more sense to spread these films far and wide so that the filmmakers get recognition, and so that they can get a bigger paycheck on their next film?
Also, a smart producer would offer to sell the films with lots of extras, so that fans of the download still would want to buy. Just having it as downloadable in no way "limits" the ability of a filmmaker to generate revenue.
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Whoopee.
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Re: Whoopee.
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Re: Whoopee.
Let's keep the meta-criticism to a minimum.
Yes, that's meant to be ironical.
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Re: Whoopee.
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Downloadable films
On the other hand,
1) The films could gather an early set of comments, as the films could be charge less for if the viewer did review it.
2) The popularity of the film would be measurable by the number of peolle who did decide to download it
3) There would be some payback for the creator, though of course this would be minor, but at least the creator could get some of their money back before it was distributed by standard methods.
Thus, allowing the films to be distributed before they were sold to a standard distributor or got to theaters would it seems to me allow many independantly produced films to get a viewing without hurting their final profits and would allow them to gtenerate some "buzz" and money.
Of course, those of us who were interested in the films could view interesting films early.
So this seems to be a Win, WIn situation...
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Sundance Festival
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