Skateboard Legend Stacy Peralta Demonstrates His Latest Trick: Cashing In By Going Direct-To-Fan
from the how-it-all-works dept
Last August, we wrote about an experiment by famous skateboarder and filmmaker Stacy Peralta to self-distribute his latest film, Bones Brigade, about the famous skateboarding crew Peralta himself had put together a few decades ago (the crew included some of the most famous skateboarders ever: Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill and Tommy Guerrero). Peralta had shown the film at Sundance last year, which is where most filmmakers go to try to "sell" their film to a studio/distributor to go make something of it. However, Peralta turned down all such offers (some for significant money), and instead went the "direct to fan" self-distribution path, using tools like TopSpin, and partnering with companies like BitTorrent as well. That's what we wrote about in August.Now, as the latest Sundance is underway, TopSpin's Bob Moczydlowsky has a post with some details of how it all went, noting that going direct to fan was massively successful for Peralta, allowing him to both make more money and still retain the rights to the film, rather than selling them off to some other entity.
And now, a year after the Sundance premiere and six months from the start of the direct-to-fan release powered by Topspin, Film Sales Company and our partners awe.sm and The Uprising Creative, Stacy has earned more from direct sales than he would have from the combined total of the domestic and foreign sales offers. And, because a Topspin direct release does not require licensing rights, Stacy and Andrew Herwitz from Film Sales Company were then able to do their own Transactional VOD and Third-party license deals. Stacy and his financing partners quickly recouped the budget of the film, and the copyright remains in their hands for the future.They also included a nice little pie chart (to scale), showing how much bigger the pie was with what Peralta ended up doing:
That really is the key. “I self financed, got the investment back, am now in profit and I own the copyright and will continue to earn all other sales for the next ten years,” says Stacy. “And it is all because I was empowered for the very first time to really do it myself from start to finish. Topspin has done for distribution what the Handycam did for shooting or the Avid did for editing. Topspin put it all in my hands and suddenly everything I needed was within my reach: pure and simple filmmakers democracy.”
One of the more frustrating aspects of discussing these business model issues with some people is their assumption that the "pie" is static (or, worse, shrinking). It's a classic mistake in economics for those who think that everything is a zero sum game. But one of the great things about new technologies and services is how they enable a much broader audience and increase the opportunities, opening up wider possibilities -- especially for creators who really know how to engage with their fans.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: alternatives, bittorrent, bones brigade, business models, direct to fan, opportunities, stacy peralta, sundance
Companies: bittorrent, topspin
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Pie does shrink
So, anyone claiming the pie is shrinking just doesn't realize that they can get their pie elsewhere if they want.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Pie does shrink
That's the biggest lesson in my mind with these models. Offering DRM-free product when and where consumers want it (and not freaking out when people bypass any blocks you still have in place) is going to increase your potential market and thus your revenue.
I'm sure bob will be by soon to tell us why this doesn't count because his preferred corporation wouldn't recoup the $300 million they wanked away on a shoddy script, but for many filmmakers this is definitely the way forward.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Pie does shrink
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
but, but, how can anyone do anything to make money without a studio behind them to inflate costs, restrict distribution times, areas and formats, overload it with drm, and fleece the makers/stars? tell me please!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So why is Mike against distribution gatekeepers? Mike won't be happy until the dinosaurs are unable to keep the pie small, take the lions share of it, and innovate new ways to annoy legitimate purchasers or prevent them from purchasing while simultaneously complaining about piracy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Good flick.
Damn, now I want a time machine.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
press release service
[ link to this | view in chronology ]