Filmmaker Releases Film Via All Torrent Sites, Says Pay If You Like It

from the piracy,-huh? dept

It looks like yet another filmmaker has realized that obscurity is a much bigger threat than piracy. Matthew Krum lets us know that the makers of the movie BLANK have decided to release the movie on all torrent sites, while also offering up a DVD version and a donation offering on their site. While I'm not a huge fan of give it away and pray business models, you have to like the attitude these filmmakers have:

No one should have to pay for a film they did not like. No one should be denied the right to enjoy the art of film.

And they actually are offering additional benefits for those who pay: access to the same group as they make their next film, allowing them to see the behind-the-scenes filmmaking process in action:

Basically the consumer pays what they think the film was worth to them. They will also have the option to sign up for a newsletter for our next film. In this newsletter there will be a username and password to a web forum so they can follow us through pre production, production and post production of our next film, a cool bonus for those who wish to follow the filmmaking journey from beginning to end first hand.

On top of that, the filmmakers seem to have convinced their whole crew to buy into this process:

The thing that makes this film unique is that it is a co-op based concept where are the entire cast and crew worked on a deferred percentage of the films gross. In other words, the cast and crew own a percentage of the films gross, so the profits are not going to Hollywood executives but instead into the pockets of the filmmakers themselves. Again the objective is to use profits from this film to make another movie and release it in the same manner.

It doesn't look like my type of movie, but if you like these types of movies, go check it out. It's great that they're releasing the movie this way, though I still think they could put in place a few more incentives to get people to actually pay for additional benefits -- similar to what many musicians are doing these days. But, at the very least, this is a great start.

Filed Under: bittorrent, blank, movies