Weinstein Company experiments with YouTube

In an interesting marketing ploy, The Weinstein Company has placed the first 8 minutes on "Lucky Number Slevin" on YouTube.

Now, it happens that the first 8 minutes of this particular film are pretty self-contained, like a nice little prologue to the film itself. There's a story, more or less complete in itself, but that implies a lot about the direction and style of the whole film.

It's a unique situation, most films don't have a prologue this self-contained. Honestly, most films don't have a first 8 minutes that are this interesting. They're often setups for for payoffs that come later, without any payoffs in themselves. Sequeneces from the middle of the movie are less desirable for a few reasons, not least because audiences will know it's coming and will be expecting it until they see it, which might blemish their experience of the film.

So this technique might not work for most movies. It might not work for this one, coming as it does sort of late in the release window (though it wil likely help dvd sales).

But if your structure does support it, it's a fantastic idea. If you have something, characters, plot, style, something that pulls people into the movie in the first section, this is a great way to let people get a solid taste of your film. And it's a natural for digitally distributed films, why not? You're reaching the audience that might pay to see the whole thing anyway.

Smart promotional technique, and will probably be widely linked and discussed. And emulated.

And we'll eventually have studio execs asking filmmakers "Great, but what's the youtube sequence?"

Digital Distribution | Filmmaking | The Weinstein Company | Lucky Number Slevin | Movie Promotion

Digital Distribution- How Soon Is Now?

A few weeks ago, during the Silver Lake Film Festival, I attended a panel on Digital Distribution of films. The panel was full of people who are hard at work to bring about a world where distributing your work digitally is a practical alternative.

Representatives from Movielink, Withoutabox, Moving Pictures Magazine, DirectTV, Goldpocket Interactive, and Cinema Screen Media. Several of those companies are no doubt familiar to indie filmmakers, and some are perhaps a little more behind the scenes, but all represented opportunities to get your work in front of more people.

Withoutabox, for example, said that they are planning to begin on-demand DVD fulfillment for indie filmmakers, allowing you to print and ship DVDs on an as-ordered basis. They also plan to allow filmmakers to integrate this process into websites as a "store", much along the lines of cafepress. So obviously, this will allow filmmakers to more easily manage getting DVDs to viewers, especially in small numbers. While this will undoubtedly come at a higher cost per disc than managing the process yourself, it will allow you to focus on what you do best- making films.

Representatives of several other companies talked about the coming opportunities for theatrical distribution for small-scale indies. They pointed out the under-utilization of screen capacity in most theaters, and that digital distribution makes it more practical for a once-a-day or three-times-a-week screening for certain smaller films. Without print costs, shipping, storage, etc, it makes more sense for a theater to change its screenings once or twice a day, which allows more films than ever to be shown, and makes more economic sense for movies that cost less and earn less. There are people actively working to bring this to fruition, and they have financial incentive to do so, so it's possible this won't remain a dream for long.

Also worth noting, the company Cinema Screen is anticipating this as an opportunity, as they are responsible for many of the ads shown before theatrical screenings. Having the projectors and distribution system in place, they are poised to distribute and promote this sort of under-the-radar feature.

So what about direct-to-the-viewer distribution? Well, that's well on its way as well. Movielink is already offering this for major motion pictures, and no doubt the system will expand to include a huge variety of indie films. With "shelf space" being nearly cost free, Movielink could afford to exploit the Long Tail and carry nearly everything. They could stand to improve a few things- supporting Firefox would be a good start, as would taking a good hard look at their DRM and Pricing models. But overall, it's a promising start.

All of the panelists were very positive and excited about the new distribution channels opening up, and a number were also excited about the possibility of filmmakers going right to consumers themselves, with methods such as youtube and google video. The next 18 months promise to bring big changes, according to all concerned.

It's a good time to be making movies, that's for sure. More ways than ever to get your work to viewers, and more ways than ever to build your fanbase. The future is here now, time to get moving!

Digital Distribution | Filmmaking | Silver Lake Film Festival | withoutabox.com | Movielink.com

Establishment Recognizes Digital Distribution

Emmy Awards for PC, Cellphone, and other mobile platforms.

It's interesting to see that the big boys see the potential here and are rolling in full force, while the indie folks don't seem to have really flooded in the way I would have expected. True, these nominations recognize the work of many smaller productions, but the masses don't seem to have really embraced these platforms just yet.

Possibly it's going to turn out to be just as hard to actually produce video content as it ever was. Admittedly, there's a lot of effort, coordination, and plain ol' gumption that goes into even a DV short. Maybe there's just not as many people willing to do the work of indie filmmaking as I might have thought.

Or maybe it's early yet, and we'll see more in a couple of years, especially as a new generation comes up that never expected to have to take the old route of studio approval for their work.

In any case, congratulations to the folks nominated for their work in this emerging market!

Emmy Awards | Mobile Entertainment | Digital Distribution | Filmmaking

My SoCal-ed Life

A little background on my DV experience:

For the last 4 years, I've been associated with the SoCal Film Group, a creative collective of writers, directors, and producers who have come together to take their filmmaking destiny into their own hands.

The group has had 15-20 members at any particular time, and about as many reasons for participation. For some of us, the group has been a relatively cheap film school, for others it's been a place to hone talents and work towards the elusive "calling-card" short.

We've been able to leverage cheap, fast, light digital technology for a near-constant production schedule.

We're currently using a Panasonic DVX-100 with a prototype adapter that allows us to use 35mm lenses to achieve variable depth-of-field. We then input the mini-dv footage into Final Cut Pro or Avid, and lay in a soundtrack from other friendly musicians or from Garageband. We then burn everything to DVD, and put the whole thing in a case with our own graphic design on the inserts.

Some members have acquired a large collection of second-hand lights, professional sound gear, and miscellaneous equipment, so our productions are nearly entirely self-contained. Combined with some nice lightweight camera dolly and support gear on permanent loan to the group, our gear allows us to shoot a huge variety of material, and do it fast. Forty shorts in four years is a nice pace.

We've had some success with our shorts- numerous festivals, a TV screening or two, several fun screening parties. But it's time for the next step, getting our work to the larger audience. In that regard, I'm very excited about the potential of the internet for digital distribution. The barriers are gone, the gatekeepers are no more.

But...

Just because you can get your work to people doesn't mean they know they want to see it. Part of what I want to explore in this blog are ways of getting your projects in front of people. Given the vast flood of material out there (check out the endless stream on YouTube), how can you stand out of the crowd?

Now that everyone can reach an audience, how do we build that audience? What sorts of promotion and marketing will work with this new frontier? The world is indeed flat again, but it's also potentially very narrow. Is that good enough?

Time to find out.

SoCal Film Group | Short Film | Digital Distribution | Filmmaking

Welcome to No Permision, the digital filmmaking blog

No Permission.

That's what the digital revolution has finally brought to the media, a permanent state of No Permission. We don't need it any more, we grant it to ourselves.

Thanks to low-cost cameras, affordable post-production software, and high-speed internet connection, any aspiring filmmaker can write, direct, edit, score, market and distribute anything they want. Features, series, short form. Documentary, comedy, action, animation, musical. Anything and everything, we can do it all, and all without having to ask anyone if they approve anywhere along the way.

It's No Permission filmmaking, and that's what this blog will focus on. Particularly on marketing and distribution opportunities, since those are the current big challenges to conquer and master for most DIY filmmakers today.

It's an exciting time to be making movies, and this blog will bring stories of success and lessons of failure together to help improve the future of desktop filmmaking.

Digital Distribution | Filmmaking