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Probably one of the best indy film "series" that I've ever seen was Pioneer One. It is telling that they are now trying to substantially raise the amount of money that they need to continue the series... as the producers ran up huge debts and as they've said on their Season 2 web page that they simply need more money to do the job right. You might be able to spend less than the roughly $1 billion spent on the production of the Lord of the Rings + Hobbit and still do a polished job of the whole production, but it won't be so easy to do either. Most of the time you are cutting corners and it shows.

Sometimes you can trade time & favors for cost... as they've done with Pioneer One. While an episodic TV series, it has months between episodes and they only have six episodes to work with. I give kudos to these guys for what they've done, but it does take more.

There are several other on-line groups which are trying to make their own videos... many with Hollywood connections in terms of actual talent and knowledge of how to do this kind of thing in terms of knowing more than the raw mechanics of the whole thing. It isn't easy though. The big change is really distribution as the internet has completely changed how content is getting delivered. The actual production of video content hasn't really changed all that much.

Probably one of the best indy film "series" that I've ever seen was Pioneer One. It is telling that they are now trying to substantially raise the amount of money that they need to continue the series... as the producers ran up huge debts and as they've said on their Season 2 web page that they simply need more money to do the job right. You might be able to spend less than the roughly $1 billion spent on the production of the Lord of the Rings + Hobbit and still do a polished job of the whole production, but it won't be so easy to do either. Most of the time you are cutting corners and it shows.

Sometimes you can trade time & favors for cost... as they've done with Pioneer One. While an episodic TV series, it has months between episodes and they only have six episodes to work with. I give kudos to these guys for what they've done, but it does take more.

There are several other on-line groups which are trying to make their own videos... many with Hollywood connections in terms of actual talent and knowledge of how to do this kind of thing in terms of knowing more than the raw mechanics of the whole thing. It isn't easy though. The big change is really distribution as the internet has completely changed how content is getting delivered. The actual production of video content hasn't really changed all that much.

OK, perhaps someone here can provide some suitable legitmate and mainstream examples that we can cite then, because I have to admit I'm struggling with your criteria. I use BitTorrent to download a lot of legit stuff, but if Ubuntu (and, by implication of its popularity, all other Linux distros) and presumably niche/word-of-mouth Internet series like Pioneer One are not suitable, then what is? ISTR that one of the larger game vendors uses BT to push updates and patches, but can't for the life of me remember which one, and there have been a few similar experiments here and there, but most of those seem to have died a death.

Surely there's something? Right?

The reason this would be profitable is because the traditional entertainment providers are dropping the ball and are so concerned about the short-term bottom line that they have forgotten about what it is that got them into the position of being dominant content providers in the first place.

Yes, a group of would-be independent movie and television producers could come up with something on their own and start providing some really interesting content that might be able to capture the imagination of people, particularly in the largest or one of the largest economic markets of the world.

An example of what may be happening in the future is stuff like Pioneer One. The advantage of a group outside of America is that with the right kinds of government support (however you want to define that), there would be the financial resources to pull this off. These independent producers usually can't get their act together to be able to get a credible challenge to the big boys.

Then again, I might just be surprised and see these independent producers put together a joint service sort of like a cross between Hulu and YouTube with some filters to throw out the crap.

Advertising would certainly be with the traditional Madison Avenue sources, but it should be noted that advertisers really are not tied to any particular platform. They don't care if they are advertising on the internet, billboards, television, radio, movie previews, buses, or on a person's behind. What they care about is simply getting the word out about their products, and to some extent being able to target certain demographic groups depending on the kind of product they are trying to sell. Hulu was able to make a huge cash flow from these advertisers, and in fact most people watching these movies and TV shows didn't mind the "commercials" and were even willing to have them mixed in with the content.

That is where the money is to be made. If some outside group is making high quality content that people want to see, the money will come because the page views and eyes will be there. It doesn't need to be all or nothing either but it would require substantial numbers of people willing to watch this content. The problem is that these companies based in America think that only American companies could come up with content that would be interesting to Americans.

Well its not that easy. First there really isn't any good entertainment content on YouTube unless you're 13 years old and get a laugh out of retards.Gimme some good Sci Fi like http://www.pioneerone.tv/ (Which I donated twice to) and I'll watch I started my boycott by not going to the movie's and I haven't been to one movie since before Iron Man 2. I just couldn't spend $40-50 between me an my son to watch some shitty movie which I might as well buy a big screen tv and just buy the DVD's at pawnshops.

I did buy the Louis CK show that he release and it was worth every penny http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/22/louis-ck-makes-1-million-in-12-days-proves-that-drm-free-conte/. I haven't bought commercial music for ages but I still do download old stuff and have about 400 cd still. My tastes changed a little and I get quite a bit of music from http://www.ektoplazm.com/

Thanks for reminding me of checking out Pioneer One again.
I'm to lazy to dig up their current financial situation, though.

This is great to further spread the idea of direct distribution, but I'm still more impressed with Pioneer One which is accomplishing more with much less and using a creative commons license. http://www.pioneerone.tv/

I'm with you on that. I was disappointed when I went there and they didn't list all the linux distro's I'm constantly seeding. I do find it funny though, they do list Pioneer One. That's right, shame on me for sharing a TV show that was made to be shared. lol.

I didn't think the site was about shaming; reading some of the links on the site (the privacy policy is somewhat amusing) they say they had the idea as a proof of concept, and implemented it to see if it would work, and thought they may as well make it accessible.

I checked the other day when I first saw this, and just now. They didn't have anything for me, even though I have also been sharing the Pioneer One show, and a load of stuff from Jamendo.

I'm with you on that. I was disappointed when I went there and they didn't list all the linux distro's I'm constantly seeding.
I do find it funny though, they do list Pioneer One. That's right, shame on me for sharing a TV show that was made to be shared.
lol.

Contemporary and excellent sci-fi can be done with almost no CGI and special effects. If you haven't checked out Pioneer One, you owe it to yourself to do so. One of my favorite shows.

http://www.pioneerone.tv/
http://vodo.net/pioneerone

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http://www.pioneerone.tv/ proof that you do not need big budgets...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexx also was low budget and was decent until the last year when they had their budget cut in 1/2 by Syfy in an attempt to kill it.

Also everyone forgets that Mad Max was made on a shoestring budget, they could only afford ONE leather jacket.

Primer in 2004 was also very low budget and a great film.

Moon made in 2009 was also very low budget and good.

Only people that know nothing at all about TV and movie production think it's all very expensive to make anything quality. It's not.

"Producing content is an expensive and painful business. " No it is not.

http://twit.tv/

http://www.pioneerone.tv/

http://revision3.com/

http://www.theonion.com/ - they make a broadcast "news" show for almost nothing.

Also The daily show and colbert report were dirt cheap before both of them got greedy as hell. John Steward started that show making a GOOD wage but now hew is making an obscene wage.

The costs per episode tv show is complete bullshit and they know it. High quality TV can be made a LOT cheaper and is starting to surface. SciFi channel CLAIMED they were going to do that but they became retarded and only used SAG actors and that instantly drove the price through the roof. Sorry but Charlie Sheen is not worth 1/20th of what he got paid for that really low budget TV show that ended up having expenses that were on par with a TV show like Eureka that has real talent and the cost of prop building and EFX every episode. And the costs for EFX are coming down fast... IF I can make a convincing meteorite hit on my $350.00 computer using a $800.00 program... It's game over. http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/meteor_crash_3d_p1/

I am for paying a good actor a reasonable wage and covering his/her expenses... but getting 7 figures for a movie or a year in a TV series is bullshit. And it's not acting ability that they are paying for. Tom Cruise cant act.

The whole industry needs to be shaken up hard.

> ...before we finally get away from the middle man?

You mean with something like this, I presume?

http://www.pioneerone.tv/

Here ya go!

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/12/17/1943224/Stargate-Universe-Cancelled
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/06/18/batman-fan-film-city-of-scars/
http://www.starwreck.com/
http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/
http://www.pioneerone.tv/

Personally, I wouldn't class a burner app as "semi-decent" if it doesn't automatically convert .MKV files (or any other suitable format) into VOBs on the fly and add the necessary file table info to play on a standard player whenever I use the "DVD Movie Disc" or equivalent option/switch. YMMV.

Of course, you could also wait a while. I'd say the chances are pretty good that if/when the first series is done there will be a pressed and boxed set of DVDs or BluRay(s) for sale from the Series' website to help fund the next season.