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Film Festival Puts Short Films on the Web
A Big Gnu Thrush writes "This Variety.com article talks about the Slamdance film festival and how the marketability of short films over the Internet is allowing more short films to get face time at the festival." Slamdance is not starting until Jan. 22, but the stuff that's exhibited there will definitely be worth watching.
This is just the sort of thing that can help combat the single biggest problem in getting your film seen: distribution.
There are plenty of independent studios nowadays trying to turn out "Blair Witch" clones, be the next Spike Lee, or hit the big time on a tiny budget like "Clerks" did ("Clerks" cost about 25k to make and was shot on 16mm film). There is no lack of good material that lots of people would enjoy. But the problem is how to get independent films in front of people.
The bottleneck is the number of theaters, and the "gatekeepers" for access to those screens. Operating a theater has become progressively more expensive recently, and has been reflected in the cost of tickets and the disproportionate percentage of screens devoted to hunting for the next blockbuster (if you as a theater manager have four screens, are you going to risk devoting 25% of your screen space to a low-budget unknown film, or are you going to add another five daily showings of "The Phantom Menace"? Your decision can make the difference between being able to give another 5 people jobs or not... or even being able to pay rent on a large-square-foot building or not.).
Distributors like Orion (one of the more daring distributors... they are very large, with contracts for a good percentage of screens, and they have shown a willingness to consider and distribute independent films... a risky thing in a guild-run and union-run industry) have contracts for a specific number of screens, and unless a "Titanic" or "Blair Witch" shows up, the theaters will be reluctant to mess with those contracts. The distributors like to make their stockholders happy too, so they go for big-budget blockbusters in preference to low-budget high-risk films. Contrary to popular belief, most coprorate decision makers DO want to "do the right thing", no matter the industry, but when you're answerable to the stockholders and the Securiies and Exchange commission, you *must* put profit first. If you don't, you get to stand on a streetcorner with a "Will Promote Films For Food" sign.
Given that we're not going to see a doubling of the number of screens any time soon, and given that "art cinemas" (usually theaters converted from showing porno films that have been zoned out of existence) are on the decline, what's an indie film to do?
So here's the $64,000 question... will this be successful enough for indies to occasionally make a "crossover" and pick up mainstream distribution a la "Clerks" and "Blair Witch" and "Do The Right Thing"? Is this going to be the preferred method?
And if it starts to work... what are the guilds going to do ensure they get a piece of the action? And what are Viacom and TCI (ahem.. I mean AT&T) going to do?
I've been to the Montreal and Toronto Film Festivals and others and I agree with people who day that Online Films are both a good and bad things.
Good things is that it allows people who do not have access to go there to watch it. I mean the jest of it is that a lot of short films take a LONG time to make it out on video and some people like me just don't have the patience.
On the other hand. Going to a film festival is more then watching the movie. its a total package experience, talking to the producer. The fans, the crowd. Even taking a loved one. Imagine sitting in front of the 9" monitor with your loved one, now isn't dressing up and going to the film festival with her much more fun?
IMHO...
-- Note: These Comments are Generated by ME! Not You! ME!
It just seems like the medium isn't advanced enough yet. Streaming stuff off the internet doesn't give near the quality to make it worth my mind. I guess you could argue that the quality of the presentation isn't nearly as important as the content, but it seems that much of the content is lost on users turned off by the presentation.
I've never been a big fan of streaming media and I think streaming video (while impressive) isn't good enough yet to actual be profitable (and worthwhile for the end user). IPv6 may change that somewhat by enabling higher and more consistent bandwidth, but I doubt it'll be the answer to our problems. Until modems are a thing of the past I don't see this stuff having lasting appeal.
I'm a big fan of digital presentation, and can't wait for TV/Movies to be streamed from the net to my bigscreen... personally though I just don't see it happening for another 10 years or so... if that soon.
Mordred