Slashdot Mirror
Film Distribution Comes To The Internet
Dooferlad writes "thisisnotalovesong.com hosts something of a first - a film that is being distributed over the Internet because independent films are being pushed out of the box office by blockbusters. At a time when everything on seems to be a sequel it would be nice to have something original on the silver screen, but unless you live near the 5 cinemas in the UK where this is been shown you will have to do with your own small screen. The film is being distributed in Windows Media format, either streamed or for download. The code you pay for (2 to 3 UK pounds) allows you to watch as many times as you like. The catch for most of you reading is that it is only for people in the UK. More coverage is available from the BBC."
Now Mel Gibson will have a method of distributing The Passion.
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
Film Distributed by Internet comes to Kazaa
Posted by michael on Saturday September 06, @10:48AM
from the it's-just-a-matter-of-time dept.
Trolling is a art,
... a site worth worrying about slashdotting.
It has zero content on the front page. It starts with a useless flash animated menu. When we bring the server to its knees, you will see this:
-o
which is the world's smallest online fiddle playing "My Heart Bleeds For You."
As I understand it, it doesn't cost much more to get DVDs mass duplicated these days than CDs, and DVD-Rs are now $3 if you're forced to resort to such things.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
with no Linux or Mac alternatives
If this is the future of film distribution where MS leads (and to hell with the EU antitrust violations
) then ill stick with stealing movies from hollywood in DVDRip.DIVX format
and congrats for buying the marketing for this flick, film distribution has been on the Internet for at least 4 years (IFILM etc)
Indie Film Maker: Uhh, Industry? I don't think I can play your game. I think it's wrong.
Industry: Okay Indie Film Maker, I respect your moral objection.
[Presses the "Independent Thought Alarm" button under her desk.]
They need to ditribute this in multiple formats if they want a chance in hell of making this work. It seems that the same people that go to see indy movies are the same people using linux and Mac. So they need to make it available to us.
For a sec I was excited, then went numb... If it's Window$ only, it can die as far as I'm concerned.
It's UK and Windows only, and it isn't the first independent film to be released on the internet. See here. Took only a few seconds of googling to find it.
...and I'd love to put it to some use. I'd pay and download this, even if it's something I don't fully like. I figure supporting this distobution would be the best way to show the industry that it would actually work. ...too bad I'm in the States. There other legal distobutions centers for indie movies out there online?
To write a haiku - all you need is the correct - number of syli...
independent films are being pushed out of the box office by blockbusters
Close, but true independent films are being pushed out of the way to make room for independent (low budget) films aiming to be blockbusters. It's not that art houses are going to be showing Bad Boys II or Freddy vs Jason, but that they would rather show My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham over Gerry and The Secret Lives Of Dentists.
Only available in the UK? It seems like independent films want to be seen by as few people as possible, relishing their underdog status. I guess it wouldn't be an 'art film' if it went mainstream.
An internet debut announced around the world, yet only available to those living on the island. Woo hoo!
You see, even if it is only 3or 4 euros/dollars for the "token", you have to pay for the download time/bytes.
:P
So, for some that have 56K/ISDN or a broadband connection with traffic limit (my isp makes me pay 50euros month for 2G and 2euros plus for every 100M), it's always cheaper to buy the damn thing.
Same applies to download/buy linux distributions.
But hey... you can always download it at work
a film that is being distributed over the Internet because independent films are being pushed out of the box office by blockbusters
I hate to burst your bubble, but Indy flicks have *never* done well at theatres. Hell... half the big chains of theatres are owned by the major production companies... ( like Cinema City, Cineplex Odeon, etc... ).
Also, if you read the site... the film took a whopping *12*!!! days to film... um... unless you have a damned good photographer, and a butt load of luck, you just cant film a quality picture in 12 days. This looks more like an attempt to sell a movie, with the production efforts less then a "made for TV" movie, ever the internet... yawn...
As a side note, I would actually argue that indy flicks are doing a bit better for cinema coverage...
Crouching Tiger
Blair Witch 1,2,3,42,etc...
Shine
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
I would say we are seeing more independant films in the theatres then ever... as to being mostly sequels... well... its summer blockbuster time... traditionally, we see the big budget sequels this time of year. Also, when you look at the fact Freddy Vs Jason was the highest grossing film for what, 3 weeks... you know how craptastic the competition is!!!
Screen those downloads so you don't end up getting a renamed copy of Gigli.
+5, Female
I believe xine and mplayer (to name but two) can play WMV ?
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
How the hell is this the first film to be released on the internet? I can point you to a couple bazillion films released on the internet. This is not news.
Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
Can't find the other one.. but if you're interested in the film, why not go an see it on a lovely big cinema screen rather than a pokey little window on your PC? :)
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
Transmission Films Is an online independent films distributor that has been around for around a year, with a decent film library.
paul reinheimer
Not first to be released, the first to be simultaneously premeired on the net and in the theater.
/. zen: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Beowulf clusters...
Did anybody understand the trailer? I for one was not left with any idea of what the movie was about. Some guys in a car screaming. Some people get thrown into a barn. Somebody shoots a shotgun. Somebody pushes a boulder. Techno music throughout. What the hell is this about, why would I want to watch it, and what does it have to do (or not to do) with a love song?? I'm not really impressed by the i'm-more-clever-and-hip-than-you trailers that don't give any indication of wtf a movie is about. Especially if they are trying to gain a following in an alternative distribution channel.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
This might be a stupid question, but isn't the quality of the movie going to be pretty crappy? Even on a good internet connection it still takes a long time to download decent quality movies. Why not wait and get the movie on dvd for the same price and a much better qaulity movie.
I could see so many ways this could go bad.
I love my wife!
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was no "indy" film. The film studio that made the movie was Sony Pictures Classics, one of the largest and best funded film houses in Asia and a part of the same Sony that is a member of the MPAA. A mere glance at the film should tell you that this was a high-budget feature backed by a large company. Just because something's not made by Hollyhood doesn't mean that it's "indy."
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
It was sponsored in part by Microsoft as a vehicle to show off WM9 for theater use.
I must say it was pretty impressive -- the whole movie was projected from one DVD disk (though not the standard DVD compression) through hi-res projectors. It looked great -- the only time I really noticed was on the credits -- thin white text on a black background brings out the compression artifacts.
The cost of a DVD vs. a huge reel of film is substantial -- but the question, in part, is whether theaters will install the pricey projectors...
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
I very much doubt whether this is legal in the EU. With the internal market directive, you can't really sell something to people from one EU country and not to another (or even charge differently depending on the country).
- -
Help draw the world map of our collective minds.
It was sponsored in part by Microsoft as a vehicle to show off WM9 for theater use.
I must say it was pretty impressive -- the whole movie was projected from one DVD disk (though not the standard DVD compression) through hi-res projectors. It looked great -- the only time I really noticed was on the credits -- thin white text on a black background brings out the compression artifacts.
The cost of a DVD vs. a huge reel of film is substantial -- but the question, in part, is whether theaters will install the pricey projectors...
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
hi guys, I have seen the digital film.. the 300mb file is amazing quality - looked great on a full screen 21" monitor. if you want a review of the film there is one on the bbc somewhere
Pros:
- An independant movie maker cutting out the MPAA-friendly 'Hollywood scene' altogether.
- Direct distribution.
- Low fee for download - about a fifth of the price of a cinema ticket.
- Different quality levels available and the ability to store the movie and rewatch it.
- The movie is also available on DVD and in the cinema so the consumer has plenty of options on what they pay for and what they get.
- Some nice taglines: "This is not Hollywood", "This is not conventional", "This is not the end of cinema" etc.
- Written by the guy that wrote The Full Monty.
Cons:- "UK-only" online release
- DRM-tastic you can't watch it on any other PC than the one you downloaded it on. Until you've cracked it naturally. You've effectively paid your money to 'rent' the movie on that machine (in fairness the download fee is about the same as a 2 night DVD/VHS movie rental, which you have to return).
- M$ Windows only
- M$ Windows Media Player 9 only
- Limited availability online - they're taking it offline on Sept 19th (subject to change), which means they've got a two week hype window for a movie that we'd have otherwise never heard of.
- "This is not the Blair Witch Project" should read "We want to be a flash-in-the-pan Internet phenomenon like the BWP.
- Biggest cast member seems to be a bit-part from Harry Potter.
- Flash used as basis for website not as enhancements to it.
- Franki and Jonny may need to calm down a little and explore some other web technologies.
;-)
Oh and the director is virtually unknown but has achieved the respect of some of those that have seen his work.In short this looks like a truly great idea hijacked by a bunch of overzealous marketing types that now see the Blair Witch symbol as more potent icon than the dollar symbol. As a result it's now just a-n-other overhyped budget movie release.
The catch for most of you reading is that it is only for people in the UK.
The real catch is it's Windows Media Player Format.
You are confusing the production entity of a movie and the distributor.
Crouching Tiger was produced by Good Machine International, which (until it was bought out last year to become Focus Features, the indie "arm" of a studio) was an 800 pound gorilla of East Coast indie production. James Schamus -- one of my film professors here at Columbia -- raised financing from smaller companies and private investors worldwide. (Schamus and director Ang Lee discuss the complicated financing on the DVD, in the scenes near the end of the movie in the cave.)
Sony Pictures Classics purchased the film for distribution. They invested money in making duplicate prints, sending them to theaters, and the like. (I'm not totally sure of what the division of labor was, but that's an educated guess.) That does not rob the film of "indie" status. If it did, there would be almost no indie movies at all, since self-distributing your film is a Herculean task almost no one tries to do. What is a threshold for "indie" for you anyway? Was Good Machine small enough or should it have been made by two guys and a Arriflex? (no vituperation intended.)
Personally, I think that the main benefit of the 'net will not be in home-user distribution. Rather, there will be a proliferation of art houses that use satellites to download digitally distributed movies for little distribution cost.
Those prints I mentioned cost a lot. Thousands of dollars to copy the film once and send it to one theater. Smaller distributors make only a few prints and then cycle them around the country, beating them up royally. Big distributors make it up in the economy of scale, but for small ones, those costs could mean a world of difference. Since an exhibitor would also save the cost of getting people to handle and change the reels, it could have four different indies play on a screen over the course of a single day.
That's the promise we should be looking at, in my opinion. Home Internet delivery robs viewers of the whole social aspect of moviegoing, as well as a HUGE amount of quality. Imagine buying a DVD that gave you a 320x200, 15fps image with 22Khz mono sound, not to say those are the specs for this particular movie being premiered.
Seems it didnt survive the slashdotting, Internet film launch stalled. Oh well, i can always go down to the river and see that guy sitting in a glass box...
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Awesome idea, I just hope that when more film companies catch on they'll use a format thats multi-platform. (cough) DiVX (cough)