Word: films
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...works. This is especially true at a time when funding from studios has been seriously hit by the recession - just as it was on the way up. "The last 10 years has been a renaissance period for independent filmmaking and there has been more money coming into production for films than in any other decade in the history of film," says Jonathan Wolf, managing director of the American Film Market, an annual event where filmmakers and studio executives converge to sign production and distribution deals. But since the economic downturn, many indie movie distributors, including New Line Cinema, Miramax...
...Like Vuorensola, American animator Nina Paley ignored traditional distribution methods and released her film, Sita Sings the Blues, a comic adaptation of the Hindu epic, The Ramayana, directly online earlier this year. She first created a blog, www.ninapaley.com, to develop a community of supporters, and then posted the film on another site, www.sitasingstheblues.com, for free. It was an instant success. "I have my blog, but I essentially gave the film to the audience and they ran with it," Paley says. "It wasn't self-distribution, it was audience distribution." (See the best blogs of the year...
...Paley also sells merchandise on her site, including 35mm prints of the film stamped with a Creative Commons License, so the buyers know the money is going directly to the filmmaker. And she has a donation link through which she has received gifts ranging from $2 to $2,000. To date, Paley has made net profits of $55,000 - and she's secured theatrical distribution in France and the U.S. "What I have learned is that the more freely you show the film, the more audiences will buy the DVD and surrounding merchandise," she says. "With a normal theatrical release...
...Even some mainstream filmmakers are starting to use online distribution to build buzz about their projects or simply to get their films to as many people as possible. Last year, Michael Moore released Slacker Uprising - a documentary about his attempts to have President George W. Bush removed from office in the run-up to the 2004 election - online for free in the U.S and Canada to encourage young people to vote. And in May, documentary filmmaker Franny Armstrong launched a website called www.indiescreenings.net, where people can buy a license and then screen her climate-change documentary, The Age of Stupid...
...Rosenthal, founder of Power to the Pixel, an organization that devises new models of film distribution, says the reason many indie directors are turning to the web is that it allows them to better engage with their audiences. "The whole film business has no connection with their audience," she says. "And with any business you have to know your consumer. The Internet has become a free distribution machine, so what can you sell that makes money? Things you can't copy. They need to be things that are based around your audience. Directors cuts, merchandise, 35mm prints of your film...