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OPINION
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Online Promotion And Sales Of Film
With the Tampa Bay
Film Online Film Festival now completely operational and in full swing,
we now have the long and challenging job of promoting this to the industry
and convincing indy film makers to post more of their short and feature
length films online. As luck would have it, of course, some already
do. It’s just a shame that most use online promotion with film
trailers and teasers and not to its full potential.
I’m sure that the film makers are afraid of people stealing their
work. Anything that is put on the Internet can be stolen if someone
desires it. It’s just that the fear of someone stealing their
films is so overblown, and it is actually less of a risk than submitting
a film to a film festival event. Allow me to explain.
Resolution
Risk - Most free
online services which host MPEG-type film files have bandwidth and size
restrictions. After using the compression ratios needed to publish film
online, the films have resolution which is fine for online viewing but,
like a low resolution copy of a recording or picture, is practically
useless for plagiarism, theft, or as a target of piracy. Film festival
event submissions, on the other hand, are often on DVD’s at full
resolution for screening. Which do you think is the greater risk, especially
when you weigh in the incredible exposure that online screening offers
over the event?
Market Undermining Risk
- Some film makers fear that they will give away the store by showing
the world the full film, especially considering the increased exposure
which online screening gives them. Who will buy a film when they have
already seen it? Plenty, it turns out, and for a variety of reasons.
First, the online screener is at Internet resolution and most prefer
higher quality versions of a film for their IPOD or home theater viewing.
If they like it, they will buy it, especially if it isn’t overpriced.
High resolution file downloads, which is the future of distributing
film, especially among the new generation of film makers who choose
to self-publish, bypass traditional manufacturing and distribution costs
and can be very profitable at $5.00 to $10.00 per download. Our main
sponsor, indy film production company Dream Nine Studios, is going to
self-publish many of their short and experimental films using the download
distribution model, and those film downloads will only go for $5.00
a pop and maybe even less. Dream Nine Studios will also be publishing
full length online versions of their films, and the versions that will
be sold will be enhanced with all sorts of extras, including running
commentary tracks on full versions. Film makers who are still concerned
about undermining the value of their films could also do short versions
of their films that end in cliffhangers and leave the audience wanting
more, which is something to think about. I am sure that people thought
that Apple was crazy then peer to peer networks were offering all sorts
of free pirated downloads of music and they wanted to start an online
store where people were expected to buy music. It turns out that people
will pay for quality and the convenience of knowing that you can quickly
obtain the best copy of a given property. People will pay for things
if it is the only way to ensure that they will obtain the best and the
latest version of a property.
So, there you have it. Our Online
Film Festival, although it is presently showing way too many trailers,
will prove to be an invaluable promotional and sales tool for the independent
film maker and indy film production companies. Dream Nine Studios has
been pushing it especially hard and fully supports it because it will
be used to promote their films. We’ve just made some improvements
to it, too, and while I’m not going into too many details here
are some of my favorite features and some things to note.
Music Videos - Notice
this category? Did you also wonder who in the Tampa Bay market was doing
music videos? None that we know of in the Tampa Bay independent film
scene. This will change, however, as sponsor Dream Nine Studios is planning
a MASSIVE production line of music video projects, which will also support
its music label and Eventi Events productions. These music videos will
be the first of a new kind of indy short or mini film called a “demonstrator”
film, which will be utilized by indy film makers in their investor presentation
packages. Don’t worry about the specifics for now, however, as
this information will be freely available here on Tampa Bay Film at
no charge in the future. Going back to music videos, we fully expect
to see other independent film companies follow their lead and this may
lead to a lot of music videos being shown at next-generation film festivals
like the ones that we are working on. There will be fewer boring films
in the future, and that is a good thing. These new types of indy films
will be presented and accepted more as art than most older indy films.
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of films that are little
more than bloated, pretentious tickets to Hollyweird, that are high
on hype but low on results. Please excuse me while I sit through the
B.S. boring films and yawn (hmmmmmm..... could most film festivals and
film festival attendees be sadists? A great many of them are no fun
at all, and, of course, this is going to change).
The Film Festival Event Connection
- As you know, online film festivals have major advantages over event
festivals, but there are a few things that events have going on which
will keep them around, such as socializing (a lot more involved than
simple networking) and the thrill of seeing films with the people who
made them. This is why we are working on a monthly and an annual film
festival which will tie into our Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival,
and we’ll announce some more secrets soon. See our showcase competition
category? There’s more to it than you might think, and we’re
thinking ahead.
Sublevel Navigation -
When you browse through the Online Film Festival channels and click
on a selection, you will go to the screening page for that film. At
the top of the screening pages are PREVIOUS and NEXT navigation links.
A few days ago, we intended to have those keys keyed to the total films
in our ALL channel in chronological order, as this is how that channel
is organized. This changed yesterday, when the keyed relevance became
synched to all of the films in our online film database in alphabetical
order. Why? It is easier to keep the links updated and, by not using
subscripts in our file names to keep track of file positions, the search
engines will love us much more. As of now, visitors will browse through
films on the screening level in alphabetical order, regardless of genre
category. Bravo, web team, for sorting out that mess!
As you can tell, I just love our new site, the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival, and all of the cool things that we are doing now and will be doing in the future. Isn’t it about time that you got excited and became involved, too?
Lauren
Moss
Editor
Tampa Bay Film
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