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Selling downloads of your film on your own part 8

So now that I've got the major things worked out... where/how I'm going to sell the downloads = DPD

I know how to encode the files properly to keep the file sizes down while maximizing quality by learning from movie pirating groups and the movie torrent scene ^ ^

Most people probably look at piracy and just see thievery... but I see unsatisfied customers from Hollywood's shitty practices.... I mean their practices are great for the talentless money grubbers who run the show BUT shitty for the customers... So as always I read peoples comments in various places where movies are sold or pirated to try to get a general feel for the vibe... people love movies... they want to watch them NOW... they'll buy them IF buying them is easier than pirating them AND a reasonable price...

In my own experience I pirate stuff because I want to see it NOW but its not available... like a lot of Anime.. the torrented versions would be released YET there was no place to buy a legal digital download?! Then DVD's would come out months later... I don't want DVD's and I wanted to watch it NOW! So I torrented it ....watched it and that was that... NOW if I could have paid to download it for $5 I would have....but that wasn't available...  it not the viewers fault the distributors are TOO SLOW!

Now more about unhappy customers... here's an image I found on some forum wherein people were talking about their dissatisfying Blu-Ray experiences in having to wait for commercials at the beginning of the discs...

Give someone a crappy experience that they PAID FOR and they'll spite you forever... 

In indie filmmaking people talk a a lot about "self distribution" but most of the time that's not what it is as far as digital downloads go... if your film is sold on Amazon Instant Video they are the distributor...Itunes...same thing... they take a cut and THEY control your film...

Why give them a cut? And why give them control? For the brand recognition/affiliation?  To save on hosting/bandwidth fees? AMAZON S3 BEEYATCH! So they can give the customer an easy and friendly buying experience? DPD HOMIE!!!

I think a growing number of people are getting sick of big brands.... big corporations... they would rather pay the artist/creator directly... so hey filmmakers let's let them do that eh?!?! ^_^

When I first sought out to sell digital downloads of HSM I just wanted Bandcamp for films... but it doesn't exist so I'm going to have to make my own little thang...

So yeh I'm going to do my best at trying to make this Heart String Marionette digital distribution work...and if it does I'll share all the details with you as I've got some tricks up my sleeve.... I've NEVER used my creativity/will power for business purposes but its about time I did so... even if it fails I'll still share the details... there is a great WAY to be found and imma try to find it!

Comments

  1. It's certainly a conundrum that everyone's boggling over at the moment.

    There's definitely both sides of the coin even from the 'big corporations' , I find many Warner Bros Blu Rays to be a joy, insert and the film begins, you have to prompt on your remote to see a menu, or a trailer. Then there's Universal which are fucking ridiculous for the amount of shit you have to wade through before actually watching the film, it's all factory farmed too, same ads, same menus, no personality, no care. I do also appreciate the attempt to have the freedom editions that allow you to watch blu-ray, dvd or digital download from a single package... seems to be heading in the right direction.

    I'm interested to follow where you take your distributing/marketing, it really sounds like an optimal situation, perhaps not for general consumers who are after the 'tent pole' type movies available in their shopping malls, but for the avid movie enthusiast who keeps up with directors/filmmakers etc... I can see there being individual hubs, and then central aggregators for the newest releases, perhaps affiliate programs are more viable in place of a standard 30% fee in the future, particularly for the filmmaker(s), who knows?

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  2. How much of a cut would you take if someone presented you with a decent film they'd like to have distributed digitally?

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    Replies
    1. The next step I'm going to take after releasing HSM this way is to set up an independent film store so other people can sell their films so yeh ^ ^

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  3. DAMN'T. Nevermind. I'll just actually read the first 8 parts to this blog and do it the right way and sell it myself. :( I wish I had money to pay people for this shit. I just want to make movies and feed myself doing it.

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  4. I am all for being able to download films and getting rid of unskippable ads, but one thing that I don't like about most downloads, as compared to renting a DVD or purchasing a DVD, is that when people host files online they often do not grant access to extras. I'd really like to see HSM, but I'd also like to see the extras. I may be among a minority here but, often times, I enjoy the extras just as much, if not more, than the actual feature. I really hope the future media distributors do not decide that extras are no longer of any value and, as such, no longer need be created or distributed.

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    1. i second that completely, extras are the only reason i ever buy dvd's anymore, same goes for audio commentary too. i take very nerdy pride in being able to say i can quote the commentary to movie x.

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  5. Just listened to podcast no. 12 where you guys were wondering what we would like to see as extras to digital downloads, and what the new generation of extras would be etc. Here are some things that I would love to see: drafts of the film script/screenplay - they could be rough drafts at different stages of the film and they wouldn't need to be perfect. If they were scanned in versions with notes or thumbnails for further developing ideas - that would be even better. Storyboards would be cool. I can't remember if you did an animatic this time around, but if you did, a short clip from it might be interesting. Commentaries / alternative soundtracks would be awesome, a link to a page for people to post subtitle files in other languages would also be appreciated.

    It could be asking a lot, but depending on how you went about the preproduction, it could be pretty easy to just attach a PDF of the storyboard or PDF/document of the script.

    Other things like interviews with actors, yourself, fans, the other guys on the podcast, a making of etc would be cool, but they might require time, money, hosting space, a bit of creativity, and a lot more work. Maybe that stuff is not so easy to do or not viable right now as an independent film-maker. However, if it is doable, those would be awesome too.

    I agree with what JellyAdotMeyer says, those are a big part of the reason I buy or rent films. If I see a film online and I find out, hey that film has a cool extra on the DVD - then I'll often go and at the very least rent it, just to see that extra. If a DVD comes out without extras, I often wait till one comes out with a whole lot of extras. It would be sweet if downloading the film on release would still allow us access to any extras that might be made/released later on.

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