By : Billy Gil | Posted: 08 Nov 2009
bgil@questex.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — At a panel at the American Film Market (AFM) Nov. 8 on changing independent film distribution strategies, the form of distribution panelists sought the most was the most traditional — theatrical.

The panel, programmed by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, agreed that the market for independent film was still strong, with Lionsgate's Precious having just opened to rave reviews and Paramount Vantage's grassroots marketing success story with Paranormal Activity.

“There is still a tremendous demand [for compelling independent films],” said Mark Burton, president of IndieVest Pictures and producer of the upcoming Saint John of Las Vegas, starring Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman.

But, he added, there are fewer buyers, so there need to be alternative plans to distribute them, including video-on-demand (VOD) and downloads. And, he said, it helps if you can align the release well so that its stars are compelled to promote the DVD release, such as with Saint John, the DVD release of which may coincide with the return of “The Sarah Silverman Program” on TV, for instance.

Leslie Urdang, president of Olympus Pictures and producer of the upcoming Rabbit Hole, with Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, said her company had previously sold rights inexpensively to films to companies such as IFC who could then recoup the cost through DVD sales, but she said that model isn't always lucrative. Olympus now has a partnership in place with Cinedigm, a company that delivers films to movie theaters digitally, to distribute some of its programs to theaters.

Panelists spoke of the importance of theatrical windows with regard to DVD and VOD — many theaters won't show a film if it's going to be released on DVD or VOD shortly, within two to six weeks. But Ted Mundorff, CEO of Landmark Theaters, said unlike other independent theaters and indie theater chains, Landmark doesn't necessarily confine itself to those parameters. He said Landmark sometimes releases films day-and-date with VOD and DVD, and in some cases has done so in exchange for revenues from VOD and DVD.

Other than a theatrical release to boost a film's profile, the other major component to a successful independent film release is creative and successful marketing, panelists said. Panelist and filmmaker Jon Reiss (Bomb It, on DVD from New Video/Docurama) took matters into his own hands by booking screenings in 27 cities and discussed how filmmakers can cobble together non-traditional screenings and create “events” around them in order to boost a smaller film's profile, in his case helping Bomb It become a big DVD seller for New Video. Panel moderator writer/director John Alan Simon likened that kind of process to a vaudevillian approach to marketing one's own film that has become increasingly present in the world of independent film.

David Schultz, founder and president of production company Vitagraph Films (The Baader Meinhof Complex), added, “If there is a film that is VOD [primarily], it will make no difference if the marketing's right and the film has merit.”

As far as Internet distribution goes, Reiss said he sees it going the way of cable, which at first bought all kinds of content to fill air space and later refined itself into niches. He cautioned filmmakers to be protective of their digital rights because digital distribution will become more monetized over time, although not to the degree of home video.

Also, at an online piracy panel at AFM Nov. 9, panelists discussed how to not let those theatrical openings become pirated material online. Barbara Mudge, director of IFTA (Independent Film & Television Alliance) and owner of Worldwide Film Entertainment, said IFTA has produced guidelines to independent filmmakers to avoid piracy. She said most films become available illegally to download on the Web one to three days after it has first screened in theaters, much more often in Europe, where laws against filming in theaters are generally less strict and where many films premiere before they do in the United States.

Other panelists on the security side said they have to manually police Web sites and think like consumers looking for illegal content in order to find it and send takedown notices to the Web sites that provide the content. Brad Beutlich, sales director at DtecNet, said companies such as his can’t go after Web sites such as RapidShare that host pirated content if they don’t have search engines and claim they are unaware they are housing illegal content. (Those sites generally comply with takedown notices, he said.) Sites that provide the search engines to find illegal content are often off the hook because they don’t house the content themselves. He said there are some 4,000 sites that host illegal content, and panelists agreed that number will likely grow.

Panel moderator Jonathan Dayton, who co-directed (with Valerie Faris) Little Miss Sunshine and several award-winning music videos (The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight”), said he Googled film piracy and found a clip from the Rand Corp. that said film piracy was three times more profitable than the illegal drug trade.

Darcy Antonellis, president of Warner Bros. Technical Operations, shared some of Warner’s methods for avoiding piracy, such as offering YouTube “signatures” for online content that can be matched up to user uploads to see if they’re copyrighted, or sending parents notices if their children have downloaded pirated content.

Allan MacNeil, VP, content protection services, Deluxe’s Web Watch, said one way to combat piracy is to recognize it as “competition” to legitimate services.

“If you can have enough enforcement to drive down quality, it will make more people say, ‘I can’t watch this, I’m going to see the real thing,’” MacNeil said.

Mudge said consumers will still demand content online even if it’s not available on pirated sites — they will pay if it isn’t available for free.

“VOD sites are wonderful because they are going to monetize this, and then we’re all back in business,” Mudge said.

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