Today's post is again brought to you courtesy of Jon Dieringer, and is part of continuing series of cheat sheets from prior TFF posts.
WE NEED TO UNLEASH THE POWER OF THE DVD. There is a great deal more that we can do with the technology.
A few thoughts on what should be included and done differently:
-A Different Cut: usually this is the "Director's Cut" but in TFF this would always be the same version. Sometimes this is an "Unrated" cut when changes are made for ratings purposes. Can more be done with though.
-Commentary: This is often just the director and other crew collaborators. There has been an increased openness to having other directors make commentary too. Sometimes they have been using opposing critics which can get kind of fun.
-Additional Scenes: This is usually limited to scenes that were shot to include in the movie and later removed in the edit process.
-"Added Value" Content: Generally this is elements used in the filmmaking process: script, storyboards, preliminary visual effect mock-ups.
-Publicity & Marketing Elements: Trailers, Posters, Stills, Electronic Press Kits (interviews).
-Behind The Scenes/Making Of Documentary: so-called B-roll of filmmaking process.
-Hyper-chaptering (allowing for tagging and greater commentary).
-Additional Scenes: This is usually limited to scenes that were shot to include in the movie and later removed in the edit process.
-"Added Value" Content: Generally this is elements used in the filmmaking process: script, storyboards, preliminary visual effect mock-ups.
-Publicity & Marketing Elements: Trailers, Posters, Stills, Electronic Press Kits (interviews).
-Behind The Scenes/Making Of Documentary: so-called B-roll of filmmaking process.
-Hyper-chaptering (allowing for tagging and greater commentary).
“Selling just one thing is old hat” http://trulyfreefilm.blogspot.com/2009/03/pricing-diy-dvds-other-fetish-items.html
1 comments:
You may have already seen it, but 'adding value' was basically the subject of a media presentation by Mike Masnick of Techdirt on Trent Reznor and how he's been distributing his own music. The model could work just as well for indie films and, again, it's all about finding that audience, engaging it, and then having a bit of give-and-take where you set financial goals, meet them, then give a little back to your audience. What I loved is that Reznor seemed to sell a certain number of albums, then give away a lot of content before the next 'sale.' So it's all a matter of 'value' and even if you're giving some stuff away for free, if you use it as a launching pad to something of incredible value, people WILL pay for the added value. This is exactly what you're suggesting with all of these DVD extras. As a matter of fact, I'm banking on this, as I'm in talks with mevio.com about serializing my film into parts, getting a big push on their site, and then on the heels of that push, I plan on selling my DVD. Even though they've already seen the film, the DVD would have three alternate ending, cut scenes, commentaries, photo galleries, script pages... basically anything you can think of.
Anyway, I found this video on a link to another blog article that was about another subject I find very interesting. The article is called, "What Happens to Filmmaker's who Can't Market Themselves?" It's doubly important to me because I'm a filmmaker, and although I'm not shy, I'm not very crazy about the vast morass/black hole of time that can be social media - with little financial return. Here is the link: http://speedcine.com/blog/post/2009/05/11/What-Happens-to-the-Filmmakers-Who-Cane28099t-Market-Themselves.aspx
As a matter of fact, if you put two-and-two together, you can probably guess who just posted a comment under that old entry in response to what filmmaker Jon Jost said. This time I'll use my name and provide a link to my youtube channel. I've made a film shot for $17k and am only just starting to realize the importance of all this stuff. I actually believe festivals set up traditionally are becoming less important. If you look at dvxuser.com and the festivals the filmmakers themselves are setting up, they know their audience better than anyone and I think you will start to see an aggregate shift away from leaving it in the hands of programmers and moving the power into the hands of filmmakers who will set up their own little networks, screenings, DVD releases, etc. I think this is as it should be too, since I also know many filmmakers with great work who feel they've been unjustly ignored, even by small festivals, and so they no longer plan on sending out their DVD and $50 blindly. I feel the same way and almost feel as though it cheapens my own idea of my film and my... 'brand', for lack of a more civilized word. Why should I PAY to give it away to an uncontrolled environment where the only value is the audience and my fellow filmmakers, when I could probably just band together with those fellow filmmakers and inform our already established audience where the next screening will be? After all, who would know our audience better? Not only that, but I'm very likely also faced with a morale crushing rejection letter.
Food for thought, Ted!
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