Any Tips on Self Digital Distribution?

[capitalP]

Hey guys, I plan on making my new film available digitally only, no physical disc copies. It's a feature length film. I know there are several companies like Amazon & Withoutabox who gives you the option, but they keep a majority of the profits. I'd like to be able to put my film out there on the web and keep all the profits coming in or a majority of it. Is there any tips on doing this, any ways I can put the film on the web, so people can pay per view sorta speak or download for a fee?

I'm not that web savvy, so maybe there are tools that will allow me to do this which I don't know about.

My ideal goal would be to set the film up for Streaming for a small fee maybe .99cents and have the option available to download for a bigger fee. The first step I would think would be to set up a website for the film, but then are there tools available where if people come on the website, they are given the option to either stream the film or download, and can this be done with merchant tools such as credit card processing?

Would appreciate any tips or advice on this. After months of trying to find a distributer with no luck, I figured I want to try this option, but wanted to stay away from those services that charge 60/40 to set this up, 40 going to the filmmaker and some cases even less.

 

[Michael Frantz]

I wish I had a ready made solution to recommend to you. However I would like to just encourage you to not rule out Amazon or those others who charge you. If this is your first distribution project they may take a majority of the profits but frankly they have better market placement and a much larger community to reach out to than you will get on your own. It is not just about price per sale but also volume that can really make a difference. Unless you have a brand and a strong name in the industry - getting yourself out there through one of those other markets is what you are paying for when they take 60 of the 40. You can also do both. Amazon is a relatively painless process of getting your product out there. You can certainly do that quickly and then also shop around for these other self methods while possibly seeing some money coming in while accessing the bigger markets. Just my opinion...but it doesn't have to be a SINGLE solution. But a combination of many solutions each reaching a different market/community. I wish you absolute success in your endeavor.

 

[capitalP]

Hey Michael, you are absolutely right about the reach an Amazon or others may have. Even if I go with them, without the proper marketing to direct people to those sites, it doesn't mean anything. So my goal is to have the same set up, put money behind my marketing and direct people directly to my website to download/stream the movie.

This is actually my 2nd film, my first actually got distribution through a distributor who was able to put it out there to the Masses, but I didn't see a dime, part of it was just a bad deal I signed. This new process, will be experimental for me, so maybe I might end up losing money going this route, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm not completely ruling out the Amazon and Indieflix and the rest, I just wanna see if this is something I can do myself first while trying to get as much profits as possible. Thanks for weighing in though.

I'm already doing some research to see if this is capable, just wondering if any DVXers have distributed this way and what were the results. The only thing I think that would be expensive is paying for bandwidth in order for people to stream the movie or a server to store for people to download, I hope what ever the cost is, it's doable. But I’m willing to put a decent amount for marketing.