For-Pay Online Video Distribtion For Indies? Does It Exist? If Not, WHY NOT?!?

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Duct Tape Films

Well-known member
Is there ANYWHERE that will let an independent filmmaker (meaning not distributed by one of the big guys, or their subsidiaries, in any shape or form) SELL their online video (at say $1.99 to $3.99 a pop). iTunes & even Google Beta Video will not do this for anyone who does not have the backing of someone big. I'm looking to be able to sell it as Mac/Windows, Sony PSP, & Video iPod. If anyone can confirm that this does not exist as of yet, jeez, will one of you tech-heads please go ahead and make yourself a million dollar business already, so I can sell my damn video online.:furious3: If it is out there, but just hidden somewhere on the vast internet(s), please help me out and provide a link. Been looking, but am finding jack squat. Thanks so much....
 
The technology would be the easy part. The hard part would be advertizing.

It could be like an amazon kind of thing with user reviews and top 100. Does your video have mass appeal? or more of a niche kind of thing?

Google has been trying to get people to pay for videos for a while (in internet time at least) without much luck. So the question is how do you reach a demographic that is willing to:

Pay for content
Wait for a full movie to download
Accept lower quality video that the compresion of movies creates

This is definatly the next step. Whoever masters online dist. is going to be very rich.
 
Google Video on selling videos

Selling videos
Thank you for your interest in selling your videos in the Google Video Store. Currently we only offer this feature for selected content providers. If you don't already have access to this feature, you may still set a price for your video; however, your video will only be stored in your account and won't be displayed on Google Video. If you would like to display your video, you must offer your content for free to all users. We hope to make this feature available to the public soon. We appreciate your patience.
 
My site www.hungryflix.com was made to distribute indies to portable media players, like the ipod, psp etc. It was fully operational for 6 months, averaged close to 1 million hits a month.

We shut it down recently as it cost me $300+ a month to run the site and i think in the 6 months we made close to $200 total which we split with the filmmakers.

Looking back now either we were ahead of the times or people dont want to pay for low rez, 320x240 movies.
 
If you were going to do it over what would you do differantly?

Charge filmmakers more for hosting?
Better compresion for larger movie sizes?
Sell add-ons like divx enabled dvd players?

You were ahead of your time but maybe the time has come.
 
Probably give the films away for free with a system that included a 1min or so ad shown before them. Then make the cash off the advertising and split it with the filmmakers. The problem is people love the youtube or myspace, its free and they can waste time watching joe shmoe jumping from a tree. sad eh?
 
Duct Tape Films said:
Is there ANYWHERE that will let an independent filmmaker (meaning not distributed by one of the big guys, or their subsidiaries, in any shape or form) SELL their online video (at say $1.99 to $3.99 a pop). iTunes & even Google Beta Video will not do this for anyone who does not have the backing of someone big. I'm looking to be able to sell it as Mac/Windows, Sony PSP, & Video iPod. If anyone can confirm that this does not exist as of yet, jeez, will one of you tech-heads please go ahead and make yourself a million dollar business already, so I can sell my damn video online.:furious3: If it is out there, but just hidden somewhere on the vast internet(s), please help me out and provide a link. Been looking, but am finding jack squat. Thanks so much....
Click to expand...

You should render a 320x240 mpeg4, go to paypal and make a Buy now link that connects to a download page. You would be in business then. Find some cheap hosting too. Then link it all over myspace etc.
 
ChrisForbes said:
Maybe this??

http://www.minimovies.com/filmmakers.php
Click to expand...

Took a look, it may be the best so far to fit the bill. A couple issues just out at me though....

1) I couldn't find them easily, how is anyone looking for my film, or something like my film, going to find them, other than obviously, my own advertising and promotion.

2) In their agreement, they want you to agree to let potential buyers watch 75% of your movie for free. I wonder what the average sell through ratio is? I can understand 33%, but 75% seems kind of excessive....

3) I'm not sure whether it's features or shorts that they're trying to sell at $1.99. If it's features, I'm thinking that's about $1.00-$2.00 too cheap, as iTunes and Google are selling 25-30 minute downloads for $1.99, something the market, even despite YouTube, seems to be accepting. I understand the idea of volume maximization, but to me, it seems like they could just as likely get $2.99 (or even $3.99) as $1.99, especially for something feature length.

4) On the upside, there is NO upfront cost to the filmmaker, and revenue is split 50-50. The distribution is also, obviously, non-exclusive.

Any one know of any other sites like this, doing about the same thing currently?
 
It really is a question of marketing. Are you appealling to the average joe who is happy watching somebody getting hit with a shopping card at 70 mph or are you appealling to indie filmmakers and others like you have on this site and the other various forums.

I think if you could capture that crowd's attention and create a community atmosphere it would work better. Maybe have a Tutorial section.
 
ChrisForbes said:
It really is a question of marketing. Are you appealling to the average joe who is happy watching somebody getting hit with a shopping card at 70 mph or are you appealling to indie filmmakers and others like you have on this site and the other various forums.

I think if you could capture that crowd's attention and create a community atmosphere it would work better. Maybe have a Tutorial section.
Click to expand...

Actually, my target audience is pretty clearly defined, at least online, and I've already found the advertising company that handles direct marketing to this niche. It's has to do with a certain political bent, so I won't go any further with who they are, as this is an apolitical board for the most part.
:)

So finding them (my target audience) should not be an issue. Only issue I'm worried about is the turned around perspective of them finding me, and making that as simple and consice as possible.
 
check out on demand dvd distribution. that might be something you are eventually interested in. it's only fifty bucks to set up a dvd e - store for your film. all you have to do is advertise, and they will duplicate and ship your dvd's out. they get a small percentage of every dvd sold and send you a check every month for the amount of dvd's you sell.
 
R.L. Scott said:
check out on demand dvd distribution. that might be something you are eventually interested in. it's only fifty bucks to set up a dvd e - store for your film. all you have to do is advertise, and they will duplicate and ship your dvd's out. they get a small percentage of every dvd sold and send you a check every month for the amount of dvd's you sell.
Click to expand...


Customflix? They kick ass. Just looking to have a few offerings, at multiple price points. I don't want to exclude a sale for $3.99 - $5.99/download (not sure about the price point or the value yet). A few of those and it's equaled, if not surpassed, my cut on a DVD sale - not to mention more viewers. I'm planning on offering both, but being a media consumer as well, I know that I've often wished for something like minimovies.

That would be an interested subtopic - given that the going rate for iTunes for a half hour show is $1.99, does anyone here feel comfortable charging $5.99 for a feature, knowing full well that the resolution is half of the DVD, and that it cannot be DRMed (rules of minimovies, and given my explorations, unnecessary - cost of implementation actually generally outweighs savings on losses to piracy), and that it can be copied/downloaded ad infintum by the purchaser?

Personally, my take, after the research I have done, is it's better publicity NOT to have DRM, and, quite counterintuitvely, that piracy oddly enough can, and does lead to sales in many cases. Upshot, I personally am feeling more comfortable at $3.99 for a feature, as it's cheap enough to be an impulse buy, yet expensive enough to equal a video store rental, and at that price, I certainly won't feel screwed if my film at that level of resolution gets passed around, futhermore, is it even worth the effort of stealing $3.99?

Has anyone thought of what you will you be charging for your downloadable films, if you're not already selling them, and "free" is not an answer as this is the business, not charity, forum.
 
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