Vimeo on Demand: I'm doing it.

Jawa Ex Machina

Jawa Ex Machina

Veteran
I'm putting my film MARIANNE out there. It's been way too long now, and it's too old to find a buyer in markets not already covered.

Here's a direct link:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/marianne

Anyone else getting their film out on Vimeo on Demand?
I'm also considdering CreateSpace, but the quality and logistics of it seem like a nightmare.
What other platforms should I considder?
 
Yeah it's still uploading. Sorry bout that.

I want to keep the quality as high as possible, so it's 1080p 20mb/s. The file is over 13gb, but it should be finished some time tomorrow.
 
Vimeo VOD is a great idea and I think we will see a lot more digital distribution channels in the future.
Indieflix is cool too, but you have to pay a subscription fee in order to watch the content I believe. Vimeo VOD you can just pay per play, etc.

I'm about to test the waters with Vimeo VOD with some short films and see how they do.
 
Well, after two weeks of Vimeo on Demand, having MARIANNE available both on www.vimeo.com/ondemand/marianne as well as directly linked to www.mariannemovie.com here's my verdict on the service:

As far as the technical parts are concerned, I couldn't possibly be happier. The video file I uploaded was 13gb, 1080p, 23.976fps, 20mb/s. Brilliant. Couldn't be happier.
Vimeo is fast, quick and easy. Payments go to Paypal at the end of the month apparently, although it's only been two weeks so I haven't actually gotten to that point yet.

Beyond that, it took the Vimeo staff over a week to watch the film and add it to the On Demand genre browsing. I understand they have a lot to do, but people being able to actually find the film and know it's there is the point of the whole thing, right? On top of that, Vimeo's search engine isn't working properly. I think they're working on fixing it, but again if people can't find my film without a direct link and knowing it's there, that's a Big Deal.

I wish there was a way to embed the film, but there isn't. Embedding the feature will only put the trailer there instead.

So apart from these things, Vimeo is looking like a great hosting site for Video on Demand if people already know where to look for the film.

That said, it's been two weeks and despite me doing extensive social media marketing on twitter, tumblr and facebook (including facebook ads) almost all day every day, I've only sold 9 viewings of MARIANNE.

But again, that's self distribution. I'm hoping to get it out on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play, and I'm hoping people will start discovering it soon. Nine plays in two weeks isn't good.
 
Marketing is the hardest part of the self-distribution (and distribution in general). You either need a lot of time constantly working it, or a lot of money for someone else to do it, or both. There are plenty of platforms out there, but none of them provide marketing. And then make it so compelling that someone will choose that film over everything they have access to... It is not easy. Good luck.

Michael
 
Jawa, I was thinking of putting my short on Vimeo VOD, but I think one of the issues may be people having to have to sign up for Vimeo accounts. Most filmmakers know of or have a Vimeo acct. but the general public seem to be more aware of Youtube and Amazon.

Is there a way to rent the movie without signing up for Vimeo?

Thnx
 
scorsesefan said:
Jawa, I was thinking of putting my short on Vimeo VOD, but I think one of the issues may be people having to have to sign up for Vimeo accounts. Most filmmakers know of or have a Vimeo acct. but the general public seem to be more aware of Youtube and Amazon.

Is there a way to rent the movie without signing up for Vimeo?

Thnx
Click to expand...
Not yet. It'll be available on iTunes and Amazon though and I'm also hoping Google Play.

While I agree the forced sign up for Vimeo is a barrier right now, I think it'll be a good thing in the long run. The big problem right now with Vimeo on Demand is that people just don't know that it exist because it's not YouTube. There's no audience to browse the genres.
The On Demand service is brand new though, and once the audience starts discovering it, every film on there will help bring new audience to the browsing section.

I'm surprised they don't just have a simple Facebook login though instead.

Razz16mm said:
Take a look at Seed and Spark: fair trade direct market distribution and production funding between film makers and potential audiences/backers. Interesting new approach.
http://www.seedandspark.com/
Click to expand...
Yeah I've seen that, I just don't believe in it. It looks like a backwards way of thinking.
It's like she says in the video, "That doesn't sound very independent".
I don't want to be independent. I'd like to work with major corporations who have the audience, have connections with all the major outlets, the financial ability to promote my films and get them out on the shelves and in the public eye.

The real audience, the vast majority of people out there, don't care about filmmaking and they've never heard about crowdfunding. Seed and Spark will never reach them.
 
I think it would behoove Vimeo to have a quick credit card payment system in place. I understand they are trying to increase membership but for this particular facet of their services it will hurt filmmakers (at least in the short run).
 
scorsesefan said:
I think it would behoove Vimeo to have a quick credit card payment system in place. I understand they are trying to increase membership but for this particular facet of their services it will hurt filmmakers (at least in the short run).
Click to expand...

An e-commerce would require singing up as well unless they enabled another e-commerce engine which means they split revenue again with another entity. Like YouTube, singing up also creates some form of legal document ensuring the age of the viewer depending on content they are about to see. It doesn't mean it actually prevents it, but creates a legal entity for their end to cover them.


Michael
 
capitalP said:
I always say besides getting funding, Marketing/distribution is the hardest part of a movie.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Marketing a project yourself takes infinitely more time and energy than I would have guessed before having done it myself. It needs to be a full time job in and of itself and they's very difficult when so many of these no budget/low budget/pet projects are side gigs. As much as people lament sometimes about being bombarded with ads that's what it takes to make it stick. If you talk to someone in the morning about watching a movie that night after work they'll probably forget about it by lunch.

Looking for Lenny (the doc in my sig) is available on all major streaming/download services (iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube (paid rental), Google Play, Playstation Network, Xbox Live, etc.,), we have many famous comedians in it (Robin Williams, Louis Black, Jeffrey Ross, Phyllis Diller, Roseanne Barr, etc.,) and we've received positive press (even a write up at RollingStone.com, but none of that has translated into very many eyeballs watching our movie. Disappointing and frustrating are words that come to mind but the sliver lining is in the long tail (or so I keep telling myself). As I find time I still update the Facebook page, upload cool interview bites that didn't make the cut onto our YouTube channel and I even did an interview recently about the movie on the Digital Production Buzz podcast. As long as the doc is available via streaming I feel it's still viable that something will finally 'catch' and 'cause it to go mainstream (well, as mainstream as a doc about a trail blazing comedian and Free Speech pioneer that died 40+ years ago can realistically go).

There's more content and distractions vying for people's attention than ever before but there's nothing we can do about that. All we can do is shout as long and as hard as we can about our films and hope that we garner enough interest to pay the bills (and maybe put a down payment on the next project).


-Andrew
 
Thanks for the excellent breakdown on the service. I just watched the trailer btw, looks like you guys did a stellar job!



Jawa Ex Machina said:
Well, after two weeks of Vimeo on Demand, having MARIANNE available both on www.vimeo.com/ondemand/marianne as well as directly linked to www.mariannemovie.com here's my verdict on the service:

As far as the technical parts are concerned, I couldn't possibly be happier. The video file I uploaded was 13gb, 1080p, 23.976fps, 20mb/s. Brilliant. Couldn't be happier.
Vimeo is fast, quick and easy. Payments go to Paypal at the end of the month apparently, although it's only been two weeks so I haven't actually gotten to that point yet.

Beyond that, it took the Vimeo staff over a week to watch the film and add it to the On Demand genre browsing. I understand they have a lot to do, but people being able to actually find the film and know it's there is the point of the whole thing, right? On top of that, Vimeo's search engine isn't working properly. I think they're working on fixing it, but again if people can't find my film without a direct link and knowing it's there, that's a Big Deal.

I wish there was a way to embed the film, but there isn't. Embedding the feature will only put the trailer there instead.

So apart from these things, Vimeo is looking like a great hosting site for Video on Demand if people already know where to look for the film.

That said, it's been two weeks and despite me doing extensive social media marketing on twitter, tumblr and facebook (including facebook ads) almost all day every day, I've only sold 9 viewings of MARIANNE.

But again, that's self distribution. I'm hoping to get it out on Amazon, iTunes and Google Play, and I'm hoping people will start discovering it soon. Nine plays in two weeks isn't good.
Click to expand...
 
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