Vimeo on Demand
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Just Let Go Already! 12 Takeaways After Making the Microbudget Feature, The Purple Onion
After four years of working on my first feature film, The Purple Onion, it’s now ready and available online. You can read two earlier articles on Filmmaker where I chronicle the filmmaking process here. Dtill, my nurturing of this film could continue indefinitely with more festivals to submit to, more promoting to do, more distributors and agents to contact. But how long can this go on for? Especially when it’s just one person, me, doing all the work? That’s why the time has come to let go. I’m releasing my film on VOD today. And I’m walking away. The experience […]
by Matt Szymanowski on Nov 22, 2016 -
Streaming for Dollars
Since the advent of YouTube and Vimeo, filmmakers have rolled the dice, releasing their shorts online for free in the hopes that their work will court the right set of eyeballs. Nowadays, even at banner institutions like The New York Times and The New Yorker, more and more curated short-form distribution opportunities are cropping up online that hint toward visibility and prestige for the films, along with, sometimes, financial returns for the filmmakers. Last December, The New Yorker introduced “The Screening Room,” a streaming platform where they rolled out three shorts acquired at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival: Person to […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jul 23, 2015 -
Vimeo Launches Original Programming with High Maintenance Web Series
Following in the footsteps of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon et al., Vimeo has boarded the original programming train with its acquisition of 25 New Faces’ Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld’s wonderful web series High Maintenance. Sinclair and Blichfeld began posting episodes of the serial, which stars Sinclair as a pot dealer who services a rotating ensemble, on Vimeo last year. In an email, Blichfeld said the following of their decision to join forces with Vimeo, “We have full creative control (writing, casting, etc.) of our work, which is unique. The episodes can vary in length as well. Basically we get to do High Maintenance […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 29, 2014 -
Joss Whedon Sells Directly to Fans Following Tribeca Premiere of In Your Eyes
Earlier this month, we ran an interview with Monica Peña, a first time filmmaker who capitalized on the festival premiere of Ectotherms by immediately selling the film on her website. Such a concept is spreading beyond no-budget land and into the distribution strategy of alterna-mogul Joss Whedon. Following last night’s world premiere of In Your Eyes at the Tribeca Film Festival, Whedon — the film’s writer/executive producer — announced that it was immediately available for rent on Vimeo on Demand. He did so not in person, but from the set of the latest Avengers installment, ensuring the tidbit’s viral-ability. Chances are, it’s working nicely. In Your Eyes is available […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Apr 21, 2014 -
Vimeo to Team with Crowdfunding Platforms
It’s a busy 10 days for news breaks as Sundance is now officially underway. To start things off, Vimeo has just announced its partnership with crowdfunding platforms Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Seed&Spark, in a program that will allow them to cherry pick projects that have raised at least $10,000 for an exclusive digital premiere window on Vimeo on Demand. In exchange, the filmmakers will receive free Vimeo Pro accounts and access to a $500,000 Audience Development Fund to aid in project promotion. This announcement comes on the heals of Vimeo’s acquisition of 13 TIFF titles that will stream exclusively on VoD […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 16, 2014 -
Vimeo on Demand Announces 13 TIFF Acquisitions
Shortly before the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, Vimeo issued an offer to attending filmmakers. Let us have exclusive digital rights to your film for 30 days via our distribution platform, Vimeo on Demand, and we’ll give you a $10,000 advance. After that window — or until we recoup the $10,000, whichever comes first — we’ll provide our standard 90/10 revenue split, and you’re free to take your film elsewhere. I remember thinking it was a bold move, ripe for the “best of both worlds” scenario so many modern independent filmmakers desire. But would anyone be game? Turns out, more than […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 14, 2014
