VOD
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The Week in Digital Platforms: VHX and Target Ticket
The past week witnessed big announcements from two divergent digital video platforms. VHX, the direct distribution site, lauded by the likes of Shane Carruth and Ira Glass, publicized its recently acquired $3.2 million in Series A financing. Spearheaded by new board member Andy Weissman of Union Square Ventures, the funding will allow VHX to expand into public beta, bringing their services to a greater user network. They’ve already put out a call for “filmmakers, distributors, publishers, educators and moving-picture-creators” who are ready to sell their work, thereby joining the ranks of Sound City, We Are Legion, Upstream Color, and, most recently, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 2, 2013 -
A Business of Ignorance?
The impact of digital distribution on the indie film landscape has been vast. First, film titles began to inch up the alphabet toward the letter “A” to get noticed at the top of VOD listings. The latest development: Find a young TV star with a solid online fan base and you’re gold. “I’m seeing more and more films leveraging up-and-coming TV actors that have social media profiles,” says Erick Opeka, senior vice president of digital distribution at Cinedigm Entertainment. “Those audiences can’t wait to consume more product that features their favorite actors. The films come out of nowhere and storm […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Jul 18, 2013 -
VOD Wars Heat Up
Intel, the giant computer chip manufacturer, is joining the growing roster of tech companies entering the web-delivered video jamboree. In addition to Google’s YouTube and Netflix, Apple and Microsoft are carving out space on the web to offer live and video-on-demand (VOD) TV programming. Web video distribution can be executed either as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) or as Over-the-Top (OTT). With IPTV, the digital signal is streamed and/or offered as VOD programming over a closed or proprietary network through a cable or telephone company. OTT refers to streaming and/or VOD programming distributed over an open or unmanaged video data stream […]
by David Rosen on Jun 18, 2013 -
13 Takeaways from the 2013 Cannes Film Market
Earlier this week I posted “15 Lessons for Producers from the Cannes Film Festival and Market.” With the festival and market now firmly in the rear-view mirror, the consensus is that it was a solid one for the international sales community, without, perhaps that one giant locomotive title but with an appropriately modest number of films hitting their ask prices. Tastes were noted to have shifted, with buyers wanting “more Jennifer Lawrence and less Sylvester Stallone.” And on the pure indie level, I noticed, as I wrote in my piece on producers, a new crop of American independents have figured […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2013 -
VOD: Where are the Numbers?
Alicia Van Couvering on the mysteries of VOD reporting.
by Alicia Van Couvering on Jan 29, 2013 -
VOD for Indies
As indie makers know all too well, movie distribution is undergoing a major restructuring. The shift from analog media to digital production, post-production and distribution technologies not only changes how movies are made and distributed, but how people view them. Theatrical moviegoing is declining; since 2002, ticket sales have declined by nearly 20 percent. Making matters worse, DVD sales are shrinking. And video streaming revenues, while growing, are doing so at a rate insufficient to make up the difference. Readers of Filmmaker are urged to check out a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, “Now playing at a living […]
by David Rosen on Nov 5, 2012 -
Five Questions with Engagement Director Jon Lefkovitz
The trailer for Jon Lefkovitz’s micro-budget psychological thriller Engagement caught our eye here at Filmmaker. It’s a Hitchcock-inspired tale about an young groom-to-be and the woman who may or not be the sister of his out-of-town fiancée. The film is currently up on VOD through Film Buff, and below we ask Lefkovitz five questions about making smart genre entertainment for a price. Filmmaker: Where did the concept of the film come? What were your inspirations? Lefkovitz: The concept for Engagement is actually semi-autobiographical — in 2009, my then-fiancée (now wife) went away for six weeks, leaving me alone in our […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2012 -
What’s In My Instapaper: Sunday Morning Links, 4/8/2012
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but now that the new issue is shipped and off to the printer, here’s what I’m catching up on. What’s one measure of good dialogue? According to the Physics arIXv Blog at MIT, it’s the memorability of its quotes. A Cornell University study found that there’s a reason lines like “You had me at hello,” “You can’t handle the truth” and “Hasta la vista, baby” lodge themselves in our memories. “The cloud” — that system of networked and very terrestrial computers that store and stream are data — may have […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 8, 2012 -
How to Create a Profitable VOD Strategy
This distribution case study of American: The Bill Hicks Story has been previously posted at Indiewire, and when it went up, I quickly scanned it and tweeted their link. But now I’ve actually had time to read it carefully, and it’s a very useful document that deserves its own place on the blog. A Powerpoint presentation prepared for a panel at this year’s SXSW moderated by Orly Ravid, the document walks you through the filmmaker’s DIY theatrical and various VOD and digital distribution deals. There are revenue numbers here, and not just for American, but also other movies released by […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2012 -
JANUARY 2012 VOD TITLES
Now on our VOD calendar are titles available for the month of January 2012. Some highlights: Nicolas Winding Refn‘s ’80s flavored pulp thriller Drive, Danfung Dennis‘ fantastic doc Hell and Back Again, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie (which will also be at Sundance), Moneyball, The Ides of March and Steven Soderbergh‘s disaster movie Contagion. For titles from previous months go to our VOD Calendar homepage.
by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 1, 2012
