Scores of new Web sites offer ambitious independent filmmakers an outlet for their projects — but is this growing trend a healthy one?
Thanks in part to the Dogma 95 film movement and Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film The Celebration, digital technology and its "DIY" (Do It Yourself) ethics have revolutionized both the film industry and the medium itself, much like the French New Wave did in 1959. In the United States, the wide releases of independent DV films such as Bennett Miller’s The Cruise and Miguel Arteta’s Chuck & Buck (see AC July ’00) have caused a stir, and Hollywood has quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Even world-renowned filmmakers such as George Lucas and Spike Lee are getting in on the act: Lucas used Sony HD 24p digital cameras on the new Star Wars movie, and Lee photographed his latest film, Bamboozled, in Mini DV.
Because of this growing trend and the great advances in technology, we will soon see hundreds of independent films being produced by filmmakers who all have great hopes for fame, money and even artistic achievement. But there is one problem: where will we see all of these films? There are simply not enough distributors or theaters to accommodate every filmmaker’s personal project.
Thus far, the only viable solution to the growing problem of distribution has been the Internet. According to Arbitron Research, more than 16 million people have streamed a video in the past year, and more than 100 million streaming-media players have been downloaded on the Internet. It’s also predicted that consumer access to broadband will grow from two million subscribers today to more than 30 million by 2004. Even more fascinating is Forrester Research’s prediction that by 2005, some 92 percent of U.S. online households will create and share personal multimedia content. With all of these factors coming into play, it’s often said that the next Blair Witch Project will not be promoted online, but will actually be online.
In the main arena, the recent merger of AOL and Time Warner sent shockwaves throughout the business world and signaled a new type of collaboration between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Following in the footsteps of online digital music distribution, a great number of online entertainment Web sites are streaming films in the hope that the Net will be the future screening space of new and exciting work. "TV execs have ditched their vision of a 500-channel universe," says journalist Laura Rich of The Australian Industry Standard, which has dubbed itself "the newsmagazine of the Internet economy." Instead, she adds, "they’re banking on thousands of channels surfed via mouse rather than remote control."
Many of these new sites are focusing on the thousands of unknown and struggling filmmakers who have not received wide distribution, or any distribution at all. With the lack of broadband in most households, most of these Web sites are starting with modest goals and are streaming short or animated films, which have a more feasible length for people who have slower, dial-up Net connections. And while online audiences and revenues are still small, the possibilities of this new outlet seem to be unlimited. In his keynote speech at the first annual Yahoo! Online Film Festival, Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber had some interesting thoughts about the future of online entertainment. "With a feature film being released into theaters, we have to market the film to millions," he said. "On the Internet, we will have to market to just one, but a million times over."
Perhaps the two online entertainment Web sites that have been getting the most attention in the press have been Atom Films and iFILM. Since starting up in late 1998, Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com) has been acquiring exclusive rights to short films, animation and digital media; the site generates revenue by distributing this content through TV networks, airlines, theaters, home video and the Internet. Keeping pace with the AOL/Time Warner merger, Atom Films has struck deals with Blockbuster, HBO, and Warner Bros., and has also established business ties with companies that produce handheld and wireless devices.
In addition to alliances with major companies, Atom Films has also developed relationships with celebrities and cutting-edge directors. For example, Atom recently teamed with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Birken Interactive Studio to produce an international online short-film festival titled The Savage Sideshow. They also recently announced that director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) has joined their advisory board and will help counsel Atom Films on the company’s future direction. Atom will also exclusively distribute a number of Jonze’s short films, including Amarillo by Morning and How They Get There.
Following its launch in October of 1998, iFILM (www.ifilm.com) has become one of the leading resources for online film viewing. Very different from Atom Films, which functions somewhat like a traditional film distributor, iFILM is the first film portal and directory, linking viewers to more than 10,000 online films. Akin to a Yahoo! service for films, iFILM divides online films into different categories, including drama, action, international, experimental, spoof and student films. The site also has a section that attempts to target niche audiences, such as gay/lesbian, women and teens. Additionally, the portal links viewers and filmmakers to other things that relate to film, such as news, schools, festivals, production houses, studies and film trailers.
One of the big success stories from iFILM has been the short film Sunday’s Game, which was directed by Gene Laufenberg and produced by David Garrett. Produced as a "calling card" while Laufenberg and Garrett were working on sitcoms, Sunday’s Game was rejected by every film festival until iFILM president Roger Raderman approached the filmmakers about launching their short on his Web site. Compared to the typical film festival, which probably has a few hundred attendees, iFILM’s showcase allowed Sunday’s Game to be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. "It’s really hard to quantify what it did and didn’t do," says Garrett. "But when it went up on the site, we were all unemployed writers." After the film was shown on the site, however, it received press coverage from Variety, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, which in turn generated a tremendous amount of buzz about the project. Based on the exposure and overall strength of the film, Garrett and Ward subsequently sold two TV pilot scripts to Fox and three feature-film pitches, one of which recently completed production at Disney. Director Laufenberg sold a pilot that he wrote and directed for MTV and has also inked a studio deal at Fox 2000.
[ continued on page 2 ]