Until the marketplace begins to take on a firmer shape, many filmmakers and cinematographers are sidestepping entertainment Web sites in favor of their own sites, where they can showcase their films or reels. L.A.-based director of photography Matt Uhry has clips of his reel on his site, www.fuzby.com, which showcases his work as a cinematographer on feature films, commercials and music videos. According to Uhry, the technical process is easier than one might think. He had a version of his reel on Mini DV, which he then captured into his computer using Media Cleaner Pro, which allows the user to capture, enhance, encode and publish streams from one streamlined workflow. Using Sorenson compression, and bearing in mind that most people have only dial-up connections, Uhry chose clips that would last about a minute or less, which would require about 2 or 3 megabytes. With a dial-up connection, downloading the clips would require five or six minutes, while a faster broadband connection allows virtually seamless acquisition.
In mounting his site, Uhry simply used the Webspace that came free with his DSL subscription. Various types of free hosting services exist, but if you have a large media file (such as a feature), you will definitely need a hosting service to stream the content; that can cost anywhere from $10 to $1,000, depending on the services and potential streams.
In terms of shooting specifically for the Web, Uhry feels that compression is the most important factors for cinematographers to bear in mind. With compression, it’s best to use a stationary camera, very plain backgrounds, and "even" lighting. Of course, many cinematographers will find these restrictions creatively limiting. "It’s okay if you’re trying to do something that’s strictly information-based, but if you’re trying to make something entertaining, you sort of have to drop those guidelines," Uhry says. "Still, it’s definitely good to keep in mind what compresses most easily; for example, handheld camera footage does not compress very well."
Putting his reel online has been a great help to Uhry’s career in terms of speed and convenience. "I found that having pieces of my reel on the Web has been great when I’m on the phone with a director I’ve never met," he says. "While we’re talking, I can simply direct that person to my Web site to pull up a clip so he or she can see what my work is about."
The Web site also makes the process of making and sending out VHS tapes much easier. "Some jobs don’t necessarily merit sending out a tape," Uhry notes. "It might be a situation where the director or producer is in New York or overseas and has to see something that day." Although Uhry admits that a VHS tape is better in terms of quality, he believes that his Web site gives people an easy place to start.
Although times are presently hard, the film industry is optimistic about the future of online entertainment and confident that the profits will eventually come. As the tech side of the economy corrects itself, everyone involved in the Internet has sobered up and realized that they can’t build a business simply by advertising and selling banners. Nibblebox’s Bartis believes that everyone is learning from the examples of DEN and Pop.com. "It’s tough right now," he concedes. "I think we all believe that entertainment content will be delivered online, but whether you can make money with that as your sole business has yet to be seen."
Eveo’s Zitoun believes that the technology still has limitations, particularly in light of the fact that computer users still don’t have a TV-like experience while watching content on the Web. He predicts that streaming video and the distribution of content will go beyond the PC to include wireless devices, PDAs, set-top boxes such as Tivo, and new kinds of appliances that have yet to be developed. Zitoun also predicts major changes in copyright law due to cases like the Napster court battle. "I will not be surprised to see two models of copyright: one section of copyrighted content and one section of everything else," he offers.
On an individual basis, however, content creators are optimistic. The filmmakers behind Sunday’s Game agree with the assumption that the Web will be a future farm club or nursery for exciting new filmmakers. At present, notes Garrett, "there’s the studio system, [which is] inflexible to new talents, but there’s also the film-festival trap, [in which] only a few people decide what the audience is going to see. With the Web, it’s definitely up to the individual."
In terms of cinematic images, Uhry is excited about the arrival of more broadband in American homes. "As people have faster and faster data streams into their houses, it makes it a lot easier to up the quality from a QuickTime movie to a DVD," he says. "As far as NTSC is concerned, you can kind of kiss videotapes good-bye."
In Michael Powell’s classic 1960 thriller Peeping Tom, actress Maxine Audley scolds Karl Boehm with the line, "All this filming isn’t healthy!" That phrase may be an appropriate metaphor for the current state of independent filmmaking in America. Whether or not the Internet will be savior of film exhibition and distribution remains to be seen, but it’s virtually certain that independent film production will skyrocket. Given the thousands of films being made each year, most will never be viewed on an actual theater screen. In some cases, that may be a good thing, although the current ratio of good films to bad might still apply.
On the positive side, however, the Internet and new digital technology will definitely allow creative people the opportunity to make films that normally wouldn’t have a chance. In the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, director Francis Ford Coppola muses, "One day, some little fat girl in Ohio is going to be the new Mozart and make a beautiful film with her father’s camera, and for once this so-called professionalism about movies will be destroyed forever, and it will become an art form."