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Experimental Distribution

Jun 2, 2008 11:00 AM, By Eric Melin

Film festivals go from here to awesome.

Weiler was one of the first to embrace alternative distribution, having coordinated the first ever all-digital theatrical run for his debut feature, The Last Broadcast. Its follow-up, Head Trauma, made a 17-city digital run before hitting retail stores on DVD. The idea for FHTA sprang from a website Weiler also founded, The Workbook Project, which is a collaborative environment for filmmakers to share ideas and experiences while working toward developing new business models. “It's meant to be a social, open-source project that is a repository of information,” Weiler says.

Crumley and Susan Buice claim that Four Eyed Monsters, directed by the couple, is the first feature film to be shown in its entirety on YouTube. The movie became a cult phenomenon when its accompanying video podcast received more than 2 million views, and some theaters across the country began booking the film specifically due to its online fanbase. Crumley was booked on the festival circuit along with Belmont and Weiler to talk about their unique stories when the group decided to take the idea of alternative distribution and turn it into a working film festival.

“Part of our success was due to the fact that what we've done is kind of rare. But in a way, it shouldn't be. This should be stuff that all filmmakers can utilize. That's what was cool about The Work[book] Project. Here's all this information where now we can educate ourselves. But then From Here to Awesome takes that a step further,” Crumley says. “From beginning, middle, and end, you can get yourself a little marketing campaign where you make a submission video and then get it out there where you start building and collecting the demand for your film — and then finally, you actually distribute it to that fan base with partners and help and support.”

From Here to Awesome has partnered with new media companies across the spectrum of the Web — including viewing and social platforms such as YouTube, MySpace, Amazon Unbox, Blip.tv, Current, and Vudu; distribution services such as Withoutabox, IndieFlix, B-Side, and Breakthrough Distribution (see sidebar on p. 24); and various other promotional partners such as nonprofit organization IFP (Independent Feature Project) and product-placement specialist PlaceVine. With help from these partners, FHTA gives content producers the outlet for discovery of their film and the opportunity to disseminate all content related to its promotion across multiple outlets. “They [can] actually use the Internet to get an audience for their film,” Crumley says. “From Here to Awesome is trying to take everything we've learned about our own films and just give that to our fellow filmmakers.”

Another idea that separates FHTA from other film festivals is its lack of a submission fee, which is a big hurdle for cash-strapped filmmakers when the possibility exists that the film will be rejected. However, in order to promote a movie online, filmmakers who enter the festival should be prepared to create additional content. “Instead of just sending your film, take a moment and think about who your audience is and create this 3-minute introduction. Tell them what makes your film awesome. What was it like? Personalize it. Tell them about your struggle or your story or why you made this film,” Weiler says. “So instead of paying out a submission fee, [you're] getting something that [you can] use to promote and build [your] own audiences. The idea [is] to try to find ways to aggregate those opportunities, aggregate those services, aggregate those distribution points — and help filmmakers in volume start to realize the value of them being in an aggregate together, and hopefully leveraging those opportunities for them in meaningful ways where they would see direct benefit from it.”

Online voting on a single website is an easy process to manipulate if you have the proper amount of web savvy, so FHTA strives to track true interest in a film by using the video-analytic tools of partner TubeMogul. Every time a film is favorited on YouTube or friended on MySpace and Facebook, it counts toward that film's score. When a person clicks on the “This Film Seems Awesome” button on FHTA's homepage, that is also a factor. “We can look at all these things, and we're creating an algorithm to look at — this advanced series of math that will factor in all these various levels of interest coming out of real people,” Crumley says. “And at the end of the day, that's the top 10 films. The top 10 films — categorized [and] ranked in all these different ways.”

© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.