Stay up to Date with New Distribution
From 4docs
Things are changing so fast in distribution that it's really important to stay across what's happening - which new companies are being born, which old distributors are going bust, what latest new opportunities there are and what experts are saying the next business models for film are likely to be.
Following the right blogs, email bulletins and being aware of the most useful events is really important to keep you across what's coming up.
Contents |
Blogs and Online Forums
Shooting People's Tools Blog Ingrid Kopp’s excellent Tools Blog is dedicated to new social media tools and trends in new distribution. Shooting People is an independent filmmakers community with 35,000 members in UK and US – members share information and advice. Membership costs £30 but much of the site is free access such as Ingrid's blog.
MediaShift MediaShift is a blog that tracks how digital media technologies and techniques such as blogs, RSS, podcasting, citizen journalism, wikis, news aggregators and video repositories are changing our world.
Ted Hope The famous indie distributor Ted Hope has an influential blog looking at the future of film “We are on the verge of a new film culture and infrastructure, driven by both the creators and the audiences. We must accept that being a filmmaker means taking responsibility for our films all the way through the process”.
DocsThatInspire.com - Joel Heller's blog about docs that empower audiences to engage in positive social change - films that inspire empathy, hope and possibility.
RobertGreenwald.org - the director of Iraq for Sale, WallMart and Outfoxed sort of invented activist filmmaking funded and distributed by fans. He continues to innovate - his site has a blog.
D-word An online documentary community for 2000 doc professionals. Good discussions and threads
Docagora DocAgora is an open space to consider new forms, new platforms, new tools, and new ways of financing creative and socially engaged documentary media - what they call docmedia. Since DocAgora’s launch in November, 2006 at IDFA, they've been talking about the profound changes transforming the creation and distribution of classic theatrical, educational and broadcast documentary. They also showcasing and celebrating trans-platform digital documentary in all of its incarnations : cyberdocs, netcasting, interactive docs. They have produced sessions on cross-platform documentary media and have also taken on made-for-mobile docs, real-life docugames, and animated documations.
Technorati Technorati is currently tracking 60 million blogs. They search, surface, and organize blogs and the other forms of independent, user-generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as “citizen media.” If you have a blog, be sure to claim it on Technorati. Be sure to also check out the tools Technorati offers, such as blog feeds.
Read about creating your own blog in Online Marketing
Email Bulletins
Peter Broderick Peter is an American new distribution guru who has an excellent free bulletin you must sign up for. Peter is a consultant and also helps filmmakers design and implement state-of-the-art financing, distribution, and outreach strategies. We also work with media companies on innovative distribution approaches.
Indiewire Indiewire is the number one source for independent film news. They attend every major festival and carry news/ opinions on the future of distribution. Sign up for their free daily emails
Websites
http://www.foureyedmonsters.com/category/tutorial Four Eyed Monsters Tutorials] Four Eyed Monsters filmmakers used many emerging technologies for their successful of their get the word out campaign. They offer useful tutorials on their site.
Mashable Mashable features reviews and articles on the latest news in social networking and social software. Mashable goes into detail on new networking sites and whether or not they are worth the time and effort to set up an account.
The Workbook Project The goal of The Workbook Project is an open source project to collect information for media makers on important and emerging issues. The Workbook Project was founded by Lance Weiler who is a filmmaker and a self distribution pioneer.
Events
Power to the Pixel Power to the Pixel is a UK not-for-profit company that provides the independent film community with the latest in depth information and knowledge about new opportunities available in the transforming digital media landscape. Power to the Pixel runs cutting-edge forums and educational events with leading international experts - they do an annual 2 day event as part of the London Film Festival at the BFI Southbank - essential.