There will be many things that will happen over the coming years, affecting & shifting the way movies are distributed. One idea that has been proposed by some industry peeps, including Mr. Lynne, is the idea of a $40 PPV release in people’s homes. This is a good out-of-the-box idea, and yes, one that exhibitors will resist… but perhaps only initially. Of course, it will have to be a movie that has star power OR buzz, that enough people will be willing to gather a bunch of friends and split the cost for the PPV. Or some industrious filmmakers, willing to harness social networking to create thousands of house parties for the PPV screenings.

Certainly this is going on now, with Brave New Theatres, although not on that scale and not with the participation and delivery via a PPV/VOD provider.

This can also help to increase the perceived value of such a movie—if the PPV goes well at that price—and likely drive numbers of people into theatres, should there be a short PPV window followed by a theatrical release.

This could be a real boon to those filmmakers, providing they have a real piece of the revenue stream and not be “bought out” as they usually are (i.e., the usually small advance from the major theatrical distribs is usually all they ever see).

This is, in a nutshell, THE problem for most filmmakers: Getting their fair share of the revenue pie.

I believe it is time in this country, that a conversation begin to take place, where we have an ASCAP or BMI like structure for movies streamed on the net. It is not too late to do this. That all internet sites that acquire movies for streaming/downloading must remit a percentage of monies to an organization, that then oversees these royalties going directly to the filmmakers. Without this, there will be (or continue to be) thousands of filmmakers whose movies are streamed and viewed but see little or no money. Far too many companies—distributors and aggregators—are taking way too high of a percentage for internet rights from filmmakers. And they’re getting it because so many filmmakers are desperate.

To hear about filmmakers whose movie was streamed and viewed over 100,000 times on Hulu, but only saw $2,000 in ad revenue is utterly ridiculous. There is no business model in that—certainly not for the filmmaker. That’s .02 per view. This may be okay for a song, but not a 2 hour movie.

Jerome Courshon
“The Secrets to Distribution”
http://www.Distribution.LA

Though he states out the problem before independent film makers, his view’s are very futuristic and US focused (or rather focuses on the audience in the developed world), considering the low penetration of high speed network, and a prohibitive or non-existent PPV business model in major parts of the world.

It doesn’t solve the problem of distribution for the current crop of independent film makers, since distribution is still very much controlled by big businesses. For true independence to usher in, an independent distribution model has to be developed.
Also, other then their home audience, the current crop of independent film makers fail to nurture audiences in small foreign territories, hence failing to monetize their assets in these small pockets of audiences, which lie in neglect.

I believe a revenue sharing model is the best way to go forward for such territories, where a certain percentage of revenue is committed by the distributor. This permits a larger collection of independent films to be taken abroad, to a wider audience in smaller territories, which otherwise is not possible in the old distribution model owing to the limited and evolving size of the small offshore territory. We believe this is a true hybrid independent distribution model, and gives all stakeholders involved a greater freedom and opportunity to monetize their assets.

This model has been thought of as i hail from India, which is a very small, young and evolving market for foreign language films; and hence is neglected. As such only a handful of Oscar or Cannes certified (they are like vetting monopolies) foreign language films, and big studios produced Hollywood production make it to my country.

I have been trying to establish this idea into a business model in my country, so that a larger number of foreign language films can be bought to the audience of my country. But it still needs a wider acceptance from the independent film maker community.

Shaishav Todi