8 replies to this topic

[spenayoung]

Hola Everyone,

I'm looking to release Libertaria: The Virtual Opera through digital distribution (ex. Amazon, Vimeo) for paid downloads given some feedback that I have had from the music community. I wanted to get your feedback on video digital distribution. I created a short 10 question survey which will help, but just any discussion on success, failures, tips on distribution would be good. I have a soundtrack out already for the film, working on the book, and have had a lot of requests for the "making of" book or film, so that will be in the works, too. The thought is to release the film and maybe the "making of" book at the same time for cross promotional purposes.

Here is the anonymous survey. There is a link to a free music download when you finish:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NXCLQCX

I was definitely going to do Amazon. Vimeo charges $199 per year for the service, which seems like a waste for what is essentially the same thing Amazon has for free (with less customization, but that doesn't matter a ton since there are other sites that I can use, too). Plus once its on Amazon, I can get it on IMDB.

Thoughts? I'm new to video distribution (pretty good at the music part), so thoughts from some successful folks would be helpful.

Thanks and sorry so longwinded on this.

[primaveranz]

I just filled in the survey. Good luck with the distribution whatever path you settle on.

If you do go with physical copies, I would interested to know how you manage to get a suitable quality video output to show on a DVD player.
I have found it impossible due to the restrictions that seem inherent to the requirements of NTSC and PAL.

As far as I can see there is no longer a need for these formats as CRT televisons are extinct, but I guess the existing infrastructure is just too pervasive to remove. Many TVs will play a computer disk these days. But I have been unable to find a way to get anything like the quality of a 1280 HuffYuv video that I play on my computer into a classic home DVD format for distribution.

Cheers.

[lucindamc123]

I do my commercial movies through Create A Space and it doesn't cost me anything for them to create a DVD and put it on Amazon for sale and they take care of all the shipping too.

[spenayoung]

I do my commercial movies through Create A Space and it doesn't cost me anything for them to create a DVD and put it on Amazon for sale and they take care of all the shipping too.

Yes, that was what I was considering for digital distribution and physical, with use of free 3rd party websites to integrate good widgets online, and help with social networking. There has been a really positive response from the music community about this project, and requests to screen it at various universities and arts venues, and at this point, it might make more sense to put an effort in making it available online immediately, which was a change from my original plan. A lot of people just want to see it now and don't want to wait for a showing in their area. So this is probably the route I will go...

Looked into Vimeo, but $199 per year for an indie film to have digital download available on a platform that is less popular for VOD than Amazon doesn't make sense. I also might do a Kickstarter campaign to see if I can get the movie onto iTunes or Hulu.

[primaveranz]

Yes, that was what I was considering for digital distribution and physical

Amazon won't address your video quality issues though, they just take what you give them.

[lucindamc123]

Actually Create A Space makes the videos and they send you the first one they have made for you to watch and see if it is good enough.

[primaveranz]

Actually Create A Space makes the videos and they send you the first one they have made for you to watch and see if it is good enough.

And if it isn't? See my first post.

[lucindamc123]

Well so far they have all been great. Haven't had a problem with any of them I have had them create.

[spenayoung]

I'm trying out Distrify first, then planning to do Amazon create a space. So far has been pretty easy to use. And better quality than what's burned on a disk. It's free for one film, then after that you pay for the service. You can also sell merch through the site. I personally like their widgets. http://distrify.com/