It is no secret that the life of the majority of independent filmmakers is a tough one. It is not an occupation one would choose as a guaranteed path to wealth and a pension. Neither is it for the faint-hearted. On the other hand, the film business is a multi trillion dollar/euro industry and once the content is produced there is layer upon layer of people/entities that are ready to take a slice of the cake and usually the filmmaker is last in line.
So, VOD should be the saving grace for independent filmmakers. There is so much content created in the world and only a tiny fraction of it gets as far as an actual cinema screen. With better quality broadband, downloading and streaming is now possible anywhere in the developed world, providing you have a device to receive it. There are new and exciting possibilities with companies like Distrify making it possible for filmmakers to use the benefits of their own social networks to virally distribute/share their film. I think this is the beginning of the end of the distributor’s grip. Film distribution is getting dragged into the 21st century. Already films are grossing more from VOD than from box office for the major titles. For the more niche categories, VOD may be the only source of income for filmmakers and the more adaptive the technology becomes, the more possibilites there are to actually get eyeballs for your movie.
But, a word of caution. In order for filmmakers to benefit, transparency is needed with the figures – both the sales splits and the actual downloads/views. Hopefully this will come in time.
