Netflix 101 & The Future of Film Distribution
On Monday, Sept 18th, Netflix participated in a panel hosted by Indiewire, where they invited aspiring filmmakers to come together and engage in a discussion about the changing dynamics of the film distribution industry. In the past, it’s been pretty expensive to distribute a future length film and while there has always been the straight to video route, getting the video stores to give up valuable floor space for a small untested indie film has been a tough sell for filmmakers without the right connections.
Thanks in large part to the internet, film distribution looks very different today because the unlimited nature of web real estate has helped to eliminate scarcity issues that have plauged past distribution models. Historically, if you wanted to show a film in the theaters, you needed to go through the very costly process of making a print that could only be shown in one theater at a time, if you wanted to rent your movie at Blockbuster, you needed a film with enough mainstream appeal that it could justify being one of 3,000 films that might get allocated floor space. If you wanted get your movie on television, you had to have top level connections with the studios and even then would have to compete directly against other shows that were airing during the same time slot. In short you had to have money and connections in order to successfully distribute a film. Because of these challenges, the studios have been able to successfully leverage their financial backing and their connections to exploit the scarcity problem to their favor.
Over the last decade though, the problem of scarcity has changed. With the growing popularity of digital projectors, you no longer need to press expensive prints to get your film shown in a theater. With the expanded choices available on the internet, you no longer need to be a top 3,000 film to reach the home video market and now with broadband video distribution and time shifting technology taking off, a filmmaker is no longer limited by the time and space constraints that cable and network TV imposes.
This end of scarcity has certainly created problems for the established players and while more competition has made it easier for the smaller fish to break into the business, it’s also made it more difficult for the megahits to maintain their monopoly on the consumer attention span. With the current state of film distribution in such wild flux, the Netflix 101 conference was particularly well timed. During the event Netflix and filmmakers participating in their Red Envelope productions unit met with the larger film community and discussed the pros and cons of these new distribution methods. Undoubtably, there are still many issues that will need to be worked out and with the added competition, new distribution methods doesn’t necessarily guarantee that an indie film can be a money maker, but the internet has had a dramatic affect on the film industry and the Netflix 101 conference offered a fascinating look at this change from an independent filmmaker’s perspective. While new distribution technologies won’t solve the problem of how to make a film popular in an increasingly media saturated world, it at least helps level the playing field for indie filmmakers who have had such a tough time breaking into the industry in the past.
Posted on September 21st, 2006 by Davis
Filed under: Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Media, Movies, Netflix, TV, VOD