With the increasing popularity of video on the Web, an interesting new business and service is emerging. This report in NYT describes this business.
Directors submit their films, which are then posted on the Web site (www.indieflix.com). When users log on and click to buy the films that capture their interest, IndieFlix burns them onto a DVD and ships them out. The price for a feature-length film is $9.95.
Ms. Andreen’s motto: “Own a movie for less than a movie ticket.”
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IndieFlix represents “a platform to present their work to an audience that under normal circumstances wouldn’t be available to them,” said the actress Whoopi Goldberg, who is on the company’s advisory board. “As one who works inside and outside the system, I’ve come to understand the distribution is a key component. And from a purely economical standpoint, if there’s a way for folks to participate” it would be “a win-win for everybody involved.” But Peter Broderick, president of the Los Angeles-based Paradigm Consulting and a longtime adviser to distributors and filmmakers, cautioned that price really doesn’t have much to do, he said, with the attraction of buyers to on-line indie films.
Like blogs opened doors for citizen journalism, this may open doors for citizen movies. But there is a major hurdle in that — good video editing software. Most current video editing systems are too difficult for normal people to use. What is required are video editing systems that could be as easy to use as the currend word processing systems are.