Lying Down with the Big Dogs

indieWire's Peter Knegt reported yesterday that Oscilloscope has agreed to an exclusive deal with the WB's digital distribution arm to...

"...bring Oscilloscope’s films to Video-On-Demand (VOD) and download-to-own across all platforms including cable, satellite, digital and wireless. Oscilloscope’s catalog will debut on these platforms at the conclusion of each film’s theatrical run and, with the appropriate films, day and date with theatrical."

It would seem WB has found a way to get back in the "indie biz" (RIP Warner Independent, Picturehouse, New Line), albeit on the cheaper side. Obviously Oscilloscope is taking advantage of the WB's established distribution system instead of putting one together on their own. It will be interesting to watch how the deal works out and if any other "indie" companies decide to make similar deals.

With rumors abound as to how little revenue (percentage of the pie as well as the dollar amount) producers already see from digital distribution, I wonder what Oscilloscope's potential future partners will think about giving away a chunk of the revenue to yet another middle man. Isn't digital distribution supposed to get filmmakers closer to their revenue and not further away?

Will Oscilloscope's films likely receive more exposure with WBDD than they otherwise would have? Probably, but will that exposure lead to more revenue for the filmmakers and Oscilloscope at the end of the day? Wait and see.

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a feeble attempt to fill the void

A good amount has been decided upon and learned since my last update. I am in the midst of getting ready to drive back to LA tomorrow, and after spending the next week getting resettled I will begin to post at least several times a week. I need to break this habit of overindulging on information and not writing about it. When I fail to write all of this new info drains into my subconscious and is not useful to me and the purpose if this blog. Come to think of it I haven't even made my "statement" post yet. At least I know where to start.

In the mean time we (as in our movie team) have come up with a an ideal timetable for our marketing plan of attack, by what time we want to commence post-production of the movie (not a film, we did not shoot on film), and the methods through which we want to attempt to find the movie's audience.

more to come...

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DIY Distro and Marketing with Scott Kirsner

There is an interesting short interview with Scott Kirsner (@ScottKirsner) on Matt Dentler's blog (@MattDentler) about Scott's new book Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. I plan on checking out his book as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Scott also moderated two panels I attended: The Future of DVDs and Digital Distribution & Marketing Meets New Media: Building Your Audience Online. The distro panel was one of the two best panels I attended this year (the other being comedy for web/tv, for which I am still looking for the podcast). The panelests got into specific numbers as far as money earned online etc. and I think Gary Hustwit had some great things to say about getting his previous film Helvetica out into the world.

During the Q&A session an audience member made an interesting comment regarding piracy and donations. The idea being that if you watched a pirate copy of Super Size Me, for example, then you could go to Morgan Spurlock's site and make a "donation" to compensate him for the work. Some people took it as a joke, but I think it is an interesting idea.
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SXSW Podcasts

Here are links to the official SXSW podcast page and the SmartBlog on SocialMedia's suggestions for marketing related podcasts.

I won't have time to listen to all of them and post recaps, so if anyone is inclined, find a few you like and comment. (Do I really need to say that? I am n00b, hear me roar.)

And yes, I do suffer from FOMO which is part of the reason I started this blog.

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Again with the regrouping...

Well, I made it out of SXSW 2009 alive and now I will be in Dallas for a few weeks. I've spent most of the day catching up with news, email, etc. and will have a legit post in the next day or so.

Overall SX was great this year. In the coming days I will be throwing up notes of the panels I attended as well as those I can gleam from others. I spent a good deal of time attending interactive panels this year, and I must say I found the film/interactive crossover panels to be quite informative. I hope they continue that trend.
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The 1st

I'm starting to think that setting up this blog right before SXSW wasn't the best idea since I have not had any time to write anything. But it all has to happen sometime.

I woke up late but still made it down to the ACC for the No to Low Budget panel. Eventhough I found out it will be podcast once I arrived, I'm still glad I made it.

For the rest of the week it is probably a better idea to follow me on Twitter @johnHlang. I changed it from @skankinjohnlang so it would match my email address. Not like anyone is following this blog yet anyway. But for those of you I have yet to meet, you can follow me on Twitter until after the fest. I will also have a better introduction to the blog for you then.

Nice to meet you in advance.
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