Monday, February 02, 2015

MEDIA - Indie Movie Deal and On-Demand

"What an indie movie deal means in the age of on-demand" PBS NewsHour 1/30/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Sundance Film Festival is both celebration and marketplace for those who love, create and deal in independent cinema, making it a touchstone for the health of the industry.  While technology has made it cheaper and easier to make a film, it can be harder than ever to break through to audiences.  Jeffrey Brown reports from Utah.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now, the changing world of making and distributing movies.

Jeffrey Brown was at the Sundance Film Festival this week.  And here’s the second of two reports he filed from there, part of our ongoing series "NewsHour Goes to the Movies."

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  A world premiere at Sundance. Earlier this week, director Joe Swanberg got the red carpet treatment for his new film, “Digging for Fire.”

The 10-day gathering in the mountain resort town of Park City, Utah, is for those who make and those who love independent films, and it’s still a touchstone for the health of the industry.  It’s a scene, all right, a place to see and be seen.

But for Swanberg and other filmmakers, it’s more than that.

JOE SWANBERG, Director:   Sundance is a market.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Yes.

JOE SWANBERG:  I mean, I am here to sell my movie.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Yes.

JOE SWANBERG:  I’m here to see other friends’ films.  I’m here to appreciate good art, but I’m here to sell my movie.  It’s a market.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Just getting here with a film is a major achievement.  For this year’s festival, there were more than 2,300 dramatic film and 1,800 documentaries submitted.  From those, 184 were accepted.

A showing here is great.  A launching from here is even better.  That’s because, while technology has made it cheaper and easier than ever to make a film, it’s in some ways harder than ever to break through, to get people to see your film.

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