As a filmmakers, digital technologies mean a lot of things, many good and many not so good.   They mean cheaper high quality cameras that allow people to make movies they never would have been able to make in the past and on that same token it means many many many many many people making movies, most of which aren’t very good.    They mean new and exciting means of distribution that potentially allow filmmakers more control over their film and more eyes on their film and on that same token they also mean the slow loss of the theater dream and much more complicated distribution deals - which leads me to the panel I saw this morning on knowing ones digital rights.

The panel this morning consisted of various folks who function in the realm of digital distribution including Steven Beer, Janet Brown, Charles Choi, Karol Martesko, and Joe Swanberg (click on their names for resumes).   What struck me most about the conversation was talk of inverting the old distribution models in a way that works for the independent filmmaker today.

One of the main reasons filmmakers don’t ever get their films seen is that distributors and film festivals alike don’t think there’s an audience for it. What the internet can afford filmmakers are amazing analytic tools to prove these folks wrong. You can track the number of views trailers or full length versions of your film gets, collect a database of emails, keep track of DVDs you have sold and then bring this information (and more) to the distributors and film festivals to prove that there is an audience for the film.

The other portion of the panel focused on the realm of digital rights and there should be no doubt that the landscape is pretty confusing.   Overall the panel stressed that filmmakers need to vigilant and really try to hold on to as many rights as possible and when you do give rights away make sure you are paid well and that the window for how long you lose those rights is as small as possible.

Of course that sounds well and good, but as an audience member pointed out, many broadcasters (and other distributors) are themselves being quite aggressive in seeking out rights - making it quite hard to try to keep rights and make windows small.   But like they said today - even with the aggressive tactics of distributors, filmmakers must must must be careful.

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