Are Marketing Gurus selling us New Media Dreams?
Let's start off by saying that new media, and digital distribution, have become in the recent years a hot marketing subject. A new business was developed around the the confusion surrounding movies and their Internet potential . There are the filmmakers who made an incredible success with their indies, and for the last 5 or 6 years have been traveling the world from one festival to the next convention, telling you how to achieve the same results, only if you follow their tips.
There are the book writers , the film producers ,the agents, all of them are promising a great new world for indie distribution, and how to make millions from selling your movies on iTunes. Well, sadly the majority of us will make $1000 a year (!) from selling digital versions on iTunes and Amazon VOD and platforms alike, and that is an optimistic projection. Just read the latest post (also published on DocMovies) by Scott Krisner who exposed the numbers.
Not quite the brave new world we were all hoping for.For us filmmakers it's extremely important to say that new media and digital distribution are not just marketing.
Let's take a step back and understand that we are witnessing an exciting development of cinematic language, marketing is only a small part of it. Watch this video by the Steven Berlin Johnson, taken from Sheffield Doc Fest crossover labs.
New Media enables us to build an Internet expression tool combining text, animation, picture and sound allowing us to experience a new world of cinema. It makes it possible to bypass the passive audience by offering interactive tools. Having said that, it also gives us the other option to be non active.Google maps, video talk backs, video remix, audience reviews are just small examples that represent the rich environment of the new media.
The rules that are applied to this new language, haven't been written yet, each and every one of you can join this new world, really there is not just one person you can learn from since we are all in it togerther trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel.
It seems the old system of getting your film out there still applies. Film festivals and selling your movie to TV stations are still the way to get your investment back and maybe earn some profits. The Internet? Well maybe it will not free us financialy but it does give us another option, and that option never existed before.
What do you think?
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