The 2004 elections proved one thing for sure; Yes Virginia...There is a point-to-point online consumer film market. Websites such as Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com) and iFilm (www.ifilm.com) with their politically based low-budget short animated films, did this year to movies, what Napster did to music.

How big a deal was it? Before the July launch of "This Land", Atom Films was getting about three million unique visitors per month. As November second drew near, that figure reached 9 to 10 million. iFilm now streams between 40 and 45 million movies per month, up from 15 to 20 million a year ago.

Thanks to the advent of high-quality home video cameras, low-cost video editing software, and the increased adoption of broadband and mobile media players; what used to be considered a dirty word in Hollywood, "Direct-to-Video" has now morphed into a cottage industry called point-to-point online film distribution.

An independent filmmaker can now create, promote and market his own film for less then the cost of a used car. Think about it ... What can you NOT stream to now days. And just like the Dr. Dre and Master P were selling thousands of CD's out the trunk of their car, before they ever got a record deal.

You could be making tens of thousands of dollars without ever going to the mainstream studios, begging for a deal. That does not mean that a standard theatrical release is not your ultimate goal, but money in your pocket and a validated online audience will make that task, oh so much easer.

Here are some real world examples of successful low budget film projects; Robert Rodriguez made his film El Mariachi with a borrowed 16mm camera. Shot for about $7,000 (mostly for film stock and processing), it won the audience award for best dramatic film at Sundance, and was exhibited in movie theaters worldwide.

And then, of course ... there's the Blair Witch Project. A mixture of 16mm film and home video, it was made for forty thousand dollars. A moviemaking effort by a couple of film students that has now gone on to sell over $100,000,000 worth of tickets at the box office...

A recent article on MSNBC entitled; "Straight-to-video gives new life to black films" (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3888594/), said the US urban market could be valued at $2 billion dollars. Now what are Variety and the like going to say about the point-to-point online film market? Lee Bailey's EUR (www.eurweb.com) reported that Urban- themed films not only dominated the box office, but the urban DVD/home entertainment market outpaced the general market almost 3 to 1.

Now that I have your attention, here are the ABC's.

(A) Shoot The Film:
Unhollywood.com gives a good step by step overview, that covers the cameras, lens, editing equipment, and even has a detailed line budget breakdown of film and video costs (http://unhollywood.com/appendix.htm).

The Celebration was a production that was shot with an ordinary Sony home video camera (the PAL version of the TRV-9) and transferred to 35mm film, it went to on to win a Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1998, and was given theatrical release by October Films. The Cruise and Hoop Dreams, were originally shot on video (The Cruise with a Sony VX-1000, Hoop Dreams on Beta SP)

(B) Convert The Film To Digital:
This can be as simple as plugging into a home PC with Windows XP Media Center or hiring out to a specialty company such as Jibe Inc. (http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=890&IssueID=124) to digitize it for you. Don't forget to add some type of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect your copyrights (Windows XP does this for you)

(C) Then Promote And Distribute Your Film:
BitTorrent (www.bittorrent.com), which is available for free, can be used to distribute rich media over any dialup or broadband network. According to British Web analysis firm Cache Logic, BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all the traffic on the Internet -- more than all other peer-to-peer programs combined.

Still confused, you can always hire a consultant like NYD Media (www.ndynetwork.tv) to walk you though the entire process. The point is, whether you make a low-budget or big-budget film, point- to-point online distribution is the wave of the future. How else can you quickly generate revenue and recoup your production cost, without duplicating, packaging, storing, and/or shipping anything!

Even Wall Street smells the action. Merger and acquisition (M&A) fever seems to be taking the DVD segment (soon to be Point-to-Point) of the entertainment industry by storm. IDT Corp. said it agreed to buy Anchor Bay Entertainment Group, one of the leading independent distributors of DVDs and videos, for roughly $60 million. Nutech Digital a distributor of DVD home entertainment content, announced the formation of a dedicated music division.

The new division, known as NuTech Platinum Concert Series, was developed specifically to capitalize on the high return on investment (ROI) possible with such products.

Lets look at the numbers one more time; the Video Software Dealers Association predicts there will be 600,000 quote-un-quote illegal movie downloads per DAY in 2004. If we assume only a small percentage of them are willing to pay $1 to view a movie over a Point-to-Point video network; that equates to a multimillion dollar online film market. How much of that market do you want to capture ....

If you want to see what's out there; try the following links; CinemaNow.com (http://www.cinemanow.com) MovieFlix.com (http://www.movieflix.com) Suprnova.com (http://www.suprnova.org)

© 2004 By Afromerica

Brother Jim Neusom will be keeping the Black community updated on the most current social and technology news. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

To subscribe to Neusom's column join the Afromerica email list to receive new information as it is updated. Or E-mail Neusom at: jneusom@yahoo.com

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