HD For Indies

Got a press release email this morning:

Withoutabox has reached a definitive agreement to be acquired by the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), an Amazon.com subsidiary. This presents a great opportunity for all our independent filmmakers, festivals, and industry professionals. The new arrangement preserves the vision that Withoutabox has championed for eight years, teaming it with the Internet's number one destination for film lovers and film insiders.

As Filmmakers and self-distributors, you can look forward to more ways to help reach your audiences and monetize your work.

As Festivals, you can look forward to more powerful tools to scout, collect, select, and schedule films, plus access to a vast audience of movie lovers that only IMDb can deliver - more than 50 million visitors a month.

As film Sellers, Sales Agents, and Acquirers, you can look forward to unprecedented information, discovery, and connectivity at your fingertips, across the entire landscape of commercial and independent film.

The day-to-day operations of Withoutabox will remain much the same, including the entire management team, our experienced staff, and the dedicated customer service you love.


Interesting - points out the direction IMDB might want to head into, from an aggregator of data on finished/developing products, suddenly into the space of helping folks get distribution. From passive to active role. (see update below)

Without A Box started as a service to help filmmakers submit finished films to multiple festivals at once. Last year I reported on how they were trying become a middleman, helping connect filmmakers and acquisition funding. Will IMDB keep pushing this forward, or will they get folded in as is and remain complacent with services offered?

I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see what the cost justification and strategy was for IMDB to acquire these folks.

-mike

UPDATE - AH! And then I, you know, READ the whole thing in detail, and my brain registered this time that IMDB is owned by AMAZON, and it all clicks. (Maybe I should start drinking coffee? Nah...be like starting smoking cigaretttes or jabbing heroin haphazardly into my arm). Amazon wants to be more vertically integrated in the content chain. Like Mark Cuban's HDNet/Magnolia Pictures/etc. Except, you know, bigger and more successful.

Labels: distribution, online distribution

press release for you:

Amazon.com and Microsoft Team Up to Help Indie Filmmakers Jump Into HD DVD

Up to 1,000 new indie titles to be made available in HD DVD through the CustomFlix DVD on Demand Program; Sundance Channel original series, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," to be among first HD television offerings on Amazon.com.

SEATTLE and REDMOND, Wash. — July 2, 2007 — Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced the 1,000 HD DVD Indies Project, designed to lower the barriers to entry for filmmakers to produce and distribute movies in the HD DVD format through the innovative manufacturing-on-demand technology of CustomFlix, a part of an Amazon group of companies. Jointly sponsored by Amazon and Microsoft, the project will provide free authoring and setup services for up to 1,000 selected indie titles.

"This collaboration with Microsoft is a great opportunity for independent filmmakers to reach Amazon customers with their films via the HD DVD format," said Peter Faricy, vice president of music and movies at Amazon.com. "By working together with Microsoft and leveraging the proven CustomFlix DVD on Demand model, we can lower the barriers to entry for independent filmmakers and dramatically increase the selection we offer our customers."

The project will be spearheaded by CustomFlix, which will bring as many as 1,000 feature-length independent films to Amazon customers using the CustomFlix DVD on Demand technology, which produces and ships DVDs only as they are ordered. This model greatly improves the cost structure for independent filmmakers by eliminating the need for costly inventory.

"From a technical standpoint, we found that the HD DVD format fits our business model perfectly," said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, co-founder and managing director of CustomFlix. "With retail shelf space at a premium, our model eliminates the risk of carrying inventory and immediately expands the number of great HD DVD titles available to consumers."

"Programs like this one from Amazon lower barriers to entry for independent artists and provide audiences with increased access to high-quality, high-definition content," said Christian Vesper, senior vice president of programming, acquisitions and scheduling for Sundance Channel.

Sundance Channel will be reviewing the high-definition features for potential broadcast on the network as well as making its own HD original eco-series, "Big Ideas for a Small Planet," available for purchase through Amazon's HD DVD program.

"Amazon's participation in this project will be a major benefit to independent filmmakers wanting to break into the high-definition market segment," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president for the Consumer Media Technology Group at Microsoft. "The use of Microsoft® technology and authoring expertise will ensure that all the HD DVD titles offered by Amazon have impeccable quality, thanks to the VC-1 codec and innovative interactive scenarios with HDi™."


Mike's Comments - sounds good! HD DVD looks great, and the fact that they are actively seeking high def, independent content certainly fits in with the demographic of certain blogs I know about.

So fire it up, and see if it fits your needs! Be interesting to see if UnBox started offering this kind of content next.

-mike

Labels: online content service, online distribution, online store

CinemaTech: From Tuesday night's talk: Slides about digital distribution opportunities

From Cinematech (quoting full article, betting he won't mind - what isn't included is the preso itself which is on the above linked page):

"A few people have asked whether there's video from my Tuesday night presentation at the Apple Store here in San Francisco, which also included a number of filmmakers, video-makers, and entrepreneurs talking about their experiences with digital distribution... I'm not sure whether/when any video will be posted. Apple had some issues about shooting in the store, though I saw at least one person in the audience with a video camera.

But here are the slides from my talk. They'll probably make no sense without my narration, and they include a few QuickTime movies that won't play on SlideShare, but there is some data in there that you may find useful."


Scott's record of tracking the latest is digital distribution tech is spot-on - he rocks in my book.

-mike

Labels: online distribution

Internet speed battle escalates | Chicago Tribune

New Comcast links promise to fly along 25 times faster, and threaten to transform the television industry
...
Comcast Corp.'s chief executive, Brian Roberts, unveiled a computer connection that delivers data 25 times faster than today's cable modem services.
...
Called Wideband, the service could be available commercially in a couple of years, Roberts said, but declined to say at what price.
...
policymakers in Washington wring their hands over America's declining position regarding broadband connectivity. An international study last month found that more than a dozen countries now have greater coverage and faster speeds for Internet connections than the United States.
...
introduced a resolution to make it national policy to supply universally available Internet connection speeds of 100 megabits per second by 2015.

(Current broadband varies from 1 to 10 megabits/sec)

Consider that current HDTV is 19.2 megabits/sec, and you start to get the idea of what that could do for you.

Interest quote from an Internet based video service:

"In three to five years, there will be devices, not computers, that you can connect to your flat-screen TV that will bring anything you want to see from the Web," said Pulver. "You can bypass the middle people, including the cable TV systems, and just download programs offered by content producers.

"I believe the cable companies will try to put up roadblocks to keep that from happening. They will have the fight of their lives."


Obviously, this starts to open doors for indie content - what if you could host/distribute HD movies from a website or service directly to a TV without a middleman on a pay-per-view basis? That's a big leap from what the guy above is suggesting, but that'd be the ultimate - if you could subscribe to a show the same way you subscribe to an RSS feed (speaking of which, you ARE running NetNewsWire, right?).

-mike

PS - thanks to longtime reader/contributor Cord Frederic Romberg for sending this one in. See something you think should be up on HD4NDs? Send it in! Email at top of page.

Labels: distribution, future, hardware, Internet, online distribution, online video

AppleInsider | Apple courts indies with DRM break: "The iTunes Store is lending an ear to smaller labels, hoping to muster support for its anti-DRM movement by cutting indies treatment similar to that given to EMI."

Schweet.

Progress.

Now, if indies can just get content onto the video side of the store...

-mike

Labels: DRM, iTunes, online content service, online distribution

Indie Films Going Online

About online distro of indie movies. Points out that low budget can suck - big surprise. Points out not a lot of money in it so far - big surprise.

But interesting to see what folks are trying and how well it is or isn't working.

And since I've completely fallen behind on keeping up, go read CinemaTech to catch up on the last couple of weeks of what he's been up to.

-mike

UPDATE:

Commenter Bill Cunningham made such good points I want to put'em up here in the article where you can see'em:

I read this article and posted about it on my blog, but I wanted to let you know this husband and wife team have done everything wrong here. No wonder they feel like they have to "punt" through downloading in order to get their film some attention.

- They didn't do any research on how licensing to international territories usually works.

- They degraded the quality of their film in the press.

- They signed a SAG agreement when they could have acquired bigger names that are SAG core (or at least more marketable names).

- They didn't try to tie in the fact they had a "name" from the BLADE TV series in their film.

- And yes, if you look at the opening credits on Amazon, they made a lousy film (or at least a terrible opening credit sequence).

The fact is that no one guarantees you that your film will get distribution when it is produced. It's up to you to make a marketable product to sell.

In other words - No one is going to buy a Yugo when there are so many BMWs out there avaialable for a Yugo price.


I never read the full article, just skimmed, posted, and moved on, but Bill seems to nail it pretty well there. And I agree - a title sequence makes for a crappy trailer. That's just LAZY filmmaking. The job isn't done when the film is mastered out - the job is done when the theatrical run is over, ALL the rights have been sold, carefully, maximizing return, then the sequel pre-sold and funded, the DVD income tallied, etc.

Put it in terms of any other product out there - shipping product is just the first step...then you gotta sell it and support it to actually make the money.

See his article here:

DISContent: Indie Doesn't Have to Mean Stupid! (and he self promotes at the end of it...like a good filmmaker should!)

Labels: distribution, online distribution

Hey all - with NAB fast approaching and the press releases flying in at a mad rate the same week taxes are due, sometimes ya gotsta punt - thus the entity I call a blogwad - a buncha news all piled into one post. I've at least broken it down by category for you this time - here's the one on Online Distribution news:

ONLINE DISTRIBUTION:
======================

CinemaTech: Internet Movie Marketplaces: Who's Most Likely to Succeed?:
Scott Kirsner has a nice piece looking at the lay of the land for online movie distro:

"Who'll end up as the Blockbuster of Internet movie distribution? No one has all the elements in place yet: big audience, vast selection, intuitive design, and a simple way to transfer movies onto portable devices and the living room television.But here's my ranking of the five players that are "most likely to succeed" in the business of digital distribution. "


Not surprisingly, iTunes leads the list. Read on for the others and why he thinks they rank this way. Good stuff.

--------

AppleInsider | MGM flicks arrive on Apple's iTunes Store (still no HD)

---------

Joost scores first deal with major broadcaster, CBS

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CinemaTech: Wal-Mart: 3000 movies downloaded in first month: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the farthest along [in terms of retailers offering digital downloads] after selling 3,000 movie downloads in its first month, February. Blockbuster Inc. spokeswoman Karen Raskopf said the movie rental chain intends to enter digital downloads by the end of this year, perhaps in partnership with another company."

That sounds rather unimpressive as compared to movie sales on iTunes Store.

----------

more blogwads on other topics coming up...

Labels: blogwad, NAB, online content service, online distribution, online video

Apple just announced that in May they'll release ALL of EMI's music catalog in a new way - along side the existing DRM'd 99 cent 128kbps AAC tracks, they're offering $1.29 256kbps DRM free tracks. See my article on that with analysis. That's a big, good step.

The next steps I'd like to see Apple take:

1.) Offer other major label content the same way. But if one does it and it is deemed successful, the others are likely to fall in line. Considering that CDs are an "open" format and getting ripped right and left, they might as well make content available this way in general. Sounds like this is on the way - from the press release about EMI, "...we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year." Good stuff.

2.) Then offer indie content the same way - let indie music producers/labels choose whether to go 128 kbit DRM or 256 kbit DRM free at a higher price.

3.) Start making movies downloadable from iTunes Store in two formats: iPod Video size, and AppleTV HD size. The AppleTV versions would cost a bit more, be 1280x720 @ 24fps with 5.1 audio (YES it can do that), and obviously be bigger downloads as well (the spec calls for 5 megabits/sec max on the AppleTV). Encouraging along those lines, in the press release Apple says: "All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price." - so DRM-free video begins in May.

3.) Allow indies to sell video content through the Apple Store, first at iPod Video size, then later at AppleTV HD size.

4.) Then somewhere down the line, perhaps years from now, drop DRM altogether (or mostly), and only sell audio as 256kbps tracks without DRM for 99 cents, and video content perhaps without DRM as well - or at least make that a choice for the producers to decide. The major studios may never accept DRM, but the indie content producers may find that a desirable choice, to get playback on a wider range of devices.

This will probably take years to happen if it ever does. But Apple is taking the first step in May, so kudos to them. I completely support this move.

And note they are stealthily increasing the price to $1.29/track - that the quality goes up is of piffling concern in terms of production costs - they'll have to re-encode the back library and their bandwidth bill will go up - but bandwidth continues to get cheaper (Amazon's S3 service is about 20 cents/GB I think, and Apple is probably paying less than that).

(I'm envisioning a vast compression farm of Minis networked together, chunking away on 256 kbit conversions of EMI's library....)

-mike

Labels: analysis, AppleTV, online content service, online distribution, online video

CinemaTech: The site with no name: NBC and News Corp. announce new video joint venture NBC & News Corp. starting their own video download service with free, paid, and advertising supported stuff. Scott links to WSJ, NYTimes, & LA Times coverage, and comes up with six salient points that will be required for this to be successful.

I think he pegs it when he says it'll be interesting to see if two big companies can do something good without getting mired in the quibbling. As neither of these are software companies to begin with, I take that as a BIG strike against them in the Not Getting It category. Hopefully they'll hire smart folks, but will they let those folks execute on good ideas, or say "No, we're not comfortable with that."? I've seen it sooooooo many times in my own interactive development involvements in the past...legal, marketing, etc. get involved and step by step reduce usability and consumer usefulness of the effort.

-mike

Labels: online content service, online distribution, online video

AppleInsider | Apple's iTunes may soon become favorite among indie studios

Just one, but it is a foot in the door, a crack in the facade, insert favorite metaphor here.

I'm busy today, actually doing non-blog work, imagine that...

From the Variety source article
Variety.com - ITunes is all 'That' to indie producers
ITunes has cracked open to independent video producers for the first time.Apple's digital content store on Tuesday started selling 'That,' a snowboarding action pic made for DVD by Forum Snowboards. Move reps the first time iTunes has sold video content that didn't come from an established network, studio or distributor.Though the Mac maker wouldn't comment on future plans, the deal with Forum indicates iTunes will selectively sell video outside of its high-profile deals with companies like Disney, NBC and Lionsgate. (Anyone can distribute video podcasts for free on iTunes.)Given iTunes' dominance in the nascent digital download market, that's sure to generate hordes of interest among independent film producers in all genres who don't have a distributor.


-mike

Labels: Apple, iTunes, online content service, online distribution, online video

Paramount, Fox embrace BitTorrent | CNET News.com:

In February, BitTorrent will launch a video store where customers can download movies from Hollywood studios such as Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and Twentieth Century Fox Film, as well as TV shows from MTV Networks. Earlier this year, BitTorrent announced a similar partnership with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

...but is still pretty lame - rental only, $4/pop, can't burn to DVD or watch on your TV, only plays on the computer you downloaded it to. Downloaded movies "die" after 30 days or 24 hours after you start to watch it.

A step forward over no legal content, but until it is easier to get content to the living room, this is dumb. The advantage BitTorrent offers is speed of download - the more popular the movie, the more peers will be out there, the faster the download will be - so it actually scales up rather than down for popular files.

But once you've got that file, unless your computer is attached to your TV, you're stuck - no burning of DVDs, no transfer to another playback device, etc.

So the speed benefit gets killed right there due to the hassle factor and limitations placed on the content by the studios.

I wonder if studio execs will look at the numbers in a few months and say "See? Not many people are downloading, this is not the future..." and write it off, overlooking the utterly hamstrung nature of the details.

It used to be said "the last mile" was the problem with broadband content distribution - getting a fast enough pipe from the trunk line into the neighborhood. Now we're facing a problem of the last 10 feet - how to get content from your computer to your TV.

-mike

Labels: online content service, online distribution

Then there's this I, Cringely article which claims the hard drive will be used as part of an Apple-only P2P network for distributing content.

Nope - it says on Apple's Apple TV Sync page: " Pair Apple TV with your computer and your TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, and photos sync automatically." - that 40GB is for caching content. What if I have more than 40GB of content, as i do? Probably pick playlists and albums to sync and have to stream the rest.

He also claims Mac Mini, AppleTV, and new Airport Base Station are stackable.

Nope - not only are they different sizes, but Apple goes to pains to stress that Minis shouldn't be stacked, they breathe top to bottom to dissipate heat. Apple just likes consistent design is all.

I like Cringely, we had a great banter some time ago (well before the AppleTV was announced) predicting such a device - I called it the Airport Express A/V at the time in the summer of 2005.

But he's off base here - he needs to do his homework.

Will Apple do a P2P play? They'd only do it if proprietary and not let you share other file types. Would it make sense the way Cringely suggests? I dunno - P2P only works well as it scales up, and I personally don't like the idea of P2P running sucking up my bandwidth.

What we DID agree on is that Apple would have high def downloads at some point, and since the tech specs call for up to 720p24 playback, that's a high def movie:

Apple - Apple TV - Tech Specs: "Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile"

...it is just a matter of when.

At that point, AppleTV is still less expensive than HD-DVD and Blu-ray players, but with a tiny library, no DVD playback capabilities, and other hindrances. When AppleTV is about $150 then it gets more interesting, and if they came out with a 1080p24 or 1080i60 decoding capable unit next year with an HD-DVD or Blu-ray or other optical drive for under $500, that'd be even better.

-mike

Labels: Apple, online distribution, original

AppleInsider | Lionsgate films now available on Apple's iTunes Store: "Lionsgate will add over 150 of its flicks to the store in the coming weeks, the two companies said, including titles such as 'Terminator 2,' 'LA Story,' 'Basic Instinct,' 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Dirty Dancing.'"

Labels: iTunes, online distribution

Top 10 Reasons Why Movie Downloads Suck - Gizmodo

This is bang-on accurate. Go read.

Labels: DRM, online distribution

Wal-Mart to launch video downloads - Yahoo! News

The Facts:

-3000 movies & TV Shows offered
-ALL the major studios involved (not case with iTunes)
-downloads available same day as DVDs
-New movies up to $19.88, older for $9.88
-TV shows $1.96 day after they air
-download and disc prices similar
-need PC with XP or Vista & IE
-uses MS's DRM
-no Mac or Linux support
-no direct iPod compatibility
-works with SOME portable devices compatible with MS's DRM
-up to 3 backup copies made, including DVD-R, but won't play in consumer DVD players (file format incompatibility)
-45 minutes to download typical movie in "near DVD quality"
-no extras - just the movie


OPINION:

The big plus is that ALL the major studios are in on this, and it should grease the skids to get their content onto other online movie stores that they may not be involved in yet - iTunes, CinemaNow, etc.

As for Walmart's play, I don't think this is going to go over very well - while they are offering an option outside of iTunes (good for choice in the market), the prices are higher, the quality still isn't DVD quality, no extras (same as iTunes in those regards).

My gut sense - the online experience won't be as clean/clear/easy as iTunes. How can I say this without even looking? Because it is WalMart, King of Low Cost. If Sony or Amazon can't get it right, what are the odds WalMart will?

I think this will be good overall - the studios have been wary of cutting deals with iTunes and other online download services for fear of retaliation from Walmart, but now that Walmart has their own service, Walmart can't complain (with much validity) about gettting cut out of the loop. But at these high prices, I don't think it'll make much of a dent in the market, esp. for the low quality offered. The trade-off is convenience - do you want a better looking disc with all the extras, or do you want it in 45 minutes without leaving the house? Oh...and then you can't watch it on your TV, your iPod, your DVD player.

Good luck with that, Walmart...but at least it is a start.

-mike

Scott Kirsner chimes in with his own thoughts as well - CinemaTech: Tuesday News: Wal-Mart intros movie downloads ... Bob Z bolts to Disney ... Diller dips into video

And AppleInsider has some intersting bits too:

AppleInsider | Briefly: Preloaded iPods, Wal-Mart movies, Apple stores:

"However, the Windows Media-only shop may have already run into its own self-made roadblocks. Many pointed out Wal-Mart's attempt to preserve its bread-and-butter DVD sales: most every movie on the store is priced nearly identically to its cousin at retail outlets, giving little incentive to wait for a download instead of driving to the store. Wal-Mart video downloads are lower-resolution (640x480) and can't be burned to CDs or DVDs.

Visitors who tried to browse the site on its opening day using Firefox were also faced with a completely broken page despite supposed compatibility with browsers beyond Internet Explorer. Ironically, Mac owners shut out from buying the videos themselves could still visit using Safari."

Labels: online content service, online distribution

More Movies than iTunes: "Focusing on independent and international films, the movie-download startup Jaman.com offers four times as many films as Apple's online store"

Jaman.com is a new movie download service that offers over 1000 movies, which they tout as more than iTunes. That's the good news. The ambivalent news is that it is all you-never-heard-of-it indie stuff from around the world.

This is an opportunity for folks that have internet distribution rights to their films, but I don't know how much of a draw it will be for consumers.

You have to download their player (14 MB Mac or Windows download), content comes from their servers or a P2P model (which means what, the Jaman thing installs a P2P client? Yes it does, so I didn't want to install).

What pixel size and image quality do you get? I didn't want to install their P2P thing so I didn't find out.

In the end, it is a niche play in an already niche market. How many people really want to seek out indepenent cinema in the US? Not a huge number unfortunately (as much as we wish it weren't so). Then you have to look at that audience, and find the slice of that ALREADY small group how many of those have broadband, and are willing to download movies using a third party player, and are satisfied to watch full length content on a computer. Hmm. Considering that even mainstream fare isn't having a large amount of success with that distro model, I don't find this a very compelling option...for the moment. Can you burn to DVD? No. How can you watch on your TV? That's up to you.

How big are the movies? Not sure without installing, but a 2 hour, 20 minute movie was 2.1GB - so it is about 2mbit datarate, so certainly no bigger than DVD, most likely 640x360 or smaller, akin to iTunes' current movie size I'd imagine.

If indie content is REALLY going to take off, it needs an BIG umbrella to fall under - an iTunes or major studio effort to wrap it in under its wings to bring enough consumers into the fold that it'll get enough distro.

At $2/rental and $5/purchase, how much of that would go to the filmmaker?

A nice idea, I wish them well, is a place to get SOME distribution for world cinema in the US and elsewhere, but not a major play, and I expect many, MANY more similar services to emerge over time.

BUT...if you have an indie feature and haven't found another venue for it, this is a place to look....but after you talk to most everyone else.

I look forward to the day when major services (like iTunes but others as well) offer more indie content, much as iTunes does for smaller record labels, or Amazon offers books/CDs/DVDs/etc.

-mike

Labels: online content service, online distribution, online video

Interview with Mike Hudack from blip.tv - DV Guru looooong interview with blip.tv CEO, talking about how their video hosting service is aimed at shows not just random clips like Youtube, and how they can multi-publish into QT, Flash, and WM9 formats, do CSS, do ad revenue sharing, etc. etc. etc.

This is interesting enough I'm going to start looking into it for my own purposes.

-mike

Labels: online content service, online distribution, online video

(click the picture to load video)

Hey all -

I've been back a few days but trying to catch up on my world. Here (finally) is the video I shot of the distribution/acquisition rights panel that Scott Kirsner (of CinemaTech blog fame) moderated. Officially, it was titled "Rights Licensing in the New Era of Distribution."

This is a punt posting of what I saw one day at Sundance - I could edit & improve audio, but I don’t have time. I made a quick tour of the New Frontier Lounge noting the vendors present, then went and sat in on the Distribution Rights Panel that was moderated by my fellow blogger and buddy Scott Kirsner. Also on the panel were Orly Ravid of Wolf Releasing, Jean Pruitt of Independent Film & Television Association, Tracey Mercer of Revelation Entertainment & also Clickstar (Morgan Freeman’s distro), David Straus of withoutabox.com, Linda “O”, head of acquisition of shorts and podcasts for Shorts, Intntl.

I shot this using movie mode on my little Canon S450 snapshot camera by holding my arm up for 45 minutes, so pardon the shaky camera work. I got the first 35 or so minutes than ran out of room on my camera card, purged some stuff and got about 5 more minutes, missing the last 20 minutes or so unfortunately. But there is still much info of interest on here.

Yo Sundance - it was open to the public, so I’m posting this here. If anybody has a problem with that, please let me know, link below.

Enjoy and soak in the info.

NOTE - I posted this article as the video was still uploading and I left the studio - so if the video doesn't show up or is incomplete, check back later. I'll be back in a few hours to check on it and make sure it is working.

-mike

PS - David Straus of withoutabox.com talks about new services they are going to roll out, I'm interviewing him in next few days to get more info on that, will report here about it.

Labels: distribution, festivals, Kirsner, online distribution, Sundance