TWEETNOTES: THE FUTURE OF THE DVD AND DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION

A compilation of my tweets during the 2009 SXSW Film panel “The Future of the DVD and Digital Distribution” moderated by Scott Kirsner, Editor, CinemaTech with panelists Matt Dentler, Cinetic Media; Gary Hustwit, Director, OBJECTIFIED;Steve Savage, President, New Video; Morgan Spurlock, Filmmaker, Warrior-Poets and C Richard Allen, CEO, SnagFilms. It was a “lively” panel to say the least.

Spurlock: “last movie was abandoned by distrib. DVD was tough because no one knew it was out. But really successful on Pirate Bay”

Hustwit: “sold $75,000 of merch for Helvetica before the film even came out. Great mktg.”

Hustwit: “w/ digital distrib about $60,000 was made. Not significant, but good chunk of change. Accounted for 10% of sales”

Savage: “tremendous amount of work to digest metadata to distrib on iTunes. Xbox is second to iTunes for digital distrib”

Dentler: “Hoop Dreams was first film that Cinetic Rights Management released thru digital means. CRM is an aggregator”

Allen: “Snag Film widgets in the last year have gotten over 300 million hits on 20,000 different websites”

Spurlock: “Super Size Me made $3,000 on Snag Films while it made $69,000 in DVD sales. But its all about getting eyeballs”

Spurlock: “the reason numbers aren’t released is because the numbers are pathetic compared to tv”

Spurlock: “Great thing about the web is community. Let’s take advantage of that”

Allen: “payments we’ve made are modest, don’t approach TV fees, but compared to theatrical release rev for filmmakers is 100 fold”

Allen: “These are early days of cable. The pricing parity has been reached. It too traditional tv 40 yrs to reach pricing parity”

Savage: “use digital to drive our business, but make money off the DVDs”

Hustwit: “Digital distrib is not the magic bullet. Still need to do the footwork in marketing. Just another option for audiences”

Hustwit: “Digital distrib is not the magic bullet. Still need to do the footwork in marketing. Just another option for audiences”

Kirsner: “Apple keeps 30% of everything sold on iTunes”

Allen: “9,000 films were submitted to Sundance 2009, 180 screened, and 7 walked away with deals”

Spurlock: “film festivals can create an energy around the film that other avenues cannot” hell yeah!

Savage: “If you know a kid that’s 9 years old, chances are he will only ever own digital goods”