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MillimeterThe Distribution Beat
Aug 11, 2009 12:00 PM, By Eric Melin
With our economy in the shape it’s in and new outlets for online distribution appearing seemingly every week, it is easy to see the writing on the wall when it comes to the DVD marketplace. Or is it? In a mainstream sense, DVD sales are certainly declining, but it may be too early to count out the format when it comes to selling indie content, especially to a niche audience.
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Chris Holland, director of festival operations at B-Side and author of the book Film Festival Secrets, says he isn’t wholly convinced the DVD market is drying up.
“The vast majority of people who watch movies at home still watch them on DVD,” he says. “The problem is that they buy/rent their DVDs online or at Wal-Mart, and those markets are both flooded with mass-market crap. How do you swim upstream against that?”
One key element to creating revenue opportunities for your film is to identify your crowd and eliminate the middle man. “Find your niche market and self-market punk rock-style,” says Anthony Ladesich, codirector of the new documentary Cowtown Ballroom. “We have been selling tons of DVDs actually at [theatrical] screenings. It helps for the film¬makers to be there to meet the people.”
His film, which documents the travails of the burgeoning Kansas City rock scene in the late ’60s/early ’70s, has done great business in local theaters, has received good local press, and will soon spawn a series of local concerts and film showings—where the filmmakers will be selling DVDs and T-shirts themselves.
When the movie played locally, the filmmakers sat at a booth just outside the theater to greet moviegoers after showings. When many of the bands featured in the film play live concerts, the Cowtown DVD is also available at their merchandise booth.
“It may feel like DVDs are going away, but honestly, there’s only a tiny fraction of people out there really using video on demand,” Holland says. “Are we as industry analysts [and likely early adopters of such technologies as BitTorrent, iTunes, Netflix streaming] pre-anticipating the death of DVD?”
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.