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December 19, 2006
Distribution, Exhibition, Promotion
Hiding out at a well-known franchise coffeehouse catching up on some blogging and blog reading and just wanted to keep track of some links that have crossed my path. Via GreenCine, a discussion of teh distribution plans for John Sayles' Honeydripper, which just wrapped. The film's producers have set up a blog, where they discuss their intentions of fixing a broken distribution system while still working to see the filmmakers manage to see some profit from their hard work. More: Brendon Connelly compares the distribution strategy for Honeydripper to Steven Soderbergh's simultaneous distribution of Bubble in multiple formats. I'll be interested to see how this story unfolds (see also: the Emerging Pictures website).
Also from GreenCine, Stuart Klawans' review of Blood Diamond, which is pretty similar to my own.
Finally, and I'm very late in pointing to this one: Anne at the Risky Biz Blog has an interetsing entry on the potential (?) role for MySpace in promoting indie film. As she points out, MySpace is often dismissed as a dating or social site "for kids," but it can also be used for networking and promotion, as many musicians (and their publicists) have discovered. Her question: have there been any MySpace indie film "success stories?" She notes that Filmmaker Magazine has embraced the site, but while their MySpace friends are a who's who of indie films and festivals from the last year, I'm wondering what role MySpace has served in raising awareness of these films (or whether the social networking site is the best tool for promoting these films).
Posted by chuck at December 19, 2006 11:02 AM
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Comments
I think I would credit Mark Cuban more than Soderbergh for Bubble's distribution strategy. While Soderbergh made the picture, and I'm sure he was on board with the experiment, It took Cuban's financing and ownership of a theater chain, HD channel "cable network," and theatrical distributor to bring the project to fruition. (If I remember correctly, DVD manufacturing and distribution were outsourced.) What Sayles and Renzi seem to be attempting is something quite different, I think, since they don't have Cuban's capital or his established businesses. I hope they do well, but I don't think it's useful to compare this effort to Bubble.
Posted by: McChris at December 19, 2006 1:53 PM
McChris, all good points. I was skeptical of the comparison with Bubble as well, for basically the reasons you mention, but wanted to work in a link to that blog entry. And you're certainly right to read Cuban as the "author" of Bubble's distribution strategy.
More than anything, I'm curious to watch how Sayles and Renzi negotiate the new distribution terrain. I should have made that clearer in the post itself, but I was in a rush to write the entry.
Posted by: Chuck at December 19, 2006 9:04 PM