As Angela mentioned previously, we here in the office have been stealing away for hours at a time to visit the IFP Market & Filmmaker Conference. On Wednesday I attended a panel called “Digital Download” which hoped to shed some light on some of the new revenue-sharing distribution models for filmmakers. Basically, how filmmakers can put their films online and actually make money.

A good number of filmmakers are building audiences for their work by cutting trailers and putting them on YouTube. While this is useful for getting the word out, YouTube only offers advertising revenue-sharing deals (read: money to poor filmmakers) to a minority of filmmakers — those whose films get millions and millions of hits. If you have a film that does only moderately well, there is really no direct monetary gain to having your film on YouTube.

This panel proposed avenues filmmakers can take to line their pockets, if even just a little bit. One option is to use Amazon.com’s Unbox service. Amazon offers a 50/50 split of the revenue on a film. They have also recently partnered with Re:New Media, also represented at the panel, to create the Reframe collection which will bring more independent film to the service—digitizing films that may be available to the general public for the first time. However, the consensus among panelists and audience members alike was that Amazon does not yet provide the proper context for independent films. Essentially, while it is easier for a user to pay for your film it will be nearly impossible for him/her to find your film. Much like YouTube, there is a struggle to set your film apart — what I like to think of as small-fish-in-a-big-pond syndrome. Also, another major consideration is that Unbox currently only works for PC users; if you have a Mac, it just won’t work. It is arguable that it may stay that way as the PC market is still larger than the Mac market (not to mention that Apple has a bit of a stronghold in that market as iTunes is the default music and video application on every new Mac that is shipped).

Alternatively, there are other services which do not have the name recognition of Amazon but are still gaining popularity and thereby becoming major competitors. Panelist Kathleen Powell of Jaman contends that it is a better choice for independent filmmakers — particularly documentaries which are the best sellers. In Jaman users can buy or rent digital (and often high definition) versions of films for $4.99 or $1.99 respectively. Filmmakers who distribute their films via Jaman receive 30% of the transaction sales. However, Powell was optimistic that the service would soon also offer advertiser and subscription models which could increase what that 30% looks like to the filmmaker (though when asked, Powell declined to give numbers—in terms of dollars—that the top-achieving films on Jaman have made).

Lastly, panelist Peter Broderick contends that the iTunes Music Store (Apple Computer’s popular online music and video store included in the iTunes music player application) is the new marketplace for digital content. Though, in terms of video, it is a marketplace primarily for mainstream media (well, most big media with the exception of NBC Universal). There is only one independent feature film on the iTunes Music Store though Broderick hinted that soon this may change. He declined to give up his source but nonetheless I’ll be keeping an eye on Apple.

After all this talk about what filmmakers may want to do, panel moderator Scott Kirsner introduced filmmaker Hunter Weeks to talk about his experience as a case study. His film, 10 MPH, documents his journey (with fellow filmmaker Josh Caldwell) across the country on a Segway — the unusual scooter which has an average speed of roughly 10 miles per hour. With no major distributors interested in the film, Weeks and Caldwell decided to go it alone and found success in the simple things. They offer the film in a variety of different formats (iPod download, Amazon Unbox, Netflix, Blockbuster, etc) but found that simply selling DVDs was the best way to actually make a profit. In their recent 23 city tour with the film, they sold many DVDs simply by talking to people about the film face-to-face. Weeks’ rough estimate is that they have sold approximately 4,000 DVDs and 700 downloads of the film. Perhaps not surprisingly, when it came to downloads of the film Weeks recommended a service none of the panelists mentioned called e-junkie.com which allows him to keep all the revenue from the purchase of his film as a digital download, minus a nominal monthly fee. For me, it was definitely helpful to hear about the digital download marketplace from a filmmaker’s perspective.

Panelist Jana Augsberger brought up what seems to be a potential resource for independent filmmakers called Filmaka, for which she is Vice President of Content & Distribution. Augsberger described it as a short film contest where the winner gets his/her short produced as a feature. Filmaka then distributes the feature film and shares revenue with the filmmaker.

In general, filmmakers should take a second to read the terms before giving up their film to any service (Filmaka, for example, retains exclusive rights of all your submissions). Most of the panelists noted that, if you are willing to bear the responsibility of digital distribution, you should make sure to retain as many of those rights as you can. If you are a filmmaker who is currently self-distributing, please feel free to comment on this post and share your experiences!