We Are Colony: Digital VOD Distribution for Independent Film

2010

Digital production and distribution technologies may create new opportunities for filmmaking in Australia. A culture of new approaches to filmmaking is emerging driven by 'next generation filmmakers' who are willing to consider new business models: from online web series to short films produced for mobile phones. At the same time cultural representation itself is transforming within an interactive, social media driven environment. Yet there is very little research into next generation filmmaking.

2016

This article examines how the story of the making of the independent Spanish feature film The Cosmonaut resembles traditional narrative structures and story elements. It relates the ongoing sharing of the film's production process, and argues that this sharing provided the basis for the film's audience-building. Independent films no longer have to be standalone products that are marketed only after their creation. Related events or products allow the story of the making of a film to transcend the film's temporal boundaries and even the limitations of its medium. The paper concludes that telling the story of a film's making while it happens (a) helps to create communities and audiences, who (b) individually experience the making of a film and (c) view a film merely as an end-product while " watching " takes place over an extended period of time. Such ongoing storytelling allows continuous audience growth that helps the filmmaker to self-distribute.

UKSAD, 2018

Cinema has gone through various stages in becoming a locus for collective production throughout its existence. Due to new technologies and changes in users’ social practices, that cinema is the product of the film director is no longer the main conviction about cinema. The opportunity to participate in production processes, thanks to the opportunities provided by new media, has shifted the focus from the director to the audience. This has brought up the opportunity for self-expression across various communities in different parts of the world. This medium is considered to be a new sphere in which various groups have the chance to get involved in the filmmaking process. In terms of users' engagement with the media of their choice, individuals have gradually achieved more control on the production and marketing processes in film industry. With the concept of “Community Filmmaking,” a burgeoning common practice, means, as communities now have direct or indirect access to mass participation in filmmaking. As a result of the changing economic, social and cultural practices of present day, crowdsourcing has become more widespread and available. This article traces the changing social practices of audiences and new audience patterns due to their involvement in the filmmaking process in terms of digitalization through the term crowdsourcing by focusing on the collaborative process of this method. In this article, the concepts of connectivity and collectivity will be analyzed by two specific examples. First case is “Life in a Day”, a crowdsourced documentary that has been completed by the participation of 80.000 prosumers from 192 nations. The second case is “Transformers Premake,” which is described as a desktop documentary, discusses the changing form and aesthetic in filmmaking in addition to the production method, all of which relate to users' engagement and crowdsourcing.

TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF DESIGN ART COMMUNICATION

Today technology has dominated almost all facets of the life and being no longer a luxury, it has become an ordinary component of everyday life. In addition to indispensable functions in such fields as healthcare, industry and education, it is becoming more and more important in arts and entertainment. While art branches are transforming and preserving their essence, they should be open to innovations. Technologic screens are now being used in theatre plays, museums and exhibitions and movies can simultaneously be broadcasted alive in cinema halls at different countries of the world. Cinema halls are no longer places where only movies are shown. Having a past dating back to over 120 years, the works of the art of the cinema were watched on the silver, television, computer and mobile phone screens respectively. As television and then video cassette, DVD, pay TV, digital movie and online series streaming platforms became sophisticated, it revealed that there should be some kind of screening calendar among all. This can vary from country to country and sometimes it can be subject to written rules. Today video cassettes almost completely disappeared and DVDs are not as popular as they used to be. For this reason, today mediums of movie screening apart from the cinema are classical television channels, digital platforms, IPTVs and online streaming movie and series platforms. The greatest competition takes place when the time, conditions and place of the first run of high quality and popular movies and series are concerned. As the number of competitors increase, income and profit pie shrink, traditional approaches and rules wear off, change and sometimes disappear. The main purpose of this study is to argue Netflix, a US-originated entity having emerged in this competitive environment and gained worldwide popularity, its position at both television and cinema industry, its current and future implications. While Netflix, founded in 1997, was previously a company selling and renting video cassettes and DVDs turned out to be a movie and series giant having 130 million subscribers in 190 countries today. Providing viewers with special individual displays and recording theirs likes and preferences in numbers, Netflix produces and presents their own original movies and series to its subscribers. Sending film to Cannes Film Festival in 2017, simultaneous distribution of the movie "Roma" in both its own platform and at cinemas, its success at Emmy awards and its participation in Oscar awards are the outcomes of Netflix's efforts of prestige and leadership in global television and film industry. These achievements and goals are deemed aggressive and dangerous by some cinema and television milieus and it is claimed that they will hurt the cinema and cinema halls. In this qualitative study, starting from the tension between Netflix and festival management at Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the future of the cinema through success / failure of Netflix at last Oscar ceremony will be analyzed.