Today, Vimeo announced a groundbreaking deal for independent filmmakers at the Toronto International Film Festival. The popular video-sharing website is offering–no questions asked–$10 000 to any feature film that will be making its world premiere at the festival. That’s a $10,000 advance to distribute the film through their Vimeo-On-Demand service for an exclusive period of 30 days, but it won’t interfere with traditional distribution methods.
“I think we’re just starting to see a really interesting inflection point where, due to the power of digital platforms such as Vimeo, now we can deliver HD quality video on any internet enabled device.” Kerry Trainor, CEO of Vimeo, told me over the phone “Now I think we’re seeing a lot more filmmakers and video creators of all stripes looking at direct distribution as a really viable option.”
Over the past decade, film distribution has seen a remarkable shift. Prior to the new millenium, the only films that skipped a theatrical release were disreputable low budget action films that went straight-to-video. In 2013, however, home entertainment systems are more than capable of offering a viable platform for independent filmmakers. Celluloid is obsolete, and alternative forms of distribution are being explored with more enthusiasm than ever before.
Vimeo launched its Vimeo-On-Demand service earlier this year at SXSW in Austin, and one of its most high profile releases is Some Girl(s), a feature film starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell and written by Neil LaBute. Although Vimeo-On-Demand is the exclusive online distributor for Some Girl(s), the film was released in theatres on the same day as it premiered online. This kind of complementary distribution model is an option that Trainor hopes some of the films at TIFF will be willing to explore.
“We tried to make the framework around the offer as clear as possible, while also giving the filmmakers the flexibility to pursue traditional avenues of distribution, such as theatrical,” says Trainor “They can use Vimeo-On-Demand as a supporting or complementary distribution avenue so that they can go direct to their audiences.”
Releasing films simultaneously in theatres and on-demand is the “new normal” for independent distribution. Given the increased prevalence of online video content, it was only a matter of time before on-demand services would move from cable to the internet. These days, Emmy-caliber “television” shows are released exclusively on Netflix, an online platform, so it makes sense that a company like Vimeo would want to corner the online on-demand market before someone else gets there.
“There’s a number of advantages [to using Vimeo-On-Demand] and they really all relate to the level of control that the filmmaker or the distributor or the general owners of the IP have when they use a platform like Vimeo as opposed to cable VOD ” says Trainor.
The concept of “direct” distribution, in which filmmakers can bring their product directly to consumers, seems important to Trainor. For many independent films that can’t afford an expensive marketing campaign or won’t earn back their money from a theatrical arrangement, “direct” distribution is an affordable alternative.
“I think that we’re in the early days of a very important shift in distribution approaches where ‘distribution’ will come to be a combination of many different windows and now will also include direct distribution.”
On top of giving filmmakers control over pricing, geographic availability of the content, and duration of the rental, Vimeo also offers filmmakers a 90% share of the revenue earned with their service. However, any film at TIFF that takes Vimeo’s $10 000 offer will have to earn that money back before the filmmakers see any revenue share.
Exclusive online distribution of independent films, a market that will definitely become more prominent in the coming years, is currently untapped by any big names (other than iTunes, which tends to bury small movies under higher profile releases). For Vimeo, whose business model is based on user fees rather than advertisements, it makes sense to enter this field. While $10 000 by itself will push very few films at TIFF into the black, Vimeo’s offer makes it a lot easier for filmmakers to get their product out there.
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Alan Jones writes about film for Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @alanjonesxxxv.
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