Forum film-maker's films distribution deal...

[Ruthie]

Is this strictly for shorts or can we contribute music videos too.

Ruthie

[eddie]

Im into this, if I can. I have a short that
Id love to include...

How would you distribute it? Put it on the web? magazine ads? sampler sent to a movie (DVD?) magazine? Set up a stand at a film festival/ convention? Walk the streets flogging them from a box?

[RedRaven]

Remember that if you're selling it in the UK, it STILL needs to have a BBFC certificate or you are breaking the law. For a 70 minute VCD, you are looking at paying about ?800 to the good ol' BBFC. If you are giving it away free, on the other hand, you DON'T need a certificate.

[miker]

Eddie, those are great distribution channels!!

I would guess things would have to start small, mail order, with an ad in relevant mags. Remember that the market is fellow film-makers, not studio execs or the public at large. How many 'arthouse' movies have a BBFC certificate I wonder?

As for the BBFC I'm sure things can be fudged so that the CD is effectively given away. You'd just be paying for the time it takes someone to burn a copy and stuff it in a jiffi bag and post it.

And if it gets in trouble with the Law - well, who cares, so long as it grabs the headlines?!

I do think we'd have to self impose a PG level certificate on ourselves though (or a 15 in case the Parents can't be arsed to give Guidance) - or put a disclaimer on it of some sort. Law is just words. Common sense should prevail!

Shorts, pop promos, anything that isn't longer than about 15 minutes or so I reckon.

[eddie]

Ace. Ill edit down a 15 minute MPEG version then!

[deepcope]

hey i love the idea and you can see me buying a cd as soon as ones availible but why on cd ? ( this may be a stupid question ) why not just get a compilation of peoples shorts and put them on video, sell them from exposure ?

[miker]

VHS is so passe...

Seriously though, I could get stuff dumped to VHS or DV if there was enough demand.

So should we be mastering on DV for a VHS sell-thru title?

Can we collect together 180 minutes worth of 'GNU' shorts and sell it for a tenner through exposure or any other outlet?

And what shall we call this collection of masterpieces? GNU SHORTS has a certain mystique I think...

So in what format can ppl offer up their shorts? Like I say I personally can accept VHS, DV or CD. Maybe I could download some stuff overnight if I had to...

If you have a short/promo/animation etc. that you could offer up for inclusion, send the following details:

YOUR NAME
THE TITLE OF YOUR SUBMISSION
THE FORMAT (VHS, DV, URL, CD etc)
THE LENGTH (minutes and seconds)

and a 25 word or less synopsis to:

[email protected]

And I'll see if I get enough to fill a 1 hour VCD or a 3 hour VHS.

[marti-c]

Yeah , you just pay the 10 pounds to register your name with miker and the cd or video is a "FREE" gift.
I would buy one anyway!
The thing is if you get it established then you may find some people on this forum have some direction to follow to get their short onto volume 2...............

[eddie]

GNU shorts is a good name. I like anyway.

[miker]

I can't remember what GNU stands for, but it may not be wholly appropriate since, GNU software is essentially public domain and the license allows you to alter it too I think. So I guess we need our own licensing agreement.

Free for distribution, but the author retains intellectual copyright. Basically this allows you to copy the films without feeling guilty like you do at the moment, because you have the author's consent to do so.

You would not technically be allowed to use any portion of the distributed films in one of your own productions without consent of the author.

Author's credit of the work should always be retained.

So not really GNU at all I guess.

But it should be useful for networking, if it gets distributed around enough - if the author includes contact details.

We'd know when it was successful, when it turns up in the hookey VCD shops in Penang... but for once the pirates wouldn't be breaking the law, they'd be helping our careers!!