Synopsis: Brian Newman discusses eight ways for indie filmmakers to profit from online distribution.

Peer-to-peer file sharing is wrecking the movie industry. People should just pay money to distributors, so that they can pay their artists, right? Bullshit, says Brian Newman.

Speaking at the Power to the Pixel forum (see 'Power to the Pixel: Making Sense of Cross-media'), at this month’s Times BFI London Film Festival, the former CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute exploded many of the myths of traditional film distribution. To audience cheers, Newman revealed how indie directors can actually make more money by releasing their work for ‘free’.

The first thing to understand, says Newman, is that traditional distributors’ advances for indie movies are very small: $15,000 is average, rising to $50,000 for a Sundance award-winner. The second is that most demand rights in perpetuity.

“The myth is that in the old world, everyone was happy,” he says. But the actual end result, after costs have been paid off, is “$0 to the film-makers, $0 to the investors. No one is happy … and you don’t even own your film any more.”

Paradoxically, making the film itself available for download may open up new sources of revenue – money that, in the old world, would have gone to the distributor.

Adapting an article by Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly to the movie industry, Newman proposed the following eight ways for film-makers to be ‘Better than free’.

1. Immediacy

Your film may be available from now until the end of time, but most people don’t take quite such a long-term view.

As Newman puts it: “A friend of mine goes to The Pirate Bay on the day of a film’s release and if he can’t find it, he knows it must suck.”

Making your film available online capitalises on this initial window of opportunity. One example is Tiffany Shlain’s award-winning documentary The Tribe: An Unorthodox, Unauthorized History of the Jewish People and the Barbie Doll.

Although still available via iTunes and DVD, sales fell almost to zero while the film was taken offline during its run at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Paradoxically, by enabling audiences to ‘try before they buy’, downloads may actually raise sales.

2. Personalisation

Although it might seem that the value of your work lies in the content itself, people are often willing to pay for the way in which you package that content.

As Newman points out, although the Prelinger Archives – a collection of over 60,000 educational, industrial and advertising films – are available to download for free, the material still makes money through online sales agent Getty Images.

Why? Because Getty also provides the all-important rights documentation, required before a film using the material can be accepted by most mainstream distributors.

3. Interpretation

Reports of the death of the author have been greatly exaggerated: there’s money to be made from explaining exactly what it is that the film-maker meant to say.

Recognising that most of their screenings come from private cinema clubs, some indie filmmakers produce ‘making of’ documentaries to screen alongside the main feature.

Tiffany Shlain goes even further, selling both a teaching guide and a ‘home discussion kit’ alongside The Tribe – the latter providing a crash course in such vital cultural archetypes as ‘The Superjew’.

4. Authenticity

The film may be free, but the audience will still pay for its maker’s touch, says Newman. Just think of The Grateful Dead.

“Thousands of hippies go to their shows and tape them, but people still buy their records because they want [the music] straight from the band.”

Back in the movie world, Gary Hustwit has been able to charge up to $75 for his latest documentary, Objectified, by releasing it in beautifully produced limited editions – the DVD accompanied by a film still bearing that all-important director’s signature.

5. Embodiment

Despite a recording career spanning four decades, the Rolling Stones are still touring. Why? Because there’s more money to be made from playing your back catalogue live.

For a parallel in the film industry, Newman points to Aaron Woolf’s 2007 movie King Corn. Finding screening fees hard to come by, the crew took the movie on tour, making money from ‘meet the artists’ gigs.

Climate-change documentary The Age of Stupid takes things a step further, providing an automated online service for booking experts for speaker sessions.

6. Accessibility

Also on show at Power to the Pixel, animated feature Sita Sings The Blues may be the ultimate free movie: the entire film has been released under a Creative Commons Share Alike licence.

But while he could download the movie today, Newman points out that he – like many other people – would prefer to add it to his online rental queue, trading cost for the convenience of a DVD delivered directly to his door.

“My Mom can do this, and she knows nothing about peer-to-peer services,” he notes.

7. Patronage

Despite giving Sita Sings The Blues away for free, animator Nina Paley says that she has made over $55,000 from the movie – and that’s net profit, not gross revenue.

Over half of this money comes from situations in which the audience has nothing material to gain: from direct donations via her website and ‘honor’ contributions from cinemas screening the movie.

“It turns out that audiences really want to share money with artists,” Paley explains. “Who knew?”

8. Findability

The irony of the digital age is that while (almost) everything is available for free, the resulting surfeit of material can make it impossible to find what you’re looking for.

To illustrate the point, Newman refers back to the Prelinger archives. Rather than having to trawl through a vast and unfamiliar library in the hope of striking gold, documentary makers are willing to pay good money for Getty researchers to locate clips matching their specific requirements.

Putting it all together

The secret of making movies that make money, believes Newman, is not to close off any of these options. According to Techdirt founder Mike Masnick:

CwF + RtB = $$$

In plain English: connect with fans (CwF) and give them a reason to buy (RtB), and you’ll eventually turn a profit ($$$). More importantly, don’t fall into the trap of assuming that your ‘product’ – the film itself – is actually your main money-spinner.

Or in Newman’s own succinct summary: “People don’t always go to our films because they want to watch movies. No one ever goes to a hardware store to buy a quarter-inch drill bit: they actually need a quarter-inch hole.”