Speaking of Indie Filmmaking...

Paul Sweeting has an interesting profile piece in today's Content Agenda about how the web is "saving" indie filmmaking.

An interesting point from the head of Indiepix, Bob Alexander:

"Our business is totally DVD-centric," Alexander told Media Wonk. "Yes, you can download movies from iTunes, or you can stream your Netflix movies to your Roku box. But at the present time, the easiest way to get a high-quality presentation of a movie on your TV is to take it out of the sleeve and put it in your DVD player."

DVD sales are also more remunerative for all concerned.

"Our best titles at this point can sell 5,000, up to maybe 10,000 copies [on DVD] but the filmmaker can make $100,000 off that because half of what we get goes back to the filmmaker," because IndiePix splits the revenue with the producer. "Our focus is not on streaming, although we'll do some of that, or on rentals. It's on the sale of the DVD because half that money goes back to the filmmaker. We see that as the best way to build an economic base that allows independent filmmakers to make more films and allows consumers to enjoy a high-quality presentation of the movies."

-----------------------

In other words - there's more than one way to skin a cat. As technology gets better and more accessible, there will be ways to consolidate the DVD end of the business so the producer is seeing even more than 50% of the revenue from a release. It will mean that the producer will also be a distributor - but that job, distribution - will be much easier for an individual or small company to handle.

And eventually, the internet will catch up to and surpass DVD.
It is inevitable.