Any means necessary.

"Can an indie filmmaker side-step the entire Hollywood and Indiewood distribution culture and mechanisms... and make a living through self-distribution?" asks Sujewa Ekanayake, who's about to try something along these lines with his own film, Date Number One. "Just as Fugazi and Ani DiFranco do in the music world, it may be possible for one or more filmmakers from a given film project to make all the money they need for a given period of time through working on distribution of that project."

"At a time when audiences are ebbing, piracy is threatening profits and at-home downloading takes gas mileage out of the movie-going equation, a company that helps filmmakers and audiences find each other on the Internet may be as natural a step in the evolution of cinema as portable DVD players or reserved seats." Well, we'd certainly agree. But as Chuck Tryon writes, this New York Times piece by John Anderson, whose forthcoming book is I Wake Up Screening: What to Do When You've Made That Movie, "is basically a 1,300 word advertisement for IndieFlix, a new online resource for distributing independent films, but it still looks like a pretty cool service."

There are a few problems with the piece, though, as a friend points out via email. IndieFlix's "idea is identical to CustomFlix (which was recently purchased by Amazon) - on-demand DVD-R duplication... The writer of this article implies, or even flat-out states, two entirely incorrect things. First, this is a new idea. I particularly love the end quote: 'It's also good,' she added, 'to see other companies sprouting up that offer a similar deal. It validates what we are doing and how quickly the world is changing.' Sprouting up? Like, two years before they launched? Second, he notes that this is a 'skip direct-to-video' step. It's still direct-to-video. The 'skip' would be video-on-demand, of course."

Meanwhile, at the IFC Blog, Alison Willmore asks, "Does a paradigm shift in the woods?" The bits she points to:

• Anne Thompson in the Hollywood Reporter: "Rainbow Media Holdings is moving toward the first day-and-date releases of independent films in US theaters and video-on-demand." As Alison notes, Rainbow is IFC's parent company, but Thompson seems to have broken the news to her and the gang.

• "What has prevented the studios from closing the video window is simple: Wal-Mart." At Slate, Edward Jay Epstein explains how the retailer plays hardball with Hollywood - and why the game won't last long.

• IndieWIRE and Empire have updates on what's cooking at The Weinstein Company.

Posted by dwhudson at October 25, 2005 9:17 AM