Monday, March 30, 2009

10 MPH & DIY film distribution

10 MPH is a US indie film, in which two film makers try to travel across the US on a Segway.



You can watch it on YouTube (above), buy a DVD or download it from iTunes (if you live in the US). It seems to be the closest film making has yet got to the indie ethos of music; they've even written a DIY manual on how to distribute a movie independently. It reads a bit like a film version of the fantastic 'how to have a number one single' book The Manual, which I can't recommend highly enough. (Incidentally, The Manual is currently out of print, and the 1999 re-print is selling for >£40 on Amazon Marketplace. Re-publish, somebody!)

For example, from the DIY Guide:
"When making a movie, your brand often starts with the website. Eventually, if you have the luxury of getting picked up by a big distribution company, they'll control all of this. But when you are distributing and creating awareness for your project, it's critical to make something that looks like it could have been produced by a distribution company which has $30,000 to spend on web design. Because of our backgrounds, we were able to absorb this cost ourselves. If you have no web skills, I'd advise learning them. It's not too hard to hack something together based on a borrowed concept. Or find an amigo who can do this stuff and entice him/her to work on the project with either profit guarantees or some other creative payment scheme."

Buy the DIY film distribution guide if you have any interest in digital media - it's worth $0.99 of anyone's money.

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