Lessons from the Lab: Digital DIY and Distribution U.

Last month Indies Lab Director Davin Hutchins went back to school to learn about “do-it-yourself” (DIY) distribution and filed this report for BTB.

If you haven’t heard of the phrase “do-it-yourself” or “DIY distribution” then perhaps you have been too busy fundraising, shooting, or editing your latest documentary to notice. Or perhaps you live under a rock.

With traditional theatrical, broadcast and DVD distribution channels for independent docs in serious decline, everyone is talking about “DIY distribution,” also known as “hybrid distribution.”

Independent filmmakers in New York City debate the prospects of digital distribution of cinema at Distribution U.

The concept, coined most famously by Paradigm Consulting’s Peter Broderick, suggests that there is no cookie-cutter approach to the successful distribution of a film. Each approach should be tailored. Custom strategies like these were the main focal points at the east coast installment of Distribution U., a one-day crash course held by Broderick and journalist and CinemaTech blogger Scott Kirsner.

We here at the IndiesLab are sort of obsessed with the digital aspect of DIY distribution — that nexus where fan-building, advertising, and promotion intersect with online platforms like iTunes, Netflix, Amazon VOD, etc. We’ve been monitoring filmmaker conversations online and at events like Distribution U. to see if people are thinking seriously about digital DIY approaches.
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Tags: distribution, DIY, Hulu, independent producers, IndiesLab, iTunes, netflix, New York

Jon Reiss Says: Do It Yourself!

Named one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch,” by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss has directed three feature films most recently Bomb It about graffiti, street art, and the battle over visual public space throughout the world. His experience releasing Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. Reiss will be conducting a workshop from July 31^st to August 1^st all about DIY distribution, at the San Francisco Film Society. BTB spoke with Reiss via Skype last week while he was in Melbourne, Australia.

How did you get started with DIY filmmaking?

Jon Reiss is the author of Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era

I guess I got started with DIY filmmaking back in the San Francisco punk rock scene. That’s how I got into film in first place. At the time, I was an Economics major at Berkeley and was a planning on getting a PhD in Economics at Stanford but somehow ended up living in a rat-infested loft in San Francisco shooting punk rock bands.

[I went] to Paris to show the videos and I thought, “Why not go to the rest of Europe?” So, I started booking tours throughout Europe and that was really my first experience with DIY distribution. It was also my first experience with creating events and using non-traditional venues — that I’ve now come to champion — which is, I believe, the future for independent films.
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Tags: Bomb It, digital distribution, DIY, Jon Reiss, trans-media