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.

It appears confusion about digital distribution persists. Until two years ago, internet film viewing was confined to a browser. Now, with the advent of “lean-back” boxes like iPads, Apple TV, Roku, Boxee, and Google TV — driven by on-demand services like iTunes, Netflix Watch Instantly and Amazon VOD — real opportunities for filmmakers may be materializing.

Yet, too many filmmakers remain uninformed.  During our roundtable discussion at Distribution U., many filmmakers we polled didn’t realize that Netflix even had a streaming service or how to place their films on iTunes on their own.

By overemphasizing declining DVD sales in DIY strategies, filmmakers may be missing out on the sea change about to take place. For example, documentary filmmakers might collectively lobby semi-closed platforms like Netflix to make the case that real demand for great documentaries exists. Through crowdfunding and community engagement, each film can demonstrate a built-in audience.

Then, it may be possible to get films licensed to Netflix at decent annual fees and build new revenue models. In 2010, Netflix gained seven million subscribers — eight times as many subscribers as cable or satellite added in the same period! Consumers will be choosing these services over DVDs and sooner than you think.

IndiesLab’s data suggests Netflix and iTunes is where new digital business models will emerge first. Filmmakers and their films should factor this into every DIY strategy.

IndiesLab Director Davin Hutchins

As independent filmmakers proceed with their projects for 2010, I thought I’d take a crack at making some predictions for the New Year.

PREDICTION 1: Creative Destruction Will Continue… And That’s a Good Thing

Video site Veoh Networks imploded this month. Not Chapter 11, mind you; it was a Chapter 7 liquidation. Veoh was an ad-supported, user-generated video site aspiring to be another YouTube. Even though it wasn’t a player in the indie film game, its demise is significant in that the company had burned through $70 million dollars of venture capital and was co-founded by former Disney chair Michael Eisner. This begs the question: if a guy like Michael Eisner with $70 million can’t make a video site work, what can one expect from smaller niche sites that have raised considerably less funding?

Traditionally, there have been two ways for film startups to make money off independent films –– charge a rental fee to view an entire film or run ads against films that are offered for free. The real challenge going forward is this: data suggests few consumers seem willing to pay a rental fee for an independent film when there is so much free content available on the Internet or TV. And with the glut of video on the Internet –– from professional films to semi-professional shorts to user-generated video –– ad rates are driven lower and lower by an endless supply of video (and much of it mediocre). Both major film platforms and startups will face these same challenges. In the past ten years, many indie film startups have imploded, were acquired, or radically changed their focus in order to survive: Atom Films (re-branded as Atom.com), iFilm (re-branded as Spike), Jaman, and GreenCine. All promised more or less the same thing –– filmmaker and film lover nirvana –– but significant dollars haven’t really materialized.

My hunch is that this creative destruction will continue… and that’s a good thing. It’s good because the firms that survive the next shakeout –– whether they are stalwarts like iTunes or upstarts like SnagFilms–– will do so by looking beyond the two obvious, traditional revenue streams and begin to adopt others. They will begin experimenting by convincing foundations or corporations to sponsor the delivery of indie films online. They will begin offering subscriptions for access to entire collections of curated films at affordable rates. They will begin the early release of films on digital platforms during festival runs when buzz is critical. They will begin offering personalized versions of their site so the films a person is interested in automatically rises to their customized homepage.

Many of the majors like iTunes, Amazon, and Hulu are already realizing the limited growth potential of relying on a single revenue stream and are actively trying to forge a second or third. Independent filmmakers gravitate toward any company bending over backwards to put independent films in front of the right eyeballs at prices audiences will accept. Once that happens, we will be getting somewhere.

In the next installment, I’ll take a look at the second of my five predictions for 2010: Curation Will Become As Important As Technology.

Davin Hutchins
Director, IndiesLab

IndiesLab Director Davin Hutchins

Happy New Year and greetings from IndiesLab! My name is Davin Hutchins and I am the new director of this exciting joint initiative of ITVS and PBS now entering its second year –– the Independent Digital Distribution Lab –– or IndiesLab for short.

What is IndiesLab? It’s an ITVS-PBS initiative designed to help filmmakers navigate this marketplace and to generate revenue streams while also having a social impact. Many independent documentary filmmakers are unfamiliar with the lab, but we think that’s about to change. We’ve had some great achievements in our first year in raising the online profile of independent documentary films. Today, we are looking forward to implementing some ambitious digital initiatives in 2010 –– all in the spirit of advancing the mission of social issue, public interest documentaries, and the independent producers who create them.

PBS Indies section on iTunes.

A few first-year achievements include:

• A dedicated “PBS Indies” section on iTunes where member filmmakers of IndiesLab offer their films for download-to-own or download-to-rent.
• Dedicated Independent Lens and Global Voices sections on Hulu –– a major ad-supported streaming platform.
• A dedicated ITVS channel on popular documentary platform SnagFilms.
• Competitive package for filmmakers.

The digital marketplace is complex and constantly evolving. We are taking these challenges head on. We have already opened the door for indie filmmakers on all major online platforms — iTunes, Amazon, NetFlix, Hulu, PBS Video, and SnagFilms — and we will constantly look out for new partnerships to generate audiences and revenue.

As the Lab’s director, my role is part digital strategist, part alliance builder, and part student of the changing marketplace. I make it a point to track dominant and emerging trends –– ad-supported versus rentals, social network marketing, mobile video delivery, Internet-compatible set-top boxes, and TVs.

As a community we need to gauge which way the winds are blowing. We will share important trends and developments on our IndiesLab Twitter feed, and in future postings right here on the Beyond the Box Blog. We will share best practices for filmmakers to pre-market their films online and develop online distribution windowing strategies with us. The IndiesLab team and I talk regularly with our partners –– iTunes, Amazon, NetFlix, Hulu, PBS Video, and SnagFilms –– to ensure independent documentary is reaching the communities that need to know about our films.

Many challenges lie ahead for us and all documentary filmmakers. Online revenues are growing, but not a viable replacement for traditional forms. Platforms come and go and often overpromise what they can deliver. We will regularly discuss the ways in which we navigate this landscape on Beyond the Box and the IndiesLab Twitter feed.

Here are the guiding principles for IndiesLab in year two:

• Achieve double bottom-line success –– Increasing revenues and social impact in measurably verifiable ways.
• Secure prominent placement of the PBS Indies collection –– Ensuring our filmmakers who want to participate are featured under the PBS Indies brand across all platforms.
• Expose films through social media campaigns –– Using ITVS and PBS online communities to drive traffic to films (more than 600,000 Twitter followers and Facebook fans).
• Get more films online more quickly –– Fast-track our lab films in the pipeline.
• Maintain filmmaker-centric attitude –– Open doors to filmmakers to answer questions, to educate, and to listen.

If you’re a filmmaker and want to learn more about IndiesLab, please contact ITVS’s Associate Director of Broadcast, Sreedevi Sripathy. I welcome you to IndiesLab and our ongoing conversation about the future of independent documentary online.

Good luck, and wish us the same!

Davin Hutchins
Director, IndiesLab

Among the programs available is the deeply moving Independent Lens film A DREAM IN DOUBT, which looks at one of America’s first post-9/11 hate crime murders and the growing wave of violence in retaliation for the terror attacks.

Check out A DREAM IN DOUBT on Hulu >>

Find more Independent Lens titles >>

Watch Global Voices films >>

Among the programs available is the highly entertaining film SHAOLIN ULYSSES: Kungfu Monks in America, which follows five Zen Buddhist monks who set out to make new lives teaching their craft in unlikely parts of America.

Check out SHAOLIN ULYSSES and other ITVS programs on Hulu >>

Global Voices offers an international perspective through intimate and uncommon stories by and about everyday people, made by independent filmmakers from around the globe. A great success in the online video world, Hulu remains the second most visited site for online video viewing in the U.S. and its user interface streams ITVS content directly in the browser.

Visit the Global Voices Channel on Hulu >>

Also check out the Independent Lens Channel on Hulu >>

Director of THE LOSS ON NAMELESS THINGS, Bill Rose.

With over 20 years of experience producing and directing documentaries and short films, Bill Rose’s work has been seen on television, the big screen and the film festival circuit. Today, Rose has come to embrace online distribution; his documentary THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS is available on various platforms through the Digital Distribution Lab, a joint initiative between ITVS and PBS.

“I’m really psyched that it’s on Hulu and that it’s reaching new audiences. People are seeing the film that wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.” Rose says. ITVS digital partner Hulu has recently become the No. 2 video site in the United States behind YouTube, with 309 million video views last month.

In THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS, Rose uses interviews with Oakley “Tad” Hall III and his friends and family to tell the haunting story of what happened after a single moment on a slippery bridge snatched Hall’s brilliant mind, and left him a stranger to himself and those who loved him. The film has sparked a flurry of new comments on Hulu and SnagFilms. While not that long ago, the film could have slipped off of the radar, Rose is heartened by these discussions.

“I’m excited about the fact that we can still be having a conversation about the film three years after it debuted on TV. We’re really seeing the viability of this, long tail,” says Rose, who is currently traveling the festival circuit to promote his latest documentary THIS DUST OF WORDS, another portrait of an early bloomer whose life went off the rails.

Though the simultaneous distribution of online video and DVD sales had worried him, Rose is encouraged by the idea that “the more available the film is out there in the world, the more it increases viability in all markets.”

Rose tells THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS fans that Oakley Hall III is currently in Albany, NY directing a puppet theater production of Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry. Curtis Burch, former vice president of development for James Cameron, is working on the feature film version of THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS.

This film and other full-length Independent Lens programs are available on our digital partners. Visit the video page and find out more >>

Visit ShopPBS for a DVD copy >>

Hulu’s intuitive user interface streams ITVS content in a browser without having to open a separate application.

The following Independent Lens shows are currently available:

THE CREEK RUNS RED
A DREAM IN DOUBT
THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS
MAPPING STEM CELL RESEARCH: Terra Incognita

Visit the Independent Lens Channel on Hulu >>