Tag Archives: PBS Indies

Find Your Audience: Building Long-Term Engagement with Passionate Viewers

Posted on by

ITVS’s Rebecca Huval discusses research, news, and trends that come out of ITVS’s IndiesLab.

Documentary filmmakers have complex motivations for producing films. Unlike the makers of, say, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, most nonfiction directors want their viewers to do more than simply pay for theatre tickets. They’re after long-term engagement. But how should doc makers find their audience if they aren’t a blockbuster like Waiting for Superman?

It starts with the selection of a subject. From the moment you decide to make a film about a certain topic, you’re also choosing an audience. Over at POV, Edward J. Delaney explained how to find a micro-audience, meaning, the viewers who already have a vested interest in your topic. One telling case is that of the 2007 Cannes award-winning documentary Zoo. Continue reading →

Indie Distribution in a Post-Netflix World

Posted on by

ITVS’s Rebecca Huval discusses research, news, and trends that come out of ITVS’s IndiesLab.

Netflix might be a giant in the video universe, but like many behemoths (think: King Kong), it has suffered several existential crises. Is it a DVD delivery service? An online movie streaming service? Both? A movie and TV series producer? Or a meticulously programmed cable channel that could rival the likes of HBO?

All of the above have been tested or at least proposed. The company is still recovering from its 2011 flub when it hiked prices and tried to separate its DVD business from online streaming, resulting in a loss of 800,000 subscribers. Still, it rules the premium online streaming market. This winter, fear rippled over competitors when Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings talked with cable executives about the possibility of starting its own on-demand cable channel. Continue reading →

DIY Distribution

Posted on by

ITVS’s Rebecca Huval discusses research, news, and trends that come out of ITVS’s IndiesLab.

If you have yet to reach the halls of filmmaking immortality (i.e., you aren’t a brand like Ken Burns), it might feel impossible to approach Netflix or iTunes on your own. Both companies receive a deluge of distribution requests from indies, and only the rare applicant rises above the masses.

Doug Hawes-Davis, co-founder of High Plains Films and director most recently of Facing the Storm, has made overtures to both platforms to stream his films online. Despite his extensive library of feature-length and short documentaries, Netflix sent an automated rejection letter to his production company. iTunes declines to return calls, even though High Plains Films meets its extensive requirements.

Continue reading →

Lessons from the Lab: Driving The Parking Lot Movie

Posted on by

IndiesLab Director Davin Hutchins runs through the digital successes achieved by the Independent Lens film, The Parking Lot Movie.

For those of you who aren’t aware of the mission of IndiesLab, it is a joint initiative of ITVS and PBS and our goal is to test and devise strategies for filmmaker success on emerging online distribution platforms. Our distribution partners include iTunes, Amazon Video-On-Demand, Hulu, YouTube, SnagFilms, PBS Video, and several other video-on-demand services on cable.

Continue reading →

Lessons From The Lab: Art & Copy in Review

Posted on by

As more and more Independent Lens films become available on iTunes we wanted to share with viewers how those projects are performing online. Indies Lab Director Davin Hutchins, pulls back the curtain on the successes behind the documentary Art & Copy.

One of the more notable documentaries in our stable of IndiesLab films is Art & Copy, which recently aired on Independent Lens on October 26. In case you haven’t seen it, the film pays homage to the groundbreaking advertising campaigns of the 60’s and 70’s in an aesthetically-pleasing walk down memory lane — in this case, Madison Avenue.

Art & Copy emerged on the scene in January 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival to generally positive reviews from critics and strong word-of-mouth buzz. The film made its way online onto iTunes in May 2010. Since its launch, we’ve spotted a couple of interesting patterns in this film’s career on iTunes that you might want to consider when plotting out your online digital distribution strategy.

In an interview with IndiesLab and Beyond the Box, director Doug Pray said that he had no idea about the online possibilities for his film.  “My attitude [toward digital distribution] was much more conservative and wary. One year ago, I would have been cautious and said, ‘Oh know we’re going to cannibalize this other thing over here.’ Now, I’m just sitting back and going ‘wow.’ …The old school rules aren’t flying so much.”
Continue reading →