I should have included Alexis, I was so happy (and surprised!) when she started her vlog.
There are, to be fair, lots of compelling reasons NOT to distribute via the web. I make work FOR the web, but I don't usually put work intended for a big screen on the web - some of that is, yes, economics, but some of it is just that the work doesn't make any sense without a large screen presentation: that little person in the corner of the screen by the dumpster whose shift in position holds a large part of the meaning in a short I just finished isn't even VISIBLE at 320 x 240. Conversely, I've had the horrifying experience of showing some of my web work with pristine theatrical DLP projectors on umpty-foot-wide screens, and the presentation was equally inappropriate and damaging. But then there's work that does function across presentation methods as well. There is also work that really depends on a shared, public, physical setting for its impact. It is an insane world right now for filmmakers and video artists. Videoblog, or limited edition of 5 $5000 DVDs by that gallery that promises to advance your career and give you a shot at making a living full time with this? On-demand download of your latest feature, sell DVDs yourself so you can keep the money they make, or let IFC have the rights (and the money) in the interest of getting your work to a much wider audience and on the shelves of more video stores? In many cases, any one path closes the doors to the others. To make it worse, the audiences for the web, festivals, theaters, galleries/museums etc. don't have a lot of crossover. Most people find the milieu in which they get regular satisfaction as a viewer, and stay there. It used to be you just had to decide whether to show at a small festival now and forego the chance at Sundance, or wait for the Park City jury's verdict. But for filmmakers and video artists to ignore the web, and to ignore the fact that significant new cinema is being made there and shown there, is foolish at this stage. And I'm constantly railing to my colleagues that they are ignoring significant new developments in experimental cinema by refusing to pay attention to work on the web. _______________________________________________________ Brook Hinton film/video/audio art www.brookhinton.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
