Everyone, This is a really important discussion to have that goes to the core of so much, though perhaps difficult to have it effectively on a listserv -- and right before a long weekend. We might need to take this into another forum to try to come up with some solutions that work for all -- media librarians, distributors and producers. All parties need to better understand the changing financial realities and other forces that we must adapt to.
I've worked with a number of producers and distributors over the years, most recently The Video Project. Pricing has always been a really troubling issue, as you know. Many distributors have experimented with home video level pricing and it hasn't produced nearly enough return to warrant substantially reducing pricing. And now, there are new challenges with budget cuts, the web, digital options, and many producer opting for limited or full self-distribution (and not knowing what they're doing, in many cases, unfortunately). I think it needs to be said that college and university media purchases have been the primary revenue base for smaller doc distributors. In effect, they've supported the making and distribution of independent documentaries, not to mention being the lifeblood of distributors. Without that base of support, I don't think we'd see for much longer the kind of documentaries that are currently being made. And it's already a serious challenge. Few filmmakers ever make back the hundreds of thousands of dollars they may put into producing a film. So, we need to come up with some collective solutions that will work for all parties. Anyone have a suggestion for how and where we can best pursue this? NMM is one option of course. Maybe there could be some in person regional discussion before that. And is there another online forum that would work better? Best, Steve Ladd -- -- 925.254-2052 -- st...@laddmedia.com -- http://www.laddmedia.com/ -- http://www.videoproject.com VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
