Shooters, hopefully you’ve had a look at our latest poll – To upload, or not – and voted. We want to know what filmmakers and the industry think about the conflicting interests that lie in putting your film online pre or during its festival run. Is it great for the filmmaker to get loads of new eyeballs, or does it take the shine away from seeing it on the big screen first? There are mixed feelings about the premiere rule that larger festivals have, with some feeling that it deprives smaller festivals (and arguably the filmmakers themselves) from getting their film to a wider audience.

We’ll be posting in some of the musings sent to us from industry figures and first up is Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance Film Festival. Here’s what he said in a nutshell.

1) Online = ineligible to screen at film festivals
2) Online = impossible to sell
3) Online = possibility of revenue through advertising (Raindance.tv, Babelgum etc)
4) Online = large views (that Venezuelan short film that garnered $20,000,000 for the filmmaker) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk
5) Online = sometimes very few views
6) Online = can kill dvd market for film
7) Online = Risk of bad deals, exclusive, no money