Reframe, an online film distribution website from the Tribeca Film Institute in partnership with Amazon, launched today. According to their website, Reframe aims to solve the problem of rare or important works that end up without any means of centralized, convenient distribution:

Substantial amounts of film, video and media arts remain “stuck on the shelf,” inaccessible to large segments of the public. Sometimes this is due to rights-clearance issues, but more often it is because of the high cost to convert to digital formats that would allow for broad circulation. Even media that is available for distribution can be difficult to find because it is held and catalogued in many places, and in less than ideal databases.

Films are available to rent or to own – as downloads or as DVD-on-demand – to both institutions in the educational market and to individuals (depending on the film from the looks of it). The Hollywood Reporter describes the deal structures as follows:

The nonprofit TFI and copyright holders will split the profit on digital download rentals and purchases (distributed in Windows Media Player format) evenly. DVD sales will operate under a tiered system, with 40% of $50 and under titles, 85% of $51-$200 titles and 90% of more than $200 titles going to rights holders. More expensive titles will be aimed at the educational market looking for classroom materials, though rentals in the $4 range, lasting anywhere from 36 hours-30 days, are accessible to all visitors. Buyers must have an Amazon account to make purchases.

I haven’t had a chance to really check out the site yet but I’m excited to see how it develops and what sort of collections it builds. Have a gander – I’m very pleased that they’ve launched with Thriller, a rare 1979 film from Sally Potter who is one of our wonderful Shooting People patrons!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Distribution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.