Another piece from Anne Thompson at Variety about the changing distribution strategies indie producers/distributors are pursuing:

[F]ilmmakers with an easily defined niche and some marketing flair can still assemble a distribution plan. After doc “Beautiful Losers” debuted at SXSW in March, the filmmakers considered traditional offers from distribs but decided to release the doc on their own. Sidetrack Films partnered with Nike Sportswear to sponsor art workshops, and a shoe and apparel company helped pay for its Aug. 8 launch at New York’s IFC Center and subsequent rollout to four more markets.

Longtime fest film seller John Sloss‘ Cinetic Media also entered the fray this year with the Digital Rights Management group, led by former SXSW film fest director Matt Dentler, who is taking on some of the thousands of titles that are undervalued and haven’t sold after playing the fest circuit. Cinetic will take rights exclusively as a distributor does, and share all revenues 50/50, with no advance.

Filmmakers don’t have to give away the store with DVD deals anymore, but can pursue online distribution via Amazon and a host of rival online indie distribs, from iArthouse and iTunes to IndiePix, Jaman, Hulu, Vudu, Cinequest, Spout and GreenCine.

Laure Parsons at Infinicine points out that holding on to digital rights is not necessarily the path to riches when most people are still watching DVDs:

It may seem like a coup to retain digital rights if you do a DVD deal but you may be shooting yourself in the foot.  A good distributor will manage your digital rights in concert with the DVD to make sure you see the maximum revenue on the balance sheet.

The film business has always been a high-risk venture, but now at the onset of a deal, the willingness to give is at an all-time low. Filmmakers want to hold on to whatever they can, in hopes they can parcel off rights for some benefit in case one or another distribution partner fails.  Distributors want every right, so that they can consolidate their campaigns and also have different avenues to fall back on if one strategy fails.  The only protection you have as a filmmaker ultimately is to know who you’re getting in bed with and their track record- or to do it yourself, but armed with a lot of knowledge and some good consultants.

Moviestorm has launched some free software that allows you to make simple animated films, quickly and easily. This is obviously great for first-timers but perhaps it could also be useful for more experienced filmmakers who want to test out ideas quickly? The basic package is totally free so give it a try and see what you think. Thanks to SXSW News Reel for the info!

The good people at the Center for Social Media have published a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. Here’s what they say about it:

This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances.

This is a guide to current acceptable practices, drawing on the actual activities of creators, as discussed among other places in the study Recut, Reframe, Recycle: Quoting Copyrighted Material in User-Generated Video and backed by the judgment of a national panel of experts. It also draws, by way of analogy, upon the professional judgment and experience of documentary filmmakers, whose own code of best practices has been recognized throughout the film and television businesses.

Finding useful tools for downloading video from the web can be very confusing.

Check out Liz Gannes’ article on newteevee.com about the different options, their perks and their pitfalls.

Tuesday night, at the salubrious Baoli restaurant on the Croisette, Spike Lee made the day of several young filmmakers from around the world when he announced the winners of the first Babelgum Online Film Festival.

Shooting People has been supporting the Babelgum Online Film Festival since its launch at least year’s Venice Festival, and SP’s James Mullighan was at the ceremony. Alongside Joe Bateman (Rushes Short Film Festival) and Stefano Martina (Arcipelago, Italy), Mullighan was a juror for the Babelgum Short Film Award. The award (and a tidy cheque for EUR20,000) went to OFFICER DOWN by Richard Recco (Brooklyn, USA).

You can watch the film here.

If you’ve not done so, download the free Babelgum client, get familiar with it, and get ready to enter the 2009 Festival. Let us know what you think in the bulletins.

Tamsin, SP London

Films uploaded to Shooting People can now be embedded across the web (you can turn this option off when you upload your film if you don’t want it to be shared).

Have a play and please give us feedback. Here’s the trailer for Paul Taylor and Teddy Leifer’s documentary We Are Together to show you what the player looks like.

If you want to create a video blog but don’t have a clue where to start the New Media Literacies project may be just the ticket.

This MIT project was set up by Convergence Culture author Henry Jenkins and others to integrate new media materials into compelling activities for high-school students and includes a really simple video blogging tutorial featuring Steve Garfield and others.

FourDocs have a series of very useful video guides to shooting, editing and uploading a short doc. While you’re there check out their awesome online archive of classic  docs. I recommend This Is A True Story by Paul Berczeller, The Lift by Marc Isaacs, Divorce Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto, The Dinner Party by Paul Watson . . . oh there are lots of gems in there, too many to name here. Check it out.

Shooting People! Yes Shooting People! We’ve recently added a video component to our website so now members can upload their shorts, reels and trailers and anybody can watch them. Check it out, add your films, and rate other members’ films.

If you want to download films from YouTube or other supported sites try KeepVid. Be aware of rights issues but if the films have a Creative Commons license that allows you to use them in your own creative endeavors then go ahead and mix and mash.