Over the weekend, at a symposium on digital cinema at Victoria University in Wellington, there was a difference of opinion among panelists regarding the impact of digital distribution:

Movie makers are at odds over the impact of digital technology on the industry, with one Kiwi film-maker saying independent movies are under threat and audiences will lose out.

Gaylene Preston, the director of Perfect Strangers and War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us, says a move to digital distribution – in which films can be easily delivered via fibre-optic cables to computer hard-drives rather than on film reels to cinemas – means there will be fewer distributors to pick up and promote smaller independent movies, which typically have budgets of $2 million to $5m.

“There will be fewer little films … because they’re getting harder and harder to market worldwide.”

There has already been drastic consolidation in the United States film distribution industry, she says. When releasing her film Mr Wrong in 1985 there were 250 distributors in the US she could negotiate with. Now there are about five.

Another old dog of NZ film was largely in agreement:

Goodbye Pork Pie and Sleeping Dogs director Geoff Murphy says the digital era has made filmmaking accessible to everybody but the means of distributing and exhibiting films is still the preserve of “conservative, powerful people who have certain requirements for what they think should be shown”.

“You can go out and make films because you have the power to, but you can’t get them shown,” Murphy says.

However, DOP Alex Funke has a different take on things:

Alex Funke, the Oscar-winning cinematographer from The Lord of the Rings and King Kong, disagrees.

The more digital distribution there is, the more chance film-makers have of releasing their films to the masses, he says.

“You don’t have to go through the distributors and promoters.”

The dominance of distributors is waning, Mr Funke says.

“The days of distributors getting 75 per cent of the box office takings are doomed.”

What do you think? My view is that we can learn from what happened to music following the digital delivery which is now standard in that industry. The studios are struggling, while independent musos are celebrating the access which they have now. Of course it’s not all bread and roses, but you have to say that removing gatekeepers provides a more direct path from artist to audience – a development most indie producers celebrate. There are different ways to get a film distributed, and it’s up to us indies to chart new pathways in unfamiliar waters.

Posted in news