|
|
|
Digital Docs: Case Studies of Distributing Documentaries Online
You've put blood, sweat and tears into your documentary – not to mention all your money. It's finally finished. Now, if you can only get people to see it.
Getting your documentary out there can seem insurmountable, leading more and more filmmakers to turn to the web and other emerging forms of digital distribution. Just what are the available options? This panel of independent filmmakers and innovative distributors sheds light on digital and online delivery. Discover whether this brave new world is for you, how to position yourself to succeed, and what pitfalls to avoid.
Lilibet Foster has produced documentaries that have won numerous awards, including the Independent Spirit for Soul in the Hole, and a CINE Golden Eagle for Speaking in Strings, which also received an Oscar nod for Best Documentary Feature. Foster produced and directed Brotherhood: Life in the FDNY, distributed online at Snag Films; and A Patriot Act, which she self-distributed via the web. Her work in television includes writing, directing and producing for Oxygen, ESPN, and A&E. She created a permanent video installation for the Museum of Immigration, and directs commercials and marketing campaigns for @radical.media.
Mark Lipsky has over 25 years experience in the film, cable television and technology industries, helping major media companies strategize, develop and market their businesses. As Vice President of Business Development at Aronow Communications, Lipsky developed and launched ChannelBlast, an online TV network, as well as the network’s first nightly broadcast, NewzViewz. While Chief Strategy Officer at independent film company Lot 47, Inc., one of his primary responsibilities was nurturing the company’s digital strategies. Currently, Lipsky is President of film distribution company Gigantic Releasing. He also serves as CEO of GabSight LLC, the internet applications company he co-founded in 2006.
Laure Parsons (moderator) is a media professional with experience in film distribution. She manages the website Infinicine.com, which covers digital film distribution. Half gadget-freak, half Luddite, Parsons approaches the new world of distribution with curiosity and caution. She currently works as Director of Home Media Sales & Marketing for Zeitgeist Films in New York. She also has a background in documentary production and fund development.
Greta Schiller’s career was launched in 1984 with the theatrical release and PBS broadcast of her documentary Before Stonewall, which won two Emmys. That year, she co-founded Jezebel Productions with Andrea Weiss. Together they have produced and directed numerous documentaries, including Paris Was a Woman, a trilogy of films about women in jazz; and Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story. Schiller also directed and produced The Man Who Drove With Mandela and I Live at Ground Zero. Her documentary International Sweethearts of Rhythm was awarded a NYWIFT Women's Film Preservation Fund Grant in 2003.
Schiller distributes several films online via Amazon and re:frame.
Aaron Woolf, director and producer, studied film at the University of Iowa, but got the bulk of his education in the field in Lima, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. In 2000, Woolf directed Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball, and The United States, a WNET-ITVS co-production that won a Rockie Award and aired on PBS. In 2003, he directed Dying to Leave: The Global Face of Human Trafficking and Smuggling, which won a Logie Award and aired on the PBS series Wide Angle. He is the producer, director of King Corn in 2007 and is now using itunes as an avenue of distribution. Woolf is the founder of Mosaic Films and is an avid mountaineer.
Produced by Diane Ingino, Cyrille Phipps, Marcia Rock
Apr 23, 2009 
|
|
|