The future of video and film distribution
The website Distryfy is promising a new way to look at online video and film with viewers actually paying for what they see. We at MLCM think this is a great way forward to help distinguish between the worthy amateur filmmaker and the well-conceived, professionally crafted production – a film or video that has real value in its message.
Audiences want an easy and fun way to share and buy films online. Most of them don’t want to steal. They want it to be simple to find and buy the films they’re interested in, and they want to share those films with everyone they know. (Quoted from the website Distrify)
It seems there are two issues here.
The first is the way media has been traditionally delivered (built schedules, commissioned programmes etc) and the second is how that traditional means of media distribution is being rightfully challenged and tested by services such as Vimeo and YouTube, Flickr and Picasa.
There is a generation of young adults who have grown up with the notion that everything on the web or available via a download should be free.
There is no sense that the person producing all this free media has to eat and live with a roof over their heads and that therefore they should be paid for their labours.
So sites like Distrify serve two purposes: they make people think about the value of the product they’re interested in and they present a new model for the way we consume media, a model which we think will become the norm in years to come.
Like the early days of TV, when after the thing had been invented, people at the BBC for example, scratched their heads and asked, ok, how dow we actually make this thing work?
In effect they had to set their own rules; they were true pioneers of the new technology.
Similarly, we think that’s where we are now with the web.
In the early days of radio, set manufacturers had to invent programming so that people could see the value of their products as an information/entertainment medium and in many ways there is a parallel here with the web.
YouTube and similar sites have proven the technology and while such sites are great for sharing a video made on your iPhone, we don’t believe they are serious contenders for the distribution of better made, bespoke film and video.
And whilst not all the best books are kept to the shelves of expensive bookshops (libraries still provide the same books effectively for free), the desire to own a book keeps Amazon and the High Street a viable proposition for writers and authors.
And we believe the same can be true for film, TV, video and even photography.
People will once again see the difference between amateur and professional for what it really is – not whether one is paid for it or not, but whether it’s well-conceived and beautifully crafted.
Sites like Distrify should help discerning consumers see the difference.
Comments are closed.