A while back, I posted some thoughts on ways to expand the reach of film festivals. One of the examples I pointed to was an announcement that Sundance would be screening films in cities across the country as their festival was happening as something they call Sundance Film Festival USA.

On January 11, Brian Newman writes about his experience attending the IFFS Summit in Las Vegas on his blog SpringBoardMedia. Apparently he had great ideas about what the festivals should be doing for the future, but the audience seemed hesitant to embrace change. Not incredibly surprising. Most people, most companies are afraid of change and are happy to stay comfortable with the staus quo. I agree and would guess based in this article that he probably had some ideas inline with my own thoughts. For example:

When I say they aren’t thinking “big enough,” this is what I mean – I pointed out on my panel that in my opinion, if Sundance had really forseen the future, they would have been the ones to invent YouTube.

YouTube you say? Well, it turns out Sundance partnered with YouTube. They provided 10 films for rent, the first time YouTube has ventured into a paid rental system. I thought this was enough of a landmark to mention in its own post and believe this is another sign of the move towards the inevitable future where downloads and streaming video will replace DVD’s and other physical media.

The strange thing to me is that two weeks later, Brian BLASTS the Sundance / YouTube venture as a complete and utter failure because it only brought in around $10,000 (at the time). A post at newteevee.com also calls it a failure and provides some numbers. Around 300 views per film. At $3.99 that is about $1200 per film. So no one is getting rich off it but this is a first step. And a good one.

The hesitant festivals, traditionally locked into a location specific venue, have started to try new things. YouTube, the largest user-generated video site out there is bringing YouTube XL straight to TV’s and is now venturing into rentals and teaming with a premium content brand like Sundance.

So where is the problem, Brian? Based on your original post, i would have expected praise for a festival trying to think ahead.

by NoName

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Tags: Brian Newman, Film Festivals, movie marketing, springboardmeida, YouTube