A New Venue for Indie Films: Your iPhone
Did you see the latest Jude Law movie? The film, a murder mystery from art house director Sally Potter takes place in Manhattan's fashion world and features other famous actors including Dame Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi, John Leguizamo, and Dianne Wiest. "Rage," as the film is called, isn't all that remarkable in and of itself, but the way it's being distributed is: via mobile phones. Choosing to forgo the typical theatrical release, Potter went an entirely different route for her new indie flick: Rage premiered exclusively on the iPhone.
Released last week through the iPhone/iPod Touch mobile application Babelgum (iTunes link), the film represents the first ever attempt to distribute a feature film for free by way of mobile phones. In fact, the mobile platform didn't just serve as the place for the film to make its debut - it was the primary distribution channel as well. The only theatrical showings of the movie were two red-carpet events - one at New York's The Box theater and another in London, both of which took place last week.
Not only does the film embrace the mobile as the core piece of its release pattern - a pattern which also includes simultaneous launches on DVD and the web - it embraces the mobile platform as a way to tell the story, too. Instead of offering up a large video download, Rage was released in seven parts throughout the week through the streaming media application, Babelgum, which has now climbed to #16 on the list of top free Entertainment-based iPhone apps.
The film's style is also well suited to the mobile with a minimalist look and feel where the story is told through exclusively through close-up interviews of fourteen people who witnessed an event at a New York fashion show. There are no nuanced details or special effects here - it's a perfect fit for a mobile audience who often half-watches videos while killing time or driving to work.
According to filmmaker Potter, this experimental distribution for her new movie is actually an attempt to fight the digital piracy problem faced by the movie industry today. And yes, she's doing it by by offering up her film for free...albeit in a way that ensures the film can only be viewed, not recorded. However, after watching the iPhone release, those interested in owning the movie can immediately purchase a DVD which includes 21 unused scenes by way of the film's online site for $24.95. That, too, represents, a major change to the usual release pattern for films. Typically, the movie-DVD release window involves several months of waiting where the only way to watch the movie is through illegal means such as using the peer-to-peer technology known as BitTorrent.
Will this rethinking of movie distribution pay off? It's too soon to tell, but industry insiders are watching with deep curiosity. Jim Shomos, an Australian writer-producer known for mobile video series, for example, thinks using the mobile platform is a more direct way of getting the film to the target market - that is, people under 35.
Others are more skeptical. After all, does anyone really want to watch a full-length film on their mobile phone? Oh that's right, they do. Apple's iTunes store is proof of that. Now if we could only get studios to release really good films this way...
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I would disagree that BitTorrent is illegal, its merely a tool to distribute content wide through the use of peer-to-peer networks.
The CONTENT acquired thru the use of the technology may be copyright infringed which is illegal.
There is a difference.
@Bastien: correct. I did not mean to imply that BT itself was illegal, but using to download copyrighted content is. Poor wording I guess.
This is awesome! It was on my wishlist - movies on mobile devices. =)
I will have to try this out. I wish that iTunes was more accepting of "indie" releases and that it was a lot simpler to get a film or show (or webseries) into their system.
I'd watch a lot more content, especially web, if there was a common distribution method... And iTunes is pretty common for just about everything else.
I love this idea... it opens a huge possibility for aspiring indie directors... my idea buds are tingling.......
Who watches films whilst "driving to work" - that can't be legal either
I watched Rage in several viewing sessions on my iPhone last week. It was entertaining and the story worked for me. Interesting characters and a story arc that did make me want to see the next installment. Rage made no attempts at significant visual storytelling and I did find myself wanting it to break out of the subjective blue screen set-up. But that may have also been what made it more intriguing as things happened off-camera and the story developed via each character's subjective, perhaps suspect reactions and interpretation of the events.
I'm a filmmaker so I don't really want to be limited to what Sally Potter did. I'm sure that's not her point-of-view. I have also enjoyed traditional films on my phone while on a plane. I try to select films that don't depend on big, sprawling visuals, but otherwise I've made the jump and it works for me, for that situation.
As an independent filmmaker I also like the idea of more models for distribution that are more easily accessible to us outside the traditional systems. I believe the models will continue to multiply and we'll see new ones very often, just at social media morphs at a rapid pace.
After watching the film I have to say I was really impressed how captivating it was, even though the whole piece was filmed in front of coloured backgrounds.
I think it was probably more enjoyable to watch the film in my living room than on a phone, the DVD's available @ http://ragethemovie.com/dvd/uk if anyone's interested.