Indie film producer thanks pirates for downloading his movie
Eric D. Wilkinson, producer of the independent film "Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth," has written a letter to the editor of Releaselog, a site that reviews leaked movies available on P2P networks. He hasn't written to complain, mind -- he wrote in to say how much promotional value the piracy of his movie on P2P has generated, and how that's turning into real sales for him.
I am sending you this email after realizing that our website has had nearly 23,000 hits in the last 12 days, much of it coming from your website. In addition, our trailer, both on the www.manfromearth.com site and other sites like YouTube, MySpace and AOL has been watched nearly 20,000 times AND what’s most impressive is our ranking on IMDb went from being the 11,235th most popular movie, to the 5th most popular movie in 2 weeks (we are also the #1 independent film on IMDb & the #1 science fiction film on IMDb). How did this all happen? Two words: Torrent / File Sharing sites (well, four words and a slash).Link (Thanks, Jeff!)
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This is indeed an amazing movie. Highly recommended!
I saw this at a film festival earlier this year -- it really is fantastic! I didn't realize it was out on DVD already. I just ordered a copy.
That has happened in Brazil too recently. Estimates say that the movie "Tropa de Elite" (Elite Squad) had been watched by 5 million people before being released. It was a hit before before coming to theaters. Nonetheless, in the first 4 weeks, 1.5 million have actually paid to watch it on the theaters.
It's definitely awesome. But it's important to note that the producer wasn't just checking in to say "Thanks for sharing my movie" -- the post, as I understand it, is also centered around an appeal for donations. The film's homepage makes that clear.
Still, the fact that this is the producer writing and not just the director -- that's impressive.
This is a wonderful example of the web & film coming together. And to think there's a writer's strike going on...
I just love this phrase:
But their whole idea behind ‘going public’ was to “pull a Radiohead… (...)"
So, can you pull a Radiohead without pulling a Homer?
It's actually a hair more complicated. Indie producers work with small budgets; torrents of the trailer and movie act as publicity, leading people who might not otherwise encounter the movie to consider buying it. It's thus good for the little guy; thus, little guys like them.
On the other side, the big guys can assume that by the time their PR machines get done, everyone who might consider seeing or buying the film knows it exists. Therefore, the only effect pirate torrents have is to cut into ticket sales (by reducing the number of people who would cough up money once to see it) and into DVD sales (because some people who download the torrent as a substitute for buying it).
What does this mean? Long run, probably bad things for Big Cinema. Torrents are here to stay, one way or another. I suspect the Lord of The Rings trilogy will be the Apex for the era of Big Cinema, with scale, budget, and profits that will never again happen.
Megastars will find the new ecology more difficult; they'll need to have outstanding looks, acting ability, and work ethic in order to continue to command megabucks; Hollywood won't be able to afford them otherwise. They'll have to balance earning a living, not touching obvious disasters for any price tag while competing for roles of genius. They won't go extinct, since serious names will get fan attention regardless. But they'll be in trouble. But less well known actors and actresses who work well may be able to make a better living than now working on smaller scale, and the rest of us many have a lot more quality entertainment to choose from.
Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.
New unHollywood nitche for someone with time and talent: a film reviewer/distributor. Indies (or deeps) can send DVDs to a snail mail address (still one of the best high bit throughput channels for the buck). The reviewer watches it, rips at least a trailer and whatever excerpts he sees fit — up to and including the whole durn thing! — and puts it up with his remarks and recommendations to buy or not. Companies don't get a voice in what he puts up, what he says, or which way he recommends; they do get a guarantee that he will honestly review whatever he gets sent and the right to quote from his review for publicity purposes, in exchange for his getting one original and a non-revokable license to distribute what parts he sees fit. If he provides quality reviews, he'll markedly impact sales, and companies who want people to learn (as opposed to merely believe) that they have good stuff will provide the source.
Hmmm... which sounds better, "Filmbeard" or "The Dread Pirate Reviewer"?
I ve recently seen the film and loved it, my viewing pleasure courtesy of a pirated copy. Now im thinking about buying the dvd, though i think im gonna wait till its available for europe.
I blogged about this post on my little blog that I do for my friends, and for some reason the producer decided to comment there instead of on Boing Boing, which is weird. Anyway, thought I'd post it here since it has an interesting line that is at odds with the tone of Cory's post:
"We, the filmmakers behind "Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth" understand that this is a film many sci-fi fans just couldn't wait until 11/13/07 to see. And we especially understand that if you live outside the United States, you've had absolutely no way of knowing when this film might be coming to your local cinema, video store, or TV... if ever! Indeed, all international rights to the movie are still available.
And as a result you may have downloaded the film from one of the many torrent (or other) sites available. Chances are, you paid nothing to do so. But please understand that we are just some independent filmmakers who put everything we had into our little movie, and you really hurt us directly when you downloaded the movie illegally.
Judging from the postings at IMDB.com, we see that the vast majority of you quite like the film; many of you even love the film and have watched it repeatedly.
We made this movie with a great deal of love, sacrifice and effort on a low budget. But as low as the budget was, it was still a LOT of money to us, as well as to the people who trusted us with their investment to go ahead and make such an unusual, even controversial film.
So we are making an unusual request... asking you to return the love, if you will:
Please visit www.manfromearth.com, and make some sort of donation in exchange for the enjoyment our movie brought you. It could be fifty cents, it could be fifty dollars. Perhaps you feel the average weekly video store rental is a fair amount. Whatever it is, it might be small to you, but if every single person who downloaded the movie -- heck, if only the people who LIKED the movie -- donated a few dollars, would certainly help get us to breakeven. Just go to www.manfromearth.com and click on "donate" (you don't even need to have an account). The address to use is ewilkinson100@comcast.net.
The money you donate will go DIRECTLY towards everone who worked on and invested in our dream. And who knows... if we ever do break even on "Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth", maybe we can go make another intelligent, thought-provoking film.
Thank you very, very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Eric D. Wilkinson - Producer & Richard Schenkman - Producer / Director"
The line that sounds at odds with the tone of Cory's post, IMO, is the following: "And as a result you may have downloaded the film from one of the many torrent (or other) sites available. Chances are, you paid nothing to do so. But please understand that we are just some independent filmmakers who put everything we had into our little movie, and you really hurt us directly when you downloaded the movie illegally."
I must be a huge sucker then, almost every time I watch a pirated copy of a good film, I buy the dvd.
If I hadn't heard about this here, and downloaded it, I probably wouldn't have rented it when I saw it in the video store, and I wouldn't be telling people about how it's a really amazing movie. So let's hear it for unapproved promotional channels! :-)