Film Courage: Who is buying short films today?
Daniel Sol, CoFounder of The Hollyshorts Film Festival: That’s obviously the ever changing
question right now with steaming platforms and apps and development and short content,
short films where to place short films is in the new world of streaming is sort of the
great unknown.
It’s something we are excited about because there is potential for shorts to be its own
big market and it’s something we are trying to get behind and are really excited about.
Outside of the big question or the broader question there are specific companies that
are looking for short content, we work with a few of them.
One of them is Dust, they look for sci-fi films.
The specific content they are looking for is sci fi or sci fi adventure (that kind of
adventure).
So we like to talk with them and work with them “Hey we have a great film, take a look.”
If they like it they can acquire it.
So there deals are exclusive and are fair.
It’s a win-win for everyone and they also have a sister company or alternate company
Alter and Alter does horror films.
So they look for science fiction or VHX but they are looking for those films and we like
to work and talk with them all of the time.
We have a great scoff film here, take a look, they can acquire (non-exclusive), there deals
are fair and you get more exposure so there focus is more horror/thriller.
So they are both genre based but really cool opportunities for filmmakers looking for exposure
and getting acquired in non-exclusive ways so they are not taking your film or taking
the IP [intellectual property] or anything like that.
So it’s definitely a place for filmmakers to get exposure and get distribution.
And of course everyone knows ShortsTV, shortsTV has been doing it a long time so they are
always acquiring shorts and they are on DirectTV and AT&T and all that stuff so they are on
television so that’s their area or angle.
They have been looking for shorts all the time but they’ve been doing it for awhile.
But they are now in the streaming aspect.
The streaming aspect you see companies like the Dust and then Crunchyroll does Anime.
There’s all of these different apps or websites that are focused on direct market so Anime
- Crunchyroll and sci-fi - Dust.
There is a crypt tv app and they do horror as well so there are all these different apps
and websites that are focused on certain genres or styles of film that are looking to acquire
films, all different shorts and things with exclusivity and non-exclusivity.
But now that’s a big deal.
This is something that is every changing and growing.
This wasn’t the way five, ten, fifteen years ago.
When we started there was noting, there were no shorts distribution, there was none of
it.
So there was no opportunity for shorts.
There was no place in the distribution landscape and now I’m just naming a few there are
just so many more that are doing this.
So it’s pretty wild to think what can come.
There is stuff that is focused on certain genres and there are apps that are looking
for general short content and ever changing.
We have our own platform that we are looking to build up and work on.
It’s called bitpix.
So bitpixTV is the website and the app.
We are on Amazon and Roku.
We are looking to grow that.
Right now it’s a general shorts landscape, we have shorts from all sorts of genres, everything
we have “Best of The Fest,” from the monthly screenings and things from the platform (subscription
based).
So that’s something that we’re looking to do and take to the next level.
We are not at that place where it is huge or universally known (world wide) and everything.
We feel we can get there because shorts are a huge market because worldwide people like
watching shorts India, China, Europe…in Europe they love shorts.
Now if you have one place where everyone can focus and go to and you thinking about streaming
certain TV shows - hey what about Netflix?
What about shorts?
If we have the place where everyone says “Hey I want to got to bitpix for shorts.”
That would be pretty amazing.
If you can find all of the best shorts in the world, they can find them there, that’s
something that we are exploring and it’s something that the audience is now there more
than ever because TV’s are not TV’s anymore, it’s your phone.
You can sit on your phone and watch stuff anywhere that you are and it’s something
that young generations are already doing.
We are all trying to figure out how to capitalize on this and make this be the next best thing.
Maybe short content creators can make money and have their shorts make money, can have
their shorts made and get a bigger audience just some really cool festivals and some streaming
sites but be recognized worldwide in a different way.
And I really do think that this is where things are going.
I think in the next five to ten years it’s going to be what the perception of what shorts
is (we talked about earlier).
What do short films mean?
What are shorts?
And 15 years ago it was just hey you made a cool thesis film or art film and you tried
to show it at a cool festival, that’s all that it was, it was strictly a calling card
and that film couldn’t make any money, that film could be its own thing.
Now there are so many places and avenues a short film can go whether it’s distribution,
or a calling card, whether it’s a short to be a feature, whether it’s you just make
great shorts and all you do is make awesome shorts and that’s all you do.
You don’t have to be just “I made a short just to go make a feature film, to showcase
myself.”
No you can make great shorts and tell short stories in a way that can be your calling
card, in that way not just to go onto tell something else.
This whole world with all of their different apps and platforms that are looking for films,
it’s a good way to make some more money, it’s a good way to get more exposure, it’s
huge.
It’s definitely something that…it’s just changed the whole landscape of what we
are doing and that’s why we are seeing more submissions.
Not only the growth of the festival but the fact that people are making more films than
every before in the world.
It’s just a fact.
Vimeo does their staff picks.
Vimeo staff picks has their exposure, they have that.
There is Short Of The Week is the place where’d they pick out the short, expose them and give
you a stamp of approval for your film and that’s really cool.
So you have these different sites and apps that they are looking for content so now…not
just them but AT&T are doing contests now (they’ve done promos with us), so AT&T is
looking for content for their channel as well.
They are looking for shorts and they are looking for short filmmakers to give them prizes.
It’s sort of this new wild west, new world.
There are actually new opportunities to not just showcase yourself but make money and
also garner more exposure there to which is really cool is to be part of that which is
something we couldn’t have foreseen back then but now as we have positioned ourselves
as a strong festival and things in the short space we want to see how we can push this
thing further and grow the online ad capability and app capability and the festival and all
of it to grow to new heights and make short films be sort of a new premiere content.
I think there’s a chance and I think that’s pretty cool and I think in the next five to
ten years we are going to see keep changing.