This might be the best solution for exchanging large files during Sanctuary post production.
YouSendIt: The Leader in File Delivery.
I've been looking at a range of different options for moving around VFX material. The long and the short of it is that I've been using a minimal storage/unlimited bandwidth account for my sites to-date and the cost of acquiring additional online storage for VFX files comes with the caveat that you invariably get charged for bandwidth as well.
I'm still keen to employ Bit Torrent for distribution but that's only useful if a large number of people are accessing the same files. I'm envisaging small clusters of people trading a limited number of files.
Any other thoughts appreciated.
I've published a Bit Torrent of the MOD Films video introduction on Prodigem. This is the kind of mechanism we will have to employ to allow distribution to scale.
Prodigem Hosting Service - michela: Introduction to MOD Films
Notes on conversation with Simon Young, BritShorts
No standard reference to short film sales figures. UK market too small to warrant anyone collating figures.
Top selling shorts can make 20-30K world-wide for a few years, typically through broadcast sales. These titles tend to be very original with a good balance between art and commercial appeal. 15K/year is otherwise a successful sales figure with average figures being around 7K/year (for shorts that are good enough to win distribution).
Many buyers do not want to pay more than 300 euros.
BritShorts is preparing UMD compilations for Sony PSP.
Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) and UMD Production info
A good overview of where virtual reality fits into the money game.
Box Office Mojo > Genres > Virtual Reality
An overview article written for the Directors Guild of America
http://www.dga.org/news/v28_5/craft_maxdist.php3
Found this weblog with an animated debate on "free-riders" vs. "samplers". No grand revelations but good food for thought on the environment into which SANCTUARY will be dropped.
Freedom to Tinker: A Grand Unified Theory of Filesharing
"the industry should focus on ways to turn *younger* file sharers into samplers "
A CC initiative for the UK was launched in January.
http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/uk/
I asked Michael Trup, CEO of indie distributor http://www.interactiveideas.com
these questions:
How many sales would you anticipate of a product such as this?
What percentage could we, the producers, expect to get from total sales revenue? In that, I mean that we would probably act as both publisher and developer for the demo and subsequent product.
His response:
The questions are much easier to answer in reverse order. At £9.99 retail, the ex-vat price is £8.50. Major retailers (Game, PC World) will want a minimum 50% discount but probably neareer 55% = £3.85 and we as a distributor would buy at approx. 65% discount = £2.97 These prices are for PC CD-ROM. For DVD films, retail etc. take somewhat smaller margins but as this is to be used pro-actively on a computer rather than played on a DVD player it will be treated as software.
Now, I am sure I am being thick (it wouldn't be the first time) but I don't really understand what it is you are proposing to make. Is it the equivalent to a music mixing game/software where you are actually mixing archive film footage in effect making a music video? That sounds like quite a good idea. However if it is something more complicated then I am not sure it will have large scale appeal. As you know the interactive field is littered with the bodies of companies who had new ideas which were a little too arthouse or niche.
Happy to meet a chew the fat if you think I can be of any more help.
Archie, Christine, Ann-Kristin, Nick from Addictive TV (who produce the VJ series MixMasters) and myself are meeting an IPR specialist tomorrow to put re-mixable films IPR issues under the spotlight.
Any thoughts on key issues or particular questions related to your area that we should be asking, please forward to me. I'll be blogging a report subsequently.
ONLINE DISTRIBUTION
There are three high profile online distribution models being considered for this project. While it is possible to design the product with these in mind, the strategy for online distribution will depend ultimately on the nature of the final product. Online distribution (of the film, not film re-mixes) is a desirable component of this project but not essential.
Steam
Steam is a distribution system developed by Valve Software specifically for game distribution. Steam has been designed retrospectively to enable Valve to manage the complexities of developing and supporting MODable games. As such, Steam is one of the only options for online distribution of the re-mixable film itself, as well as re-mixes. The popularity of Valve's game, Half-life, and its upcoming sequel, Half-life 2, means that Steam attracts phenomenal amounst of traffic, 500,000 user accounts at launch. Quality product distributed through Steam may be able to leverage the high profile of the vendor. Countering the appeal of Steam is a backlash from certain parts of the game community who do not want automatic clients (online software) that act on their behalf and require authentication (i.e. tracking) before anyone can play.
http://www.steampowered.com/
Kazaa
Kazaa is the most popular P2P network on which most file sharing occurs (largely illegally). Deploying legal content on Kazaa is a common form of online distribution. Kazaa's popularity is offset by its reputation for tacitly encouraging copyright enfringement. Highlighting Kazaa in the distribution strategy may be a risk to other partnerships, particularily with more traditional media companies seeking to have it closed down.
http://www.kazaa.com/
Altnet
Altnet sells a "Premium Content" DRM service which prepares and places content on Kazaa and other P2P (peer-to-peer) oneline distribution systems solely with the permission of the copyright holder. Altnet (and its parent company Brilliant Digital) were attached in the press in 2001 after CNN revealed that, contained within an Altnet shareholders report, that Kazaa users had by accepting the Terms and Conditions of Kazaa, explicitly allowed Altnet technology to on-sell local PC resources (like computing power). Both Altnet and Kazaa are ideally placed to enable wider access to re-mixes and existing relationships with BDE senior management may help secure favourable terms for this. However our experience on Horses for Courses (where playback relied on BDE technology and BDE discontinued support shortly after the film release) means that the distribution strategy will never rely solely on the availability of these businesses. Altnet nor Kazaa are suitable for downloading more than 200Mb files so distribution of the re-mixable film itself in this manner is not feasible.
http://www.altnet.com/
On Demand Distribution (OD2)
OD2 is arguably the most successful online distribution system for digital music. Used by major labels and retailers such as HMV, Universal, Virgin, and Ministry of Sound. THe system relies on the Microsoft DRM system which means that incorporation into an Xbox title will be easier than into a Sony title. Reliance on Microsoft DRM is a weakness given the relatively low take-up of this format and widespread suspicion of DRM in general. OD2 is best placed to provide the audience with a commercial channel through which to distribute MODs. It is in the interest of the project to encourage commercial re-use and distribution of re-mixable film assets via arbitrary distribution systems because this is an opportunity for royalty revenue.
http://www.ondemanddistribution.com
Info from arose@bde.com.au on the Kazaa/Altnet distribution model.
The person to contact is Christian von Burkleo in our LA office - cvonburkleo@altnet.com - he can help with pricing and, well, pretty much take care of everything from DRM wrapping your content to making it appear in Kazaa and elsewhere. We can also - if needed - host your file on our fallback web server though for large files (over, say, 50MB) we prefer that partners host the files themselves.
In case you're wondering why there is a fallback web server (this is P2P after all), here's how it works:
We make you file appear as a gold icon file in Kazaa.
When users click to download your file it searches the P2P network.
If the file cannot be found on the P2P network - or it it's downloading too slowly - then the file will be downloaded in whole or in part from the fallback web server.
When the download completes then that user begins sharing out the file themselves.
The result is around 90% reduction in bandwidth serving costs (rising to over 95% for popular files) compared to serving the whole file from your web server.
Using the Altnet Download Manager you can even make the file available on your own web site - users will be able to click and download it without needing Kazaa, and you'll get the same ~90% bandwidth saving (and users may well get a much faster download experience than a single HTTP connection to your server would have given).
We regularly promote files of 300MB or more, with a couple of files hitting 1GB (though the handling on such large files tends to be a pain so 200MB would be at the upper end of the "sweet spot" for movies).
If you need more technical info I'd be glad to help out.
BTW, we and Kazaa are quite different. Altnet handles only digitally signed content placed with the permission of the content owner and Kazaa does, well, whatever Kazaa does.
RickE@valvesoftware.com at Valve Software will provide the Steam SDK once this NDA is signed.
I am developing a new film, to be playable as an instrument, with re-mixable assets. Central to the idea is the ability to perform and otherwise mod the film.
Q) Could it be possible to do a free trial of Steam in our R&D phase to explore its suitability for distributing our product?
[Rick Ellis] Once we have an NDA in place, I can give you the Steam SDK for you to explore.
Q) Do you have any planned support for Xbox/PS2 content management/distribution?
[Rick Ellis] No firm plans yet, but both are on the radar to be considered.
Q) What kind of business model do you have with external developers? A paid-for-up-front software bundle, a subscription service, relying on a percentage of sales?
[Rick Ellis] For a application distributed on Steam, our fee is 5% of the revenue, before costs. If you need us to host the software, there is an additional charge to cover bandwidth and server expenses.
Q) Do you have a standard agreement/package description for developers you could send me?
[Rick Ellis] Not at this time.