vhxtv:

IndieWire just launched their 2013 Influencers List and VHX is proudly listed alongside some of our favorite people! It’s great to see the likes of Tim League (Drafthouse), Radius TWC, Parts and Labor, James and Lisanne of Indie Game, Vimeo, Marc Shiller, and Ted Hope, to name just a few. We are so grateful and humbled to be featured.

Check out the full list to get to know other people trying to figure out what the indie film industry looks like today and in the future. Also to see our founders’ special secret bond over…ahem…The Fifth Element. 

I had no idea Jamie liked The Fifth Element too. Proud to be on this list!

Team dinner (at Ghenet Brooklyn)

If you’re free Wednesday night, come hang out and have a drink with the whole VHX team! 

My Saturday (at Governors Ball Music Festival)

Direct Distribution is Important for Artists, Audiences, Everyone

There’s a lot of talk about new ways of watching, streaming, funding, and everything else-ing video.   

Which is why we’re so excited to be VHX right now, working in this intersection of video content and technology. Artists are generating an amazing amount of great content. While there are great options for distributing free and ad-supported videos, there are not great options for actually selling your work. We are making a platform to get artists’ work seen, loved, and paid for.

Direct distribution is creators selling directly to their fans.

Instead of using other people’s stores and marketplaces, artists can sell from their own websites. This model points to the kind of close relationship between audience and creator that both parties want - axing the middleman idea that has come to define old structures. We are part of a new developing ecosystem of distribution, offering better, more flexible options to help anyone sell their work to the people who want it.

1. Because, Internet.

With the perpetual advance of bandwidth and plethora of devices to consume content, it’s just plain easy to watch online. We strongly believe that a digital copy of content can and should be superior to its physical ancestor. You can stuff your “digital DVD” with bonus content, subtitles, bundle with other goodies, or even change or release more content over time, free of old school restrictions like region-blocking. Miami Connection - a film that was barely available on VHS when it was made in 1987 - is now easy to watch anytime with hours of bonus content, anywhere in the world.

Additionally, the Internet has enabled makers and their audiences to build real relationships, from #TeamCoco to Taylor Swift to Amanda Palmer. The webs of social networks that have developed over the last decade mean that artists are able to communicate en masse, for free, and connect to the fans that are interested in their work. Dave Grohl uses social media platforms as a way to tell fans about his doc, Sound City, connect them to upcoming concerts, and even answer personal questions. Content discovery is powered by people, and artists can have a direct connection to that process.

2. Direct distribution allows artists less restrictions, more control

Distributing directly to fans online relieves a lot of restrictions. Content does not need to fit into a specific package, like “feature-length film,” to be something that fans want to buy. House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon explains that content like TV programming must adapt to the desires of a digital audience:

“There’s not even a reason to stick the half hour or hour-long models. You can have an episode that’s 20 minutes, an episode that’s 90 minutes.”

A flexible platform allows artists to sell freeform content they may not have even considered.

Direct distribution also allows artists to command long-term control of the work they generate. They can be as creative with how they release content as they are with how they make it. Mike Birbiglia partnered with IFC to sell Sleepwalk With Me in the United States, but kept many of the international rights and sold his movie directly from his own site everywhere else in the world.

Keeping that control empowers artists to choose the distribution methods that work best. Technology offers precise information about audiences that you simply can’t get elsewhere. The filmmakers behind Stuck tracked their site referrals and focused their resources on what worked, while Indie Game: The Movie used audience and sales data to experiment with the optimal price point. Selling directly is a viable, accountable complement to everything else in the seller’s arsenal of tools, and what they learn from their web traffic can inform the rest of their distribution strategy.

3. And it’s better for fans anyway

Artists have the ability to make more money from their work when we connect them directly to fans. Think of it as the technology piece that’s been missing from their distribution toolbelt.

Every creator that we’ve worked with at VHX is so excited to be able to put their work online in a way that reaches individual fans in a personal way, and in a way that showcases the content:

• Minecraft: The Story of Mojang includes a bonus mini doc of the making-of their next big game.

• The Invisible Made Visible offers an extra Q&A with the man/myth/legend Ira Glass, plus a custom game for fans to play along with OK Go’s music.

• Doin’ It In the Park gave Kickstarter backers early access to the movie.

• Dave Grohl includes a personal letter of thanks in each purchase email confirmation of Sound City.

And those are just a few. The freedom of selling directly empowers artists to be creative with their content and creative with how they show the world.

And that couldn’t be better news for us as fans. The nature and quality of video experiences keep evolving, and artists continue to explore ways for audiences to interact with their work online. As an audience, we get to keep supporting creators as they make things we want to watch - your wallet is a powerful way to vote.

We want to make direct distribution easy, so creators can reach fans, audiences can watch great content, and we can all support work we love without wondering where the money is going.

The VHX platform is in action - check out some awesome artists distributing directly to fans. And drop us a line with distribution experiences you have, whether as an artist or content-consumer.

Pick two

kateoplis:

Kids These Days | T Magazine

“Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. Estée Lauder was 29.

The conventional wisdom is that young people bring fresh eyes and a new perspective to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, a venture capitalist who backed Google, Yahoo and YouTube, once described the phenomenon of 20-something entrepreneurs as a generation of people “who see no boundaries, see no limits, see no obstacle that they can’t hurdle — it is the most stimulating environment that you can ever be in.” Vinod Khosla, another venture capitalist, goes further. ‘People under 35 are the people who make change happen,’ he said at an international conference. ‘People over 45 basically die in terms of new ideas.’”

There has to be plenty of examples of innovation happening over the age of 45. I refuse to believe my brain will stop being creative.

Everyone should own at least one of these. #beloved

chadsnuts:

So I wake this morning and start worrying about all of you without iPhone wallpapers. “What are they going to do?! It’s almost the weekend!” Here, I’m helping you: have a beautiful iPhone background so that I can rest easy. I need some sleep, guys.

Chad, you can sleep when you’re in space (aka dead).

Loving #twofivesix (at The Invisible Dog)

chadsnuts:

I got so excited about VHX launching the Ecstasy of Order, I made us a Tetris logo.

starwarsuncut:

Submissions for Empire Uncut scenes are almost closed!

We hope you saw the trailer last week and got excited - make sure to tell your friends, family, fellow Yoda impersonators to claim a scene while they still can. We’ve seen so many awesome scenes and can’t wait to launch some new viewing options to watch the entire fanmade movie.

Remember, after you claim an Uncut scene, you have a full 30 days to finish and upload, so there’s plenty of time to keep the creative Jedi juices flowing. Email support@starwarsuncut.com if you have any questions!

Two more days before the Star Wars Uncut wall closes. Go visit!

(thx Andy)

Secret photo shoot with @jamiew