Snag Films has been out for a bit now, and I’m not sure how they are doing, though I have noticed Snag-related stories and promotion around the internets.  When they launched, I wrote to them to suggest using the technology for trailers as well as full-length films.  For me, the chance of making money in a scheme where revenues are tied to people watching the whole film (Snag monetizes the films with a series of interstitial ads, and the filmmaker gets something like $.10 if the viewer watches the whole film) and this is a streaming situation, even if it looks nice, it’s hard to know if it will actually make money for most films- when selling a DVD or download could yield a higher take when viewers don’t think the films is available anytime for free. (Though they might feel so excited by watching it on Snag that they go buy the DVD that very second- it’s hard to know what to expect).

On the other hand, sending a high-quality trailer around with a widget is a great idea, especially on Facebook or other social networking sites. Especially if that trailer includes a link to buy the film, either as a download or a DVD.  This is so simple, people definitely like a bite-sized video item like a trailer for sharing, and it’s much better for the film’s revenues.  And you could still monetize the widget! Use adwords or some simple graphic advertizing on the widget. Make it work for mobile in the best-case scenario.

So Caachi has just announced their Vidget, which essentially hews to this bare bones of this plan.  It isn’t the most attractive thing you’ve ever seen, but it does seem to connect to Facebook as well as create posts for Blogger, WordPress, and a few other blog and networking sites. The trailer itself is really small and it is text-heavy (unlike the slick-looking Snag widget). At the moment it only seems to be set up for GORDO (this may just be a bug I am having on my Mac), but it will be interesting to see if they have success.

I’ll be moderating a panel at the IFP “Independent Film Week” next week and I hope you’ll come out and and join us.

Know Your Digital Rights
How much are digital rights worth to producers and filmmakers?  And which rights should filmmakers consider retaining or exploiting in this proliferation of new distribution outlets? Learn the deal structures and benefits for independent filmmakers from the experts.

Wednesday, September 17^th, 10-11 AM

FIT, 7th Ave between 27/28th, NYC

Panelists:

Steven Beer, Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig

Janet Brown, COO, Cinetic Rights Management

Charles Choi, Founder, Caachi

Karol Martesko-Fenster, Head of Film, Cinelan

Joe Swanberg, Director, Hannah Takes the Stairs

As part of the ongoing series of online markets, Infinicine presents an interview with Charles Choi from Caachi.com, a streaming and download service that specializes in independent film and is friendly to independent filmmakers.

[I]nfinicine: What services are offered on your site?

[C]aachi: Streaming online - We provide high resolution (700Kbps) streams of the films we offer. This enables a high-quality viewing experience.
Download to own – the films distributed in this fashion are “DRM free”, to provide the greatest user flexibility in viewing.
Download to disc – Films downloaded from Caachi can be burned directly to DVD or installed in a video iPod/iPhone.

[I]: What is the structure of the deal, i.e. flat fee, percentage of sale, ad revenue, etc. Provide terms if possible.

[C]:

• Distributors keep 75% of the sales revenue, with no expenses deducted
• Caachi partners with distributors on a non-exclusive basis
• There is no minimum time commitment
• We can restrict sales to geographic regions (based on IP filtering technology)
• Choose to sell your films as: 1. downloaded video, 2. streaming online, or 3. both
• The terms can be found here

[I]: Does your service sell into all territories?

[C]: By default, our service sells into all territories but can be restricted to countries using IP filtering technology.

[I]: How many people visit the site? How many are “members”? How many sales on average per title? What are the top-selling titles?

[C]: For the month of July, 2008 we had around 50,000 unique visits, a 76% increase from May, 2008.

Our top grossing titles are as follows: 1. Tripping with Caveh, 2. Venus Lives, 3. Dreams on Spec, 4. Preaching to the Perverted, 5. Dat Kho

[I]: What is the marketing strategy for the site? Why will customers purchase or rent from your site as opposed to other similar sites?

[C]: We sell films by using targeted online marketing techniques involving social networks and Web 2.0 technologies. Customers will buy films from Caachi because they understand that most of their payment will go to the filmmaker or distributor and not to Caachi.

[I]: What are the marketing opportunities for films on the site?

[C]: At Caachi, we recognize that that our films must be actively marketed online to reach their audiences. To this end, we do the following today:

• Caachi has an affiliate program which allows 3rd party blogs and other websites to help promote a film by placing an advertisement about that film on their website. A 20% sales commission is given to the affiliate, which is taken from the distributor share. Distributors can opt-out of the affiliate program.
• Caachi feeds trailers of distributor’s films to multiple UGC video sites and social networks such as YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook.
• We send periodic mailings to registered users to let them know about our offerings.
• We do targeted marketing to social networks for a select number of films in our library.
• In the near-future we intend to develop tools and widgets to allow filmmakers and distributors self-market their films through our website to social networks and blogs.

[I]: Can individual filmmakers sell to the site?

[C]: Yes.