Here’s a video from SXSW 2010, featured in Humpday Highlights, of the panel I moderated called “The Main Event: Finding Your Audience.” It features Brian Chirls, Liz Ogilvie, Jon Reiss and Mila Aung-Thwin, with some great tidbits about audience engagement.

Later this week there are a couple other newdistro panels of interest:
Wednesday 9/22 at 3:30: Marketing Without A Cause
Thursday 9/23 at 4:30: Cage Match: Am I a Filmmaker or a Brand?

Also at IFW are the screenings of new and in-progress work that can be illuminating. (Or you can just go to the parties).

Broadband Issues for Content Makers helps film and video makers understand some of the issues around Broadband and ‘Net Neutrality’ and how they specifically impact independent producers.

Live! Nude! Audience! takes YOUR submission to be instantly reviewed by our crack team of experts and evaluated for marketing and outreach opportunities. You’ll get to see the process in action for your own film or discover the best ideas to use for future projects. And of course, we’ll be naked.

Filmmaker Jen Gilomen will be on hand to talk about her film DEEP DOWN and we will talk specifically about projects in the room as well as about digital marketing and distribution tools doc filmmakers can use today.

As filmmakers, we face specific privacy issues. For example, the MPAA may take the RIAA route and start trying to look at people’s hard drives in the name of enforcing copyright restrictions. I’ve spoken to several documentary filmmakers who face challenges in making and marketing their films because the globally ubiquitous nature of dissemination now means they can not protect subjects when being seen in the films would put the subjects in danger. And filmmakers need to know what the boundaries are as they become more creative in trying to build their audiences.

So, Ted, in absence of panels, maybe we can begin to discuss the issues now.

There are some basic realities in an economic context that are altering the fundamental possibilities for filmmakers now. When I was focused on the distribution end, I saw this as largely troubling. I do think there will be things I currently love that may not survive the kind of changes we are seeing now. But there are also potential upsides that can be embraced.

Hollywood-style cinema seems to be moving more and more into over-the-top, event-based cinema that can’t be replicated in a home environment. The movies that tend to do well at the box office are the ones with astronomical budgets. The box office prices are going up to reflect that. If a big 3-D movie is $19.50 now, then exhibitors may be reluctant to play small movies that have smaller audiences at a reduced admission.

On the other hand, independent filmmakers can increasingly make high-quality films for very low amounts of money. They may not be able to access the old distribution channels, and they also may choose whether a traditional distribution model makes sense, compared to the various alternatives that are emerging. Since very few films ever make back their budget through domestic distribution and the majority of films made don’t even have the option of accessing traditional distribution, it’s no surprise that new ways of reaching an audience and potentially getting revenue are emerging.

What I’m waiting to see, and to figure out myself as a filmmaker, is what elements of financing or reaching an audience from the “old ways” can work with a model in which the work I make is not only a product I then license to other people in hopes of some return for the work I’ve done. Instead I’d like it to be viable in a financial way (and also good, by the standards I have) and also a part of some larger body of communication that remix and reproductive culture demands. I think we may not be there yet but the tools are developing.

See you at DIY Days!

Thom Powers on making a doc screening a success from Laure X on Vimeo.