From Spout‘s Telluride coverage (and brand new web look), Karina Longworth reports on a panel called “Snip Snip: Are Cutbacks in Film Distribution and Criticism Affecting Quality Filmmaking?“- the predetermined answer reiterated repeatedly as Karina describes the various doomy takes on the internet’s evil influence and some unmitigating weak sauce “positive sides” such as Paul Schrader‘s pithy “ ‘There’s [currently] no money in it, but it’s much better to gore the ox than to hold the ox that’s being gored.’ ”

The only person who seemed rather blithe, from Karina’s description, was Michael Barker.  As I previously noted, Sony Pictures Classics is in a rather smug position as far as “indie” distributors go- being in bed with Sony, who own the Blu-Ray patent and are working with a host of downloading folks with their Bravia TVs.  Perhaps Mr. Barker is just a natural optimist, but it does seem likely that as seasons change, SPC has some very good opportunities to grow.

As far as blogging goes- and this is really off topic- film criticism serves two purposes: 1- to tell people about the film so they can decide whether to see it, or in the case of ‘advanced’ criticism, so they can understand it more; and 2- for marketing purposes.

The second purpose is really only served by certain kinds of critics- either famous well-regarded ones, in the case of quality films, or at least national ones, in the case of popular fare.  All the other ones really aren’t that important and can be replaced with bloggers.

The main problem for independent film and bloggers is that everything gets very spread out, so that it’s hard for a small film to get much of a push from a good review.  It also means film is less in the public eye in general, since the local papers and weeklies all tend to have syndicated reviews of the same films.

Rather than a quality film site like GreenCine or Spout, what could be more effective in increasing audience is a great syndicated feed, with lots of variety and independent & arthouse cinema, that could feed to popular sites and portals.

HT: Chris Thilk

Netflix recently announced that they will be charging more for Blu-Ray rentals- presumably because they are paying more for BR titles. As BR becomes a much more saturated part of the marketplace, due to PS3s and lower-cost BR players that are expected for Christmas, BR sales are expected to zoom, seeing growth much above the 300% reported in the last year.

But for small distributors and independent filmmakers, BR feels still far off. Licensing and royalties involved in the patented manufacturing process make a BR disc at least double the cost of a standard DVD- and if you will only be selling 5-30K copies, the return can’t really justify the expense, especially since the major studios have set the BR price point pretty low.

Nevertheless, indies are going to have to make the leap in the next year- there is simply too much at stake to hold back, and most probably learned their lesson from the last time, when companies who waited around on DVD lost significant revenues. For now, we can look to Sony Pictures Classics as the example, since they (presumably by virtue of their relationship with Sony, a major stakeholder in Blu-Ray technology) are one of the only “arthouse” distributors with a significant number of BR releases. (I hope to talk with someone there about their strategy in the upcoming weeks).

And greater demand will no doubt lead to greater competition and better pricing, though with a new technology it is always good to be careful of going too budget. For small projects you can now find Blu-Ray burnable discs for around $15 or less and a burner is about $400. If you have any hot BR tips, share them in the comments.