If that’s the case, it may indicate a much more liberal interpretation of copyright on the part of Hulu (who presumably have plentiful legal counsel).

The Tribeca Film Institute’s New Media Fund was launched this year to support social issue nonfiction storytellers expand the scope of their engagement with audiences. Designed to fund ambitious projects that expand the ideas of what is possible and available to documentary filmmakers and storytellers via the web and other digital media as well as other kinds of unique or cross-platform projects.

Ingrid Kopp, Editor-in-Chief of Shooting People has been working with TFI as a consultant to launch the fund and here she talks about some of the ideas related to the new opportunities.

First up, Storify, a tool to create stories from different content feeds. Here is a Story I made to give you a sense of what is available.

Digital is cheap and sexy but sometimes, you really just want to go old school. That’s the premise of FLICKER NYC, a Super-8 Festival produced by filmmaker and Final Cut Pro expert David Teague (full disclosure: we went to high school together). FLICKER offers new filmmakers the opportunity to make a movie the old fashioned way: on film, but with a DIY aesthetic and many surprises along the way.

Check out the next FLICKER NYC at their 10th Anniversary this Sunday, April 17th, 7PM at Southpaw in Brooklyn, 125 5th Avenue (b/w St. John’s & Sterling). A showcase of international Super-8, a raffle, and afterparty will be highlights.

Reaching the niche market of independent film fans has been a goal for a number of online film platforms. Fandor is the newest entry in the contest. Launched late last year by Jonathan Marlow from GreenCine and ‘serial entrepreneur’ Dan Aronson, Fandor is getting buzz for offering a large selection of curated titles at a $10/month subscription fee. Unlike Netflix, which pays a fee based on a contracted license period, Fandor offers a per-use model in which 20% of revenues are divided among the filmmakers regardless of plays and 30% are split based on an “attention algorithm” which presumably measures the amount of time people spend watching each film, perhaps accounting somehow for how long each film is. In any case, what that means, if we were considering gross revenues (which perhaps is not the case), if Fandor has 50,000 subscribers, you would be looking at a base of $33/month for your film to be on the service.

Netflix has 20 million members, so perhaps Fandor has room to grow. On the other hand, MUBI, formerly The Auteurs, seems to have stalled a bit and sites like IndieFlix have never really caught on in the mainstream. Fandor is betting on a specialty audience and a editorial viewpoint to draw people to the site.

There is no reason not to place a film on Fandor if you are selling to Netflix, and even if you don’t make a Netflix sale, Fandor touts that they will carry a wide selection of films Netflix doesn’t have. Will independent film fans pony up? And will there be enough cinephiles to make it worth it?

3/12 11 AM Broadband Matters for Content Makers – My “conversation” with John Bergmayer of Public Knowledge will give creative people the chance to talk about issues in broadband access, monopolies, net neutrality, and more.

3/12 12:30 PM Makers of Geek Documentaries – this one is of personal interest.

3/12 5 PM Can Transmedia Save the Entertainment Industry?

3/13 11AM Transmedia Storytelling: Constructing Compelling Characters and Narrative Threads

3/13 12:30PM Putting It Together: The Film Financing Equation – Aaron Kaufman and John Sloss

3/13 12:30PM Unexpected non-fiction storytelling – with Ze Frank, the NFB and IDFA DocLab

3/13 2PM Branded Documentary: A Case Study, Concept to Cannes

3/13 5PM Crowdsourcing: Innovation and/or Exploitation?

3/14 11AM Cryptography, Technology, Privacy: Philip Zimmermann, Inventor of PGP

3/14 11AM The SINGULARITY: Humanity’s Huge Techno Challenge

3/14 2PM DIY Production Contracts: 7 Agreements Every Filmmaker Needs

3/14 3:30 Pimp My Movie: Online Marketing Makeovers

3/15 2PM Alternative Financing For Independent Film

3/15 3:30PM Production For Emerging Platforms

This was more than just a system of distribution and sales; it was a cultural as well as economic affair. It influenced civic life and social relations in ways that browsing books on Amazon or Google can’t.

Now, I am a huge bookstore fan- I spend many hours in them each month. But to suggest that social relations or communities that aren’t powerful in their own way- in some ways more powerful- can’t emerge on Amazon does seem to be willfully ignoring the reality of culture today. This is true as well of other kinds of cultural interactions- just because they don’t happen in physical spaces, doesn’t make them less valid.

For filmmakers who have traditionally created work to be shared in groups, the challenge may be to create experiences of sharing (or simultaneous viewing) that are not so dependent on shared physical space. On the other hand, people who interact online seem interested in meeting up “in real life” when circumstances permit- so don’t give up on screenings yet- but look to successful models of transitioning between the kinds of spaces. As someone asked me yesterday, where is the Last FM for movies?

But there is a reality, it seems to me, that is missing from the discussion. Selling independent films is not and never was a “business model” (or- if you wish- not a ‘good’ business model), in the context that making these films should be the basis for a lucrative career using the principles of an MBA program. A good business model takes into account what the consumer wants and tries to give them that. It does not find something that one personally likes and then tries to make other people care about it, which is something more like patronage.

There has been a recent trend to make it seem like there is money draining out of the business of independent film when in reality the small amount of actual net revenue is just being redistributed.

Over the weekend there was some controversy over the relevance of conferences in general which Scott Macauly discusses at Filmmaker Magazine’s blog (and mentions my post as well).

In a world where you make your film, and now your game, and your website and your twitter account and your facebook and you go to networking events and you apply for festivals and maybe book screenings and see other people’s films and try to make some money and maybe go for a drink or something… How do you stay focused and how do you stay motivated? And can these tools help you to get other people to stay engaged with your work?

Hope to see you there.