Bring on the Pain
With three years of BBS Documentary release behind me, I now know the following things:
- It’s a pretty enjoyable little flick.
- While not a general audience sort of film, tens of thousands have seen it.
- I own all the rights.
- I got a shrinking stack of original copies here.
So, I’ve decided I’m going to pursue additional avenues of distribution. Here, then, are they:
- Netflix
- iTunes
- Steam
- Greenhouse
- PBS
- The Documentary Channel
(If someone suggests another place, I’ll add it.)
This is primarily an experiment. In all cases, we’re talking digital distribution of various amounts. What will come of it? What will happen? Stay tuned.
Bear in mind that I will be utterly transparent on this weblog about how my adventure goes, because I think there’s something to be learned here, and it informs the other filmmakers I deal with about how to treat such an experience.
Bear in mind I couldn’t begin to consider any of these if I didn’t own the rights 100%. I didn’t sign away anything, I didn’t sell it to someone, and I didn’t get involved in some flim-flammery in the desperate hope my “stuff” would get out there “somewhere”.
So, there you go. I’ll keep you updated.






Mike Whalen
wrote:
All these sound great! I am curious: You’ve been pretty open about not using DRM on the documentary. Wouldn’t that be a barrier to gaining acceptance at Apple and Steam?
Why not try to get it shown a PBS rather that distributing through?
Posted on 19-Nov-08 at 4:21 pm | Permalink
ross
wrote:
i’d love to see it on pbs. i haven’t watched pbs in a long time but from what i remember the pacing of the doc is perfect for that channel. they could show it over a week or something.
Posted on 19-Nov-08 at 5:30 pm | Permalink
The Mystery Body
wrote:
Try Vuze for monetized distribution:
http://www.vuze.com/Publish.html
Posted on 19-Nov-08 at 6:57 pm | Permalink
zpinzane
wrote:
Best of luck with that. I’ve appreciated your said transparency in the past, and it’ll be interesting to read what you learn as you tackle these alternate forms of distribution. Cheers!
Posted on 27-Nov-08 at 4:40 am | Permalink