Feb 17, 2017

Four New Rules for Successful Online Distribution of Short Films

It's as easy as hitting the "upload" button, right?

Indeed, it has never been easier to share your animated short with billions of people around the world.

But whether or not someone will actually watch your film once it's online is another matter entirely. The ease of online distribution has also made it exponentially more difficult for individual films to be discovered by audiences. Filmmakers must compete with literally hundreds of thousands of hours of video uploaded daily to every corner of the Internet.

Throughout 2017, Cartoon Brew intends to thoroughly examine the new realities of being a short film maker in the Internet age. We will address everything from online distribution and third-party film licensing to financing digital series and short films. Through case studies, interviews, and commentary, these topics will be explored.

Beginning today, we'll share four new tips and strategies for getting your animated shorts online. This advice is based on our close observation of the online short film scene and our active engagement and consultation with many filmmakers over the past several years.

Some of these ideas probably go against the advice you've heard from others. This is because most of the ideas about how to distribute films online are terribly outdated and have not been updated since the mid to late 2000s, when sites like Youtube and Vimeo began to become part of the conversation. Given the evolution of the Web and the changing role of film festivals, it is long past time to reexamine how independent animated short films are published online.

Those of you who are a little older will remember that in the 1990s, Hollywood films were released on home video about 8-14 months after their theatrical release. The dramatic increase in available entertainment content over the past few decades has made that system obsolete. Today, the window between theatrical and home releases continues to shrink. Films are often released as early as three months after their theatrical release on TVOD, SVOD, and other digital platforms, and with the rise of new content producers such as Netflix and Amazon, theatrical and streaming releases are increasing daily.

The same is true for short films. To increase their chances of being discovered, films should be made available as soon as possible to as large an audience as possible. If you make your film available online while the festival is in session, you can take advantage of the synergy between the festival and the online audience. For example, people who discover your film at the festival will excitedly share your film with their friends online. And vice versa, if your film performs well online, festival programmers will be more likely to include it in their lineup.

Film festivals and the Internet are now partners, working together to help filmmakers get discovered by a wider audience. However, the only way to take advantage of the free promotion that festivals offer is to put your film online. (This is advice you won't hear anywhere else, and I think it's the biggest factor preventing short films from getting more limelight in the mainstream. Whenever, and I mean whenever, you release a trailer for a short film, you should always, and I mean always, set a release date.

No one wants to see a movie trailer and wonder how many months or years they will have to wait to see it. Making it uncertain whether or not your short film will be released is the surest way to lose enthusiasm for the project. Unknown release dates are also the main reason why Cartoon Brew (and I suspect other media outlets as well) are usually reluctant to promote short film trailers. For feature films, television shows, and many other types of content, setting a release date is now common practice.

So how do you plan a release date in advance? Short filmmakers need to use trial and error to find the sweet spot. After your film has premiered in your country and at major international film festivals, you should release it online. (These two usually take place within six months of the film's festival entry.) Another good time to consider an online release is in the fall, after the film has qualified for the Academy Awards, an important goal for many filmmakers. (The latter release strategy was applied very successfully last fall by "Borrowed Time," now one of the Oscar contenders.)

Whatever release date you choose, remember that the earlier the better. I have seen countless films that have been the talk of the festival circuit go down in flames on the Internet. This is because the filmmakers waited two or three years after the film's buzz cycle had expired before releasing the film online. No matter how great a film is, it will not have the same enthusiastic following two or three years after it is submitted to a film festival.

A few people have made money on the Internet with independent short films, but this is not the norm and there is no one reliable monetization strategy that applies to most filmmakers. However, if it is still difficult to generate direct income from short films, one should not overlook the fact that a successful short film on the Internet can generate job opportunities and exposure.

A successful film on the Internet can really do a lot for a filmmaker. If they go the independent route, it will help them apply for grants from the next film funding organization, and it can help them win a first-look deal with a major Hollywood animation producer, as Woo Kyung Min has done with Illumination. It could also lead to all kinds of commercial animation work to earn a living while he works on his next personal film.

To make this happen, however, it is essential to manage the online rights to your work. If you have a producer who is willing to pay for your production, remember that this is not always possible, but these things can be negotiated. Whatever you do, never throw away your rights by giving long-term exclusivity to a broadcaster or short film distributor like Short International. Owning the rights to your film, including the online rights, is one of the greatest assets you can have, and its value far outweighs the pitiful few dollars it may bring you from a short film distribution deal. If your distributor must have online rights, give them non-exclusive rights.

One of the biggest misconceptions among short filmmakers (besides the misconception that festivals will not accept films submitted online) is that you should only release your film on one platform to direct all viewing to one source. If everyone in the world thought as you do, that would be a good idea, but it is not.

I have seen successful filmmakers who have posted their work on both Vimeo and Youtube, and here is an interesting thing. People in different countries have different discovery mechanisms and the best chance to reach the widest possible audience is to publish on Vimeo, Youtube and Facebook. Other social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat should not be overlooked. While they are not currently the best way to distribute your short film, they can certainly help you prepare your film for release.

In addition to increasing your chances of having your film discovered, there is another benefit to having your film widely available. If you are lucky enough to have an online hit, but it is not on one of the major platforms (Youtube/Facebook/Vimeo), it makes it even harder for someone else to put it up on your behalf and take down unauthorized copies. As many successful short filmmakers can attest, policing the Internet for unauthorized copies of your film can be a full-time job. Making copies of your film available in as many places as possible will help ensure that traffic returns to your official version.