Foundations Supporting New Distribution Systems for Film & Video
Several Web portals designed to provide media makers with outlets to audiences and audiences with quality content have recently launched:
• The American News Project (ANP), a project of the Tides Center and initially developed under a grant from the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, this site is dedicated to defending and promoting the public interest through high-quality, investigative video journalism. In addition to creating a new content platform, ANP is building new funding models for independent reporting by launching opportunities for users to fund a particular beat such as National Security, Environment and Energy, or Immigration; or contribute to the Investigative Reporting Fund; or provide non-restricted support through their General Fund.
• Black Public Media was created by the National Black Programming Consortium with funding from the Ford Foundation. It is an online destination for free video streaming and distribution of new media related to the global black experience where you can watch free, full-length, streams of select documentaries; purchase to own downloads, DVDs, and more; and subscribe to a variety of blogs, vodcasts, and podcasts.
• ReelChanges.org is owned and operated by the Center for Media Change, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit corporation based in Palo Alto, California. The mission of the Center for Media Change, Inc. is to enrich our culture by facilitating the creation and distribution of more high-quality documentaries. The financial model for ReelChanges.org is to seek support from foundations, corporations, groups, and individuals.
• The Real News Project, supported by foundations and the public, produces investigative journalism and timely stories behind current events. Exclusive stories from the Real News Project are posted on their website and then disseminated through all available news outlets, including print, the internet, television, and radio.
• ReFrame is Tribeca Film Institute’s entry into the online distribution arena. Recently featured in an article in the New York Times, the launch of ReFrame was supported by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.
The goal of ReFrame is to help individual filmmakers, distributors, archives, libraries and other media owners to digitize and sell their work using the internet, and to become a one-stop location for anyone seeking these films. In addition to bringing together works from numerous sources of independent and alternative media, much of it available to the public for the first time, ReFrame aims to enrich the experience by offering professional insight and encouraging discussion.
Under a unique deal with Amazon’s CreateSpace division, they are able to offer digitization at little to no cost to their partners. Once digitized, these works are made available for non-exclusive distribution through both the Amazon storefront and ReFrame website at a price set by the partner. Titles may be sold via DVD-on-Demand, which forgoes the cost of large product runs and inventory storage, and Digital Download to rent or buy, which allows consumers to download films directly to a PC or to a television via TiVo.
[Published 2008-06-11]
