iPHONE APP DISTRIBUTION for INDIE FILM - CASE: RED PRINCESS BLUES

[Alex Ferrari]

Hey Guys,

A few of the memebers wanted me to start this discussion about what I.m doing with my new film RED PRINCESS BLUES. I'm distributing the short film through an iPHONE APP. I believe I'm one of the first if not the first filmmaker to package a film and sell it in this matter.

You can see the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0EO0L3Vn5w

This thread is setup to discuss this new way of getting your work out to the public.

READ BELOW:

Check out our new short film we just shot on the RED called RED PRINCESS BLUES. Red Princess Blues is now available for the iphone, ipad and ipod touch. We think we are the first short film to distribute a short film in this way.

Behind the Scenes Documentaries: http://www.youtube.com/user/redprincessblues

Official Website: http://www.redprincessblues.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Princess-Blues/108120729216025?created&v=wall

Below is some info on the film and the App.

Click here to go the itunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/red-princess-blues/id377025812?mt=8

In this twisted modern day fairy tale ZOE, a young teenage girl, is lured into an after hours carnival tent by the sleazy rock-n-roll carney RIMO, she then gets more she bargained for. It is up to the mysterious PRINCESS, the star of the new knife show at ROSCOE'S CARNIVAL & FREAK SHOW to pull Zoe out of the wolf den that she has fallen into to.

We had an amazing cast & crew with credits like: AVATAR, 300, WATCHMEN, TV's 24, SUCKER PUNCH, KILL BILL, PREDATORS, BLACK HAWK DOWN & WAR OF THE WORLDS just to name a few.

The RED PRINCESS BLUES App includes:

- The ENTIRE 11 minute LIVE ACTION short film "Red Princess Blues"
- EXCLUSIVE Behind the Scenes Videos
- Red Princess Blues Soundtrack
- FREE Tracks from The Enigma Factory Indie Film Workshop Series:
- WORKSHOP: Guerilla Marketing/Self Distribution for Indie Films
- WORKSHOP: Visual FX and Post Production Workflow for Indie Films
- EXCLUSIVE Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery
- Character Design Gallery
- Concept Art Gallery
- Direct link to RPB Twitter Page
- Red Princess Blues YouTube Channel
and more FREE updates coming in the future with more videos and content.

Cast includes:
Richard Tyson (Black Hawk Down, Kindergarden Cop)
Rachel Grant (007 Die Another Day)
Robert Forster (Academy Award Nominee Jackie Brown)
Tabitha Morella (Two and a Half Men).

If you have questions let me know.

 

[Andreas Reischl]

I have to say, it is quite a creative way to reach a broader audience.
I was intrigued when I saw it in the 'Shot on RED' forum, but too busy to ask -
how is the response as of right now?

How many downloads do you anticipate?
How do you reach your preferred audience (as in, where do you advertise)?

 

[Alex Ferrari]

I have to say, it is quite a creative way to reach a broader audience.
I was intrigued when I saw it in the 'Shot on RED' forum, but too busy to ask -
how is the response as of right now?

Pretty great! I've gotten many email and calls from people who downloaded it. Won't know numbers until Apple sends me the reports.

How many downloads do you anticipate?

I have no idea, this is an experiment in gurellia marketing and the grassroots movement for indie film. We were able to sell over 5000 DVDs of my last film BROKEN at $19.99 (the film cost $8000) and that was done completly by word of mouth.

Click here for info: http://www.whatisbroken.com/dvd.html

How do you reach your preferred audience (as in, where do you advertise)?[/QUOTE]

Grassroots marketing. Websites, reviews, festivals, facebook, youtube, anyway I can get the word out.

 

[Eren Ozkural]

I've got to say that this is potentially a fantastic way of monetizing short and feature films.

Putting being a filmmaker aside I have to say as a consumer that I've never purchased a grass roots distributed film online; the biggest hurdles being convenience/price point/perceived quality.

The ability to sell a film as an app is fantastic. I've bought a lot of apps on a whim as the process is so simple. I would never bother with Amazon or other online distribution outlets but the app store is perfect.

The contents of your film/app look very promising. It looks like a well shot film with lots of useful bonus content.

The price is a bit of a barrier for me. I've paid quite a bit for apps like pcam and nanostudio but those were tools to help with work and creating music on the go. Your app is a short film without major star power. So many people just pirate films these days. I myself only buy discounted dvds and blurays at hmv/play.com even though im a film lover through and through.

I have paid full price/purchased films on day one but those are limited to movies I utterly loved at the cinema or are visually unique films released as part of the criterion collection (or another solid remastering with previously unseen bonus features).

I'm not taking a dig at your film or your approach to selling it at all. I think it's commendable and as I mentioned the film looks good.

I'll try to hunt down a link but I remember reading an article (i think on Gizmodo) about the average prices of the most popular apps. I believe the overwhelming majority of the popular apps were priced between $.99 and $2.99. I know this seems like very little but when you consider downloads for a little gimmicky app like iFart (or whatever) netting the developer over $200,000 in a matter of weeks it's something to keep in mind.

Cheap, gimmicky apps/content will find a major customer base. I realise that films don't necessarily fall into this model (once again unless you have at least a hollywood b lister imho). A film just wont sell as many copies as one of these apps. Fair enough. You don't want to charge pennies for a production when you're not going to get the volume of customers. Add incentives and charge higher which you have done. I just don't think the balance is there.

Just using myself and various social circles as an example i'd reckon we spend between £5-10 for a hollywood film on DVD and £10-15 on a Blu Ray.

If you were to release a feature as an app without A list talent and awards at major festivals (sundance, toronto etc) but with bonus content I think you could get away with charging $/£5.99 and £2.99 for a short film.

That being said these are just my personal opinions. I could very well be wrong and I hope your film is a great success selling hunderds of thousands of copies.

I'm very interested in furthering this discussion as technology seems to be at just the right point for a grass roots distribution platform to work very well.

Some questions that I have is who you got to develop the app, how long it took to make, what the approval process was like (apple aren't big fans of nudity or lots of profanity) and how much it cost the production (if you don't mind divulging that).

I wish you the best of luck

 

[Michael Hastings]

I think Eren makes some good points.

I thought about doing this for some of my shark footage as an easy way to be able to put together sort of a sampler that is pretty cool to look at but doesn't require too much editing, storyline, etc. Something like:

AquaVideo's Sharktank App and AquaVideo's 3DSharktank App

I think he is right that it needs to be $2.99 or less. Beyond that it isn't an impulse purchase anymore. With a .99 price like yours people can almost feel like it is a donation to the cause.

Does anybody have suggestions for the best way to create an app such as this?
(Happy to start another thread if it is necessary.) Would really like some help/tips.

Thanks,

 

[Alex Ferrari]

I've got to say that this is potentially a fantastic way of monetizing short and feature films.

Putting being a filmmaker aside I have to say as a consumer that I've never purchased a grass roots distributed film online; the biggest hurdles being convenience/price point/perceived quality.

The ability to sell a film as an app is fantastic. I've bought a lot of apps on a whim as the process is so simple. I would never bother with Amazon or other online distribution outlets but the app store is perfect.

The contents of your film/app look very promising. It looks like a well shot film with lots of useful bonus content.

The price is a bit of a barrier for me. I've paid quite a bit for apps like pcam and nanostudio but those were tools to help with work and creating music on the go. Your app is a short film without major star power. So many people just pirate films these days. I myself only buy discounted dvds and blurays at hmv/play.com even though im a film lover through and through.

I have paid full price/purchased films on day one but those are limited to movies I utterly loved at the cinema or are visually unique films released as part of the criterion collection (or another solid remastering with previously unseen bonus features).

I'm not taking a dig at your film or your approach to selling it at all. I think it's commendable and as I mentioned the film looks good.

I'll try to hunt down a link but I remember reading an article (i think on Gizmodo) about the average prices of the most popular apps. I believe the overwhelming majority of the popular apps were priced between $.99 and $2.99. I know this seems like very little but when you consider downloads for a little gimmicky app like iFart (or whatever) netting the developer over $200,000 in a matter of weeks it's something to keep in mind.

Cheap, gimmicky apps/content will find a major customer base. I realise that films don't necessarily fall into this model (once again unless you have at least a hollywood b lister imho). A film just wont sell as many copies as one of these apps. Fair enough. You don't want to charge pennies for a production when you're not going to get the volume of customers. Add incentives and charge higher which you have done. I just don't think the balance is there.

Just using myself and various social circles as an example i'd reckon we spend between £5-10 for a hollywood film on DVD and £10-15 on a Blu Ray.

If you were to release a feature as an app without A list talent and awards at major festivals (sundance, toronto etc) but with bonus content I think you could get away with charging $/£5.99 and £2.99 for a short film.

That being said these are just my personal opinions. I could very well be wrong and I hope your film is a great success selling hunderds of thousands of copies.

I'm very interested in furthering this discussion as technology seems to be at just the right point for a grass roots distribution platform to work very well.

Some questions that I have is who you got to develop the app, how long it took to make, what the approval process was like (apple aren't big fans of nudity or lots of profanity) and how much it cost the production (if you don't mind divulging that).

I wish you the best of luck

You make some very good points. I'm charging .99¢ a first to see what kind of reaction I get. I might go up to $1.99 if I see there is major interest.

The film was shot under $10,000 and alot of favors :biggrin:
I used a great company called ieverywhere.com and they helped me develop it.

 

[Eren Ozkural]

Hey Alex i tried going onto ieverywhere.com but ended up at a search page. A brief google didn't turn them up either just this app:

CLICK HERE

Do they have another site?

Thanks & good luck.

EDIT: Just bought the app for the special £.59 price tag. See, impulse purchase

 

[Alex Ferrari]

Hey Alex i tried going onto ieverywhere.com but ended up at a search page. A brief google didn't turn them up either just this app:

CLICK HERE

Do they have another site?

Thanks & good luck.

http://www.ieveryware.com/

 

[Scott Crawley]

I think Eren makes some good points.

I thought about doing this for some of my shark footage as an easy way to be able to put together sort of a sampler that is pretty cool to look at but doesn't require too much editing, storyline, etc. Something like:

AquaVideo's Sharktank App and AquaVideo's 3DSharktank App

I think he is right that it needs to be $2.99 or less. Beyond that it isn't an impulse purchase anymore. With a .99 price like yours people can almost feel like it is a donation to the cause.

Does anybody have suggestions for the best way to create an app such as this?
(Happy to start another thread if it is necessary.) Would really like some help/tips.

Thanks,

If you have any contacts in the music industry you might check with them. There have been a number of recording artists who have gone this route, some of them A/V.

 

[Michael Hastings]

http://www.ieveryware.com/

what did it end up costing you? Do you need a monthly service or can it be for a onetime deal, with source code?

 

[Alex Ferrari]

what did it end up costing you? Do you need a monthly service or can it be for a onetime deal, with source code?

You'll need to speak to the guys at http://www.ieveryware.com/, it's different for everyone.

 

[Eren Ozkural]

The film looks good so far. The only trouble is it's not streaming very well. My iphone 3GS is connnected to the net via wifi @8mbps and it stops soon after the opening credits.

I watched the making of featurettes, they load fine.

I'm happy apart from the streaming issues. iEveryware looks like a good service as well.

 

[Alex Ferrari]

The film looks good so far. The only trouble is it's not streaming very well. My iphone 3GS is connnected to the net via wifi @8mbps and it stops soon after the opening credits.

I watched the making of featurettes, they load fine.

I'm happy apart from the streaming issues. iEveryware looks like a good service as well.

Let the film load first then play. It's a pretty good size file. Thanks for the kind words!:dita:

 

[Eren Ozkural]

I've been waiting for it to load for over 15 minutes and it's not loaded 25% for the 11 minute film yet. Once again, wifi, full bars, 8 meg connection.

I think that you have a fantastic idea but convenience is key. Since the app itself doesn't contain any video, would you consider having multiple links on the video page for different quality/size videos? iphone 3gs/iphone4/ipad?

It looks fantastic on the iphone but it's too much hassle for consumers to wait this long for a movie. Sorry if this sounds overly critical. Just giving my thoughts purely as a customer/consumer

Maybe the servers are busy with everyone accessing the film and it loads smoothly at most times but most customers wouldn't be bothered to think this way.

 

[Alex Ferrari]

I've been waiting for it to load for over 15 minutes and it's not loaded 25% for the 11 minute film yet. Once again, wifi, full bars, 8 meg connection.

I think that you have a fantastic idea but convenience is key. Since the app itself doesn't contain any video, would you consider having multiple links on the video page for different quality/size videos? iphone 3gs/iphone4/ipad?

It looks fantastic on the iphone but it's too much hassle for consumers to wait this long for a movie. Sorry if this sounds overly critical. Just giving my thoughts purely as a customer/consumer

Maybe the servers are busy with everyone accessing the film and it loads smoothly at most times but most customers wouldn't be bothered to think this way.

Try a wifi connection. It loads really fast for on my ipod.

 

[Eren Ozkural]

I am on wifi. Tried loading it 3 times now, never loads all the way I'm sorry to say. I'll wait until tomorrow at a different location to see if it makes ay difference. Anyway good luck!

 

[Pascal Scheffers]

99 cents with behind the scenes stuff and other fluff. I'd hit buy now if only I wasn't typing here and my SO didn't have the iPad.

I think I'm going to say hi to her now. :aureola:

 

[dino g]

was "Broken" in ROADance '06?

 

[Alex Ferrari]

was "Broken" in ROADance '06?

Yup!:coolgleamA:

 

[Shane Betts]

:drivingant pant. Hi Alex, I finally made it to the meeting :biggrin:

Some good points have been made. The 99c price tag is, I think, a great idea. Keep it at an impulse buy level and just rely on your marketing to take advantage of the shear numbers and you could do well. And, if you don't, welcome to the movie biz!

And, should you manage to get some Hollywood names, you can charge $1.99.

So, let's put this into perspective. A feature costs on average, what?, $60m? Assuming you get a distribution deal, they then spend another $90m on P&A (or so they tell you), the cinema chains take around 65% of ticket price, the distribution company takes their 35% of the net, then take out their costs and the P&A... Versus spend, say, $20k making a short (and the writing process takes weeks, not months), roll it into an app and publish on the appstore at .99c, give Apple (what?) 60%, so you make 40c per. $20k divided by 40c equals 50,000 - of a possible market in the tens of millions.

It's always going to come down to a good product, suitable for the market and good marketing but at least you don't have to pay P&A costs or a distributor and, I repeat, the process is so much faster than a feature. I think there is huge potential here.

So, Alex, do you believe that rolling this thing into an .app will put up some barriers to piracy? And do you think you could eventually get your own (or in-house) skills up to the point where you can do the app thing yourself and so only wind up paying the appstore?

Can you link to the appstore on IMDB? Can you, in fact, list it on IMDB without a distributor onboard?