OpenFilm.com

As I sit here and watch BELOW THE BASEMENT upload to OpenFilm.com, I’ve started to think about the future of Pretty People Pictures as well as the future of filmmaking in general. Openfilm.com is an experiment for PPP and this site. Unlike YouTube or Vimeo, OpenFilm displays ads while your film plays. If your film makes any money from the ad revenue, OpenFilm gives the filmmaker %50 of the revenue. There are a number of reasons why I’m trying this out and I’ve listed them in order of importance.

1. OpenFilm has a sweet player. That’s right, it’s not because of the money, it’s because of the player. The number one thing I’m concerned about on my site is the quality of the viewing experience. No other site that I know of allows you to embed HD clips. Sure Vimeo and YouTube play HD, but you can’t embed them on your site without paying an additional fee. That is why I’ve never used Vimeo or Youtube for this site. I would continue to use Quicktime movies, but they take too long to load and suck the bandwidth down on my site. The more bandwidth I use, the more I’ll have to pay for my server. Not only does OpenFilm’s player load fast, but it’s in HD and causes no strain on my site. This is pretty sweet.

2. The social networking factor ( that’s right, still not the ad money). Without loading my films on Vimeo or Youtube, I’m really missing out on the possibility of new viewers stumbling upon my movies. OpenFilm.com is raising up in the ranks of online video distribution and having my films be a part of their search engines, channels, and promotions will help more people discover Pretty People Pictures.

3. The ad money (Alright! So I’m a sell out). But here’s the thing…with the amount of web traffic this site gets and the national appeal of Pretty People Pictures, I will be surprised if I make $5 from ad revenue. Pretty People Pictures simply doesn’t have a following. So I can say, in all honesty, I’m not doing this for any money because I know none will come. However, if I DID make $5, it would all go back to PPP. Think I’m kidding? $5 is an entire MONTH’S worth of hosting fees for this site. Every penny counts. So if you see an ad you like, give it a click…it’s going to a good place ;-)

When I started Pretty People Pictures, I had two simple concepts in mind: What type of movies would I want to see and how would I want to see them. That has always been our driving force. That’s why I make fun genre films and that’s why you can see them for free! Why have I made our newest films available to download to your iPOD? Because I watch movies on MY iPOD. It’s that simple. And since I watch Hulu (an ad supported site) more than I watch regular television, I figure it won’t hurt to put some ads on my movies.

The independent film world is changing so much it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen. I’m sure I’ll think differently about everything when I have a real budget to recoup and a family to take care of. But as long as I’m making movies for fun, I want as many people as I can get to have fun watching.