Creating a space for alternative films in the mainstream

[naveak99]

In 2007, while travelling to Docedge in Kolkata from Colombo, I stopped over in Chennai to spend some time with friends. I was narrating to one of them the problems documentary filmmakers face in India - little access to funds, and worse still, even less access to an audience - when she said, why don't you guys start your own channel. It doesn't take much to lease a transponder, the problem is in creating content. And since documentary filmmakers already have a body of work that's waiting for an audience, it makes sense for them to get together and start a channel of their own.

At that time, I wasn't really convinced it would work. I made some vague arguments against it, but unknowingly a seed had been planted in my head.

A year later, I was at Docedge again. At a discussion about the future of documentaries, a fellow documentary filmmaker said that finding funds to make a documentary was not as difficult as finding avenues to show the documentary.

Suddenly, Vasantha's idea of documentary filmmakers starting a documentary channel seemed feasible to me.

A couple of weeks later, I was at MIFF, and there was another discussion of starting a documentary channel. A few filmmakers felt the government should do it, others thought an association of documentary filmmakers should do it. I was sceptical either would. And even if they did, they would suffer from all the problems that committee-run institutions suffer from. The government channel would be tepid and uncompetitive; the filmmakers' channel would have a collection of excellent films, but would not have the resources to effectively sustain it. Mainstream media groups, I knew, had been toying with the idea of starting a documentary channel too, or having documentary slots, but to make them commercially viable, they were giving documentary filmmakers a raw deal.

The only way out, I thought, was a kind of venture that's part co-operative, part corporate. I spoke to a friend who's into M&A about the viability of such a venture. He wasn't too enthusiastic about my amateur attempts to take on the Stars and Zees and UTVs of the world, but I still thought the idea was worth pursuing. For the moment though, I kept it on the backburner.

About a month back, an invigorating discussion on a note by Batul called 'The David and Goliath of filmmaking' motivated me to give the idea a public hearing. I'm posting what I wrote in that discussion to share the idea with a more disparate audience here, to see if we can bring this idea to fruition together. Here is the post:

"I had a long read at all the posts here, and I think this is the right forum to pitch an idea a friend and I have been toying with for a long time.

I agree there is a large audience for the kind of films we want to make. The problem is, the audience is too widespread to efficiently target through regular film distribution channels. But our own TV channel might just be the answer. An alternative TV channel that shows anything and everything mainstream has no room for.

I haven't done all my homework regarding the viability of this, it's not something I can do alone, but I gather that transponder costs are not much, what kills a channel are acquiring the software to keep it going, getting cable operators to carry it, and advertising the channel to the target audience.... See More

To avoid these pitfalls, we thought of a business model that's part corporate, part co-operative. It works like this. The channel is a proper business entity. We need to secure some initial funding from venture capital funds to set it up and for operating costs. We will definitely need to do a lot of number-crunching to prove the audience exists, that they are more than willing to watch this channel over other general entertainment channels, etc to attract this funding, for which we need to business and marketing people who think like we do

This venture capitalist gets part of the stake for the capital they bring in. The rest of the stake belongs to filmmakers who get a share in the company in proportion to the running time of the films they bring in. The software acquisition cost therefore becomes zero, which is what makes this idea plausibly viable. And as and when the channel picks up an audience and advertisers, and starts making profits, the filmmakers will get dividends on their investments.

Now for distribution. Going through the regular cable distribution set-up is going to be bloody expensive, and the channel will fold up even before it starts. But there is now the option of DTH. If we can tie up with one of the DTH platforms, charge a reasonable monthly subscriber fee, we might be able to attract an initial audience from those who watch World Movies and NDTV Lumiere.

About the only expense we will have is promoting the channel.

Is this idea practical or utopian? We need to discuss this with some business and marketing heads to find out."

[Paramvir Singh]

hi Kaevan. I have myself been toying with the idea of an alternative distribution channel and although there is an idea that I have which is feasible, let me discuss yours.

DTH is a great idea. But I wouldnt charge any subscription fee. Let it be free. The money will come from eyeballs and hence advertising. Promotion will have to come through guerilla and viral means. You and I both are champions of such ideas, so thats a no worry too. We all are film makers and know enough film makers to get the content as well.

Instead to giing shars in teh channel to film makers (which wll become extremely complex as content builds up), I woulkd give them a huge chunk of revenu generated from their films.

But where's the catch?

• 1) cost of setting up a channel (this I will find out from a friend who's job is setting up channels. I believe it can be as cheap as some 10-15 lakhs)
  2) cost of distribution (i am clueless about this, but I promise to find this out as well)

Once we know these costs, we can figure out the cost of running the channel for a year. Thats the kind of money we need to start with. Once we know the figure, its easier to get the sponsors. And to figure wheher its viable at all. If I were to start teh channel I wold do that out of a smaller cheaper city to bring down office overheads too. And of course because I love smaller cities with character. Its all not too difficult.

Lets come back with facts.

[Nimish Gaur]

Hi,
I got this mail in my wisdomtree yahoo group. I thought it might be relevant to this discussion.


2. Online petition for the cause of documentary
Posted by: "Nandini Bedi" nandini@katha.dds.nl nandinibedi
Date: Tue Feb 9, 2010 12:51 am ((PST))

I request you all to please support this initiative to support
documentaries. I post it here on behalf of

Neelima Mathur
Trustee & Trainer
FORMEDIA
http://www.formedia.org.in
+91 98 100 44745



Dear All,

Further to our continuing efforts for the cause of the documentary in
India,
we are building a signature campaign. The aim is to lobby for the
documentary to be a more active and vibrant part of the activities of
the
National Film Development Corporation as well as a wider outreach of
Films
Division and XP-Division, External Affairs Ministry. We would really
appreciate if you sign the online petition at
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/iid345/petition.html and forward the
url to
others you know as well.
Thanking you in advance for your co-operation.


Nandini Bedi
Chitra Katha Productions
Kamer No. 208
Minahassastraat 1
1094 RS Amsterdam

Mo.0640312946
Tel. +31 20 6227923

http://www.nandinibedi.com

[Paramvir Singh]

I have always been championing the Internet as a source of distributing Cinema, in a world where
a) the traditional distribution system is useless for understanding and distributing 'alternate content'
b) everyone we know is on the internet

Someone had to do it first, and Pankaj Sikka did it.

DINGORA

Dingora is the premier online theater for day of release international, independent, and short films. Imagine waiting for your favorite director's new movie to come out, and then finding out that it didn't make it to your local theater! This is especially the case if the movie you wanted to see was made in another country. We're film lovers here at Dingora, and we wanted to use the internet to solve this problem in a way that would let you share that same-day release with those who got to see the movie in their local theater. In other words, we're bringing the theater from anywhere in the world right on to your screen.
If you'd like to see what movies we'll be showing soon take a look at the Coming Soon Section. To watch a movie that's currently showing just click on the movie, then buy a ticket using our safe cart and start watching.
Once you buy a ticket you'll have 72 hours to watch the movie. Also, you'll need Mirosoft's Silverlight Player to watch your movie.
Dingora is catered towards providing high definition content via streaming for which you at least need a good internet connection at or above the average DSL or Cable connection speeds.

Dingora was founded by Pankaj Sikka who is also the founder of the group blogging site PassionForCinema.com. PassionForCinema.com allows leading independent filmmakers and film fans to share their insights about the Indian independent movie scene.

[Karthik Ganesh]

Yeah online seems to be a good suggestion. In starting anything new, we will need atleast two to three years as gestation period and unless we have deep pockets, we cant really make it feasible. Even this idea of using torrent is very interesting...

http://torrentfreak.com/yes-men-use-bit ... ip-100723/


Karthik

[Paramvir Singh]

two to three years for gestation of what? these services exist and work well with the current broadband that we have.

Torrent download is one thing, but having a proper legitimate place to buy a screening and connect it to your TV via Apple TV or such and enjoying a good watch is something else. Successful examples are Apple iTunes Movie Store, Netflix and Hulu.com