Image courtesy of [Salvatore Vuono] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
In Part 1 we talked about submitting your project to film festivals online. In this part we'll discuss some of the sites where you can submit your work to get screened online.
There are various sites where you can upload your work. Some are better than others. Some have better user interfaces, some have more ways for you to "get seen", and some even have a revenue generating model in place. You will have to try them and decide which work best for you.
While researching for this piece I recently read an article called "Where To Submit Videos and Video RSS/MRSS Feeds" by Mark R. Roberson. (A professional online video marketing consultant and video marketing expert and popular speaker.)
Mr. Robertson remarks: "I am not sure why but it is a pain in the ass to find the URLs for the various video search and video sharing websites where you can upload your video and/or submit your video RSS and/or MRSS feeds. So, I spent some time online looking at the various sites to find these submission URLs."
Mr. Robertson then lists names (and provides links) of places where you can submit.
Youtube - http://www.youtube.com
MetaCafe – http://www.metacafe.com
Revver – www.revver.com
MSN Live Video Search – http://video.msn.com/video.aspx.
• Submit Videos to MSN Live
• Upload Videos to MSN Video
BlipTV – http://www.blip.tv
• When you upload to BlipTV, your videos can be syndicated to accounts you have on other Web sites such as blogs, iTunes , Yahoo Video, AOL Video, MySpace, FaceBook, and Feedburner.
Veoh – http://www.veoh.com
• When you submit to Veoh, they syndicate your video to youtube, myspace, and google video.
Myspace Video http://vids.myspace.com/
Break – http://www.break.com
DivX's Stage 6 – stage6.divx.com/ (No longer available)
Daily Motion – http://www.dailymotion.com
Vimeo – http://www.vimeo.com
Sevelload – en.sevenload.com (Not available in Canada)
Read Mr. Robersons' article here http://www.reelseo.com/submit-videos-rss-mrss/#ixzz2FtK2aI3K
I checked out some of these
YouTube is the most obvious choice for many. It's huge, it's well known, it has the potential to reach a lot of people.
Well, I have to admit I was already familiar (all too familiar) with YouTube. Here is my take on that site: UI is not great, uploading can be difficult, help is pretty much non-existent, so if you mess up, you are on your own. And the worst thing - they have an overzealous Content Aware software which scans the site for copyright infringements. Every single one of my videos (all original content) has been flagged by this annoying package for "copyright infringement". I have had to respond to each and every one with a complaint, and they always back off - yeah right - thank you idiots at YouTube! MY ORIGINAL CONTENT and I am infringing someone else's copyright? I don't think so. I'm not alone, there have been hundreds of complaints from other YouTube users about this issue.
How useful is it for the budding film maker to upload to YouTube?
Depends on your ability to put out the word to your friends and supporters, because no matter how big YouTube is, your video will only get viewed if you push the heck out of it. (And also your ability to thwart their attempts to get you for copyright infringement)
Daily Motion - Definitely interesting. Joining up was no problem. Password creation allows all characters to be used - not good for security. Uploading was FAST. Only setback in my opinion is that you cannot upload through Imovie. This would mean you have to convert your video to an MP4 to upload. Getting views will very much depend on how much time and effort you are willing to put in to 1) getting connected with others 2) getting the site hooked up with your Facebook account and 3) publicizing the link on all your various other websites. They do provide you with some decent tools, and there is the possibility of monetizing your video. FYI this site is based in France.
I uploaded a couple of shorts (which went up on the site very fast) and went through the process of trying to hook up with other users and viewers. Unfortunately, that process is rather tedious. The worst thing that I have found with this site is the incredibly long time it takes for a video to begin playing once you get to one you want to watch. ALSO - no play or pause button - very bad.
MetaCafe - Looked very promising at first but has huge UI issues. When I attempted to sign up at first, only got as far as the very initial page, (and by the way, they do not support anything but alphanumeric characters for password - not really secure) then up came the User agreement, and once you reach the bottom of that page, instead of the normal "Agree" or "Disagree", you are left hanging. No way to continue the sign up process. In addition, perusal of the site for help netted me nothing useful, and worse, apparently no way to contact them directly. Well that aint gonna fly!
A few days later I re-visited the site, and much to my amazement, in spite of the lack of confirmation on the User Agreement, an account was successfully created anyway.
Just for fun, I uploaded a few shorts and was surprised at the speed with which they uploaded. Then they make you wait a bit until "the reviewers" have looked at them. This process supposedly takes just a few hours. Fortunately for me, mine got cleared for public viewing in a very short time. What I have not found is how to link up with others in a smooth and easy way. Still working on that one.
Revver - site is no longer active.
BlipTV - I did not attempt to submit to this site because it is intended for those with a web series, and I don't have one. For those of you that do, it is a possible option.
Veoh – Initially looked promising. I joined up without too many problems, but once I joined and was able to browse at will, I did not feel that this was particularly geared toward the serious amateur film maker. I attempted to upload something, but immediately got a request to confirm my email - fair enough - I did that, but now they suggested I would get a special email which would then allow me to upload - this never happened. I tried three times, no luck, but finally the emails surfaced in the Spam bin. I did eventually get a couple of videos uploaded, but am not really convinced this site is worth while.
Myspace - Okay I will admit it, I didn't even try to use the Myspace option. I hate Myspace, and have abandoned my accounts there. You folks are welcome to give it a shot.
Break – I checked out Break and signed up. The process was fairly straightforward. I was able to upload 2 videos, but apart from the process not being too painful, there do not appear to be many useful ways of connecting with others on the site, apart than the usual sharing with Twitter, Facebook, etc. I don't feel this site is really a super place for the indie film maker to be.
DivX's Stage 6 – No longer available due to financial issues!)
Vimeo – I have been a member of Vimeo for several years now.
Apart from the occasional glitch in their software, I think this is one of the best sites for film makers to post at. This is not a YouTube where you get idiots posting pointless comments, but is mainly comprised of fairly serious people. The caliber of material they host is pretty good and a lot of serious film makers have their work on the site. Vimeo provides you opportunities to hook up with others, to monetize your video, and to participate in their annual Film Fest in New York. The presentation is good (i.e. your films look good on the site). The UI is pretty good, they do have issues from time to time, and their tech support is a bit annoying, but overall - far less annoying than many others, a good to present your material. The basic account is free. The upgraded account has a few extra perks, such as reduced waiting time for an upload, and fewer space constraints. To date I haven't found the free account is cramping my style.
Sevelload – (Not available in Canada)
A couple of my own finds are indieclub.com, Filmannex.com and TriggerStreet.com
Indieclub.com - is a rich resource for the film maker - Sign up was straightforward, although they do ask a lot of questions, and they want you to fill in your "resume" section as fully as possible. A basic account is free. With that type of account you can upload films and pictures, but only one film gets displayed on your profile. (With an upgraded account you can have more films and options, but it will cost you $99.80 U.S. per year.) You to set up a profile and examples of your work, and you use tick boxes to provide a quick list of your abilities/talents. (i.e. director; producer, screenwriter, make-up artist, hairstylist, actor, etc.). Anyone looking at your profile can quickly see if you are what they are looking for.
They describe the site as being "The #1 Networking Organization for Filmmakers, Actors, Crew, Writers, Musicians, Producers, Directors, Graphic Artists, and More") and, from what I have seen, I think it probably is a really good place to "hang out". Not sure about the $99.80 however …
They certainly deliver on giving you the opportunity to find collaborators and crew. They have a very active message board, where you can advertise a new project, or find out about stuff by posting questions; they have an actual posting board with different categories (Classified, Event, etc.) which is where you can post stuff for sale, stuff wanted, events, looking for personnel, etc. There is page they call Resource corners which has sections for Writing, Acting, filmmaking, partner companies, and a glossary of industry terms. They have a Find Members search function which is accessible to you even if you are not a member. What I really liked about this particular feature is that the search allows you to be quite specific, and comes up very quickly. IndieClub also provides help videos. On the down side, the site probably doesn't have enough search words embedded, since I found it only came up 6th in a Google search, and only after I entered the phrases "Networking Organization for Filmmakers" "Networking for Filmmakers"
This site has various lists of people - resources. I believe that this site is very useful for the Indie filmmaker.
FilmAnnex.com
This site promises a lot, but the UI is pretty bad and the level of support is rather dreary. The sign up process is quite straightforward, and they have an ambitious revenue generating plan. They offer some useful resources, but their search is terrible. I have searched for films and people I know are on the site, and even for my own blog but the search comes up "not found". They do have a fairly extensive library of public domain films, which are free to download. Also, searches for film hosting or resources sites on Google doesn't readily turn up Filmannex, so either they don't have many meta words in their tags, or the site is not visited that frequently, so Google doesn't "see" it.
They ostensibly want indie movie makers to upload their films, but once uploaded it can take weeks for them to get on the site. In some cases - never.
Here is an excerpt from their "About". "Film Annex came to life with the goal to give filmmakers, artists, and content creators a free platform for self-distribution, interaction, and funding. We built an ad-supported video platform to enable content creators to monetize their content. This way, we encourage them to keep creating, contributing, educating, and of course, entertaining non-stop."
What they do not tell you up front, is that they do not accept all submissions, and they have a fairly arbitrary selection policy. Which is of course, their right, but the About wording seems to indicate an openess that is not actually there.
I am currently signed up with them, and in fact, have a blog there, where I have a number of articles. Searching for it might be tricky. ;-)
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triggerstreet.com - A surprisingly excellent find is a site owned by none other than Kevin Spacey, http://labs.triggerstreet.com/. Free to join, a place to upload your short movie (under 10 mins), your screenplay or your short story. Plenty of resources to help you. It is, in effect, an online festival.
I found joining the site was pretty painless.
How the site works is that you need to write a review for a movie, screenplay or short story, in order to upload one of your own. You can't submit an empty review - they won't accept that, and you actually have to pay attention to what you read or watched, since they will ask you a number of qualifying questions before they will post your review. I like this method, it certainly cuts down on the tire-kickers.
I think this is a very good model, since you are guaranteed your work will be seen by people and reviewed. I noticed that reviews are polite and helpful, with useful suggestions made rather than a bland "Good work, I liked it" or "Man, this sux!" sort of contribution.
Now, the bind is that it puts the onus on YOU to get in there and review, otherwise, no uploads. To me this is a good thing, but to many filmmakers and screenwriters, this is a colossal pain and they will probably feel they don't have time.
From what I've been checking out, I think that Triggerstreet is the best site for hosting your film/screenplay or short story. A site that totally supports the indie filmmaker.
So the bottom line is that you are going to have to try out some of these sites for yourself, but at least you have a few choices.
Louise at MIFF (Mississauga Independent Film Festival)
Louise at MIFF (Mississauga Independent Film Festival)
