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Sundance Institute Artist Services Program Expands Self-Distribution Opportunities

Posted Thursday, April 12th, 2012 - Comments Off on Sundance Institute Artist Services Program Expands Self-Distribution Opportunities
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For Immediate Release

April 11, 2012

Participating Independent Filmmakers Can Now Make Their Films Available on:

Microsoft Xbox │ SnagFilms │ Sony Entertainment Network’s Video Unlimited service │ VUDU

Agreements Continue with:

iTunes │ Amazon Instant Video │ Hulu │ Netflix │ SundanceNOW │ YouTube

Los Angeles, CA — Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, today announced that the Institute’s Artist Services program has expanded to include four additional platforms and storefronts on which Institute-supported artists can make their work available to the public. New agreements with Microsoft Xbox, SnagFilms, Sony Entertainment Network’s Video Unlimited service and VUDU complement existing relationships with iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, Netflix, SundanceNOW and YouTube. Films will be available this summer on the platforms and storefronts announced today.

The Artist Services program provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work. Since the program launched in January 2011, more than $1.8 million has been raised for Institute artists via Kickstarter and 13 films are now accessible by the public on a variety of platforms and storefronts (for a full list of titles and where they are available, visit www.sundance.org/nowplaying).

“Audiences are accessing independent films via a range of platforms and storefronts, which speaks to the need for filmmakers to make their work available in a variety of ways,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute. “Beyond that, the more options we’re able to offer our filmmakers, the better able they are to customize their self-distribution programs and work towards individual goals for their films.”

These deals were structured and negotiated by the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, which has generously provided pro bono legal services and built the legal framework for the Artist Services program and participating filmmakers since its inception.

Putnam noted, “The truly unique structure of agreements crafted by O’Melveny & Myers through the Artist Services initiative provides our filmmakers with the tools they need to explore self-distribution opportunities and work towards independent, sustainable careers.”

New Video® is the exclusive aggregation partner for distribution across all portals participating in the Artist Services program. The Artist Services initiative is made possible by The Bertha Foundation.

Sundance Institute Artist Services

Launched in January 2011, the Artist Services program provides Sundance Institute artists with opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing opportunities. Leading digital rights aggregator New Video handles licensing, encoding, delivery and accounting on behalf of filmmakers. The Sundance Institute Artist Services initiative is made possible by The Bertha Foundation. O’Melveny & Myers generously provided pro bono legal services for the program. www.sundance.org/artistservices

Sundance Institute

Sundance Institute is a global nonprofit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Through its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, composers and playwrights, the Institute seeks to discover and support independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work. The Institute promotes independent storytelling to inform, inspire, and unite diverse populations around the globe. Internationally recognized for its annual Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Born into Brothels, Trouble the Water, Son of Babylon, Amreeka, An Inconvenient Truth, Spring Awakening, I Am My Own Wife, Light in the Piazza and Angels in America. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon