how to get your movie online

[Miss NWA Whoorider]

The purpose of making movies is to reach an audience; to make them laugh, make them cry or make them jump so high they throw their popcorn over the two rows behind them. However the sad truth is that many films fail to find their audience. There may only be a cast and crew screening and a couple of festival appearances before all your hard work is relegated to a single line on your CV or a short clip on a showreel. Films die without distribution.
If like many new film-makers you work on short films the chances of traditional distribution are almost non-existent. Ever lengthening features and the cinema's desire to speed up their turnaround* has squeezed short films out of the cinema. What little space there is for shorts on TV has either been swallowed up by cheap TV shows or has already been earmarked for existing commissions (apart from FilmFour who deserve a round of applause for keeping the life support switched on for shorts). So far, so depressing.
Exiled from the cinema, short films have headed off for new territories and are finding a new audience on the internet. As connection speeds increase and file compression improves, distributing and presenting films on the internet is becoming increasingly viable. Your short films can now be seen by a worldwide audience 24 hours a day. Internet film festivals and web cinemas are signing up shorts for distribution deals offering an online presence whilst actively promoting films to TV networks, airlines and on video/DVD. The arrival of broadband (bigger pipes, more information, better pictures) promises a medium that can rival, or surpass, television.
There are two methods of getting your movie online, and forward-thinking film-makers should exploit both. Online festivals and web cinemas offer you the chance of showing your film to a wide audience (and possibly making some money), but web cinemas do not sign up every film and festivals don't last forever. Build a permanent online presence for your film and you can provide the best viewing experience, together with supplementary information and whilst allowing your audience to contact you directly.
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The Basic Process
1. Digitize -If your movie has been edited on a non-linear system it already exists as a digital file so skip this step. Film prints need to be telecined to video. Videos should be digitized onto a hard disk using a computer equipped with a capture card (read Non-Linear Editing for more info).
2. Compress - The original movie file, probably in the order of hundreds, if not thousands of megabytes, is too large to transfer effectively over the internet. Your movie needs to be compressed to a file format that is designed for internet delivery. Popular formats include Quicktime, Realvideo and MPEG-1. Use the 'Save As...' option in a non-linear editing program such as Adobe Premiere, or invest in professional packages such as Media Cleaner Pro. Upgrading to Quicktime Pro allows movies to be saved out using different formats and Realvideo offer the authoring tool RealProducer as a free download from their site.
3. Upload - Now you have your finished file you need to upload it to a webserver so that it can be viewed across the web. Companies such Geocities offer free website hosting (with adverts) or you go the whole hog and buy a domain name with webspace. Promote your domain name heavily. Get it tattooed on your forehead and include it on all other media (articles, posters, T-shirts etc.) to entice an audience to your site
The process of getting your movie on the web is simple enough (its only a file), but its vital that its done effectively.
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Top tips for presenting internet video
Web Video Done Well
Evan Mather's excellent site (www.evanmather.com) features a selection of his unique web movies including The Qui-Gon Jinn Show (an action figure take on Episode I and The Truman Show) and Buena Vista Flight Club (where a trio of musicians go on a bloody rampage). Evan provides downloads in Quicktime, Realvideo and Windows Media Format and the site is illustrated with screenshots and information on the making of the movies.
The site also includes a not entirely serious manifesto for online digital shorts. The dogma demands that web shorts have...
"... no dialogue ... no narration ... length of credits may not exceed 1/20 the length of the film ... nonverbal human or animal utterances are permitted..."
Evan describes his site as the result of "Lack of oxygen to the brain".
Make your first shot interesting - Your audience might be looking at it for a long time as the movie loads. If your films starts on a fade in from black don't leave the audience sitting looking at an empty screen, they will think the plugin has broken. Add a single title frame of something interesting. Quicktime offers poster movies where single high quality JPEG frames can be added at the start of movies.
Tell your audience how big the file is - and provide an estimated download time at different connection speeds. This way they know if they have enough time to get the popcorn in before the show starts.

[Miss NWA Whoorider]

Provide a range of file types for different connection speeds and different players - QuickTime offers multiple data rate movies that play different files depending on the viewer's connection speed. If your movie is offered in each of the popular file formats viewers are more likely to have the appropriate player. Provide links through to the sites where viewers can download players if they don't have them (and cross your fingers that they will come back and watch your film).
If your movie is long provide viewers with an option to download the movie in segments. There is a wariness of downloading large files. Divide your movie up into chapters with sensible names and thumbnail screenshots of the action. Ideally make each segment less than 1.4Mb so they can be stored on a floppy disk.
Surround your movie with additional information on the page - As your movie downloads keep the audience interested by providing background details on your production. A synopsis of the film, screenshots of the action, positive reviews and info. on any awards it has won. Include thumbnail biographies and contact details for cast and crew so that viewers impressed with their work can get in touch.
Use a codec optimized for delivering good quality at a low bit rate - There are different methods of shrinking the size of video files called "compressor-decompressors", or 'codecs' each designed for different purposes eg. DVD, CD-Rom etc. Some are specifically designed for the low data rates on the internet eg. Quicktime's Sorenson codec and Realvideo.
Keep the movie's file size down - Waiting for long downloads is painful at the best of times. If your audience has to wait ten minutes and your movie sucks they will hate you. To decrease file size lower the frame rate and/or decrease the image size and number of colours displayed. The frame rate can drop to about 15 frames per second and still be acceptable. Detailed images result in a larger file size. By reducing sharpness slightly and decreasing the contrast the file will compress better. After Effects and Media Cleaner can be used to blur less vital areas of the image to decrease the file size.
Make every second of every shot count - it costs your audience (time and money). Re-edit your film if necessary - it will pay dividends in the end. With so many other movies vying for the attention of your audience you have to deliver quickly.
Choose your shots specifically for the internet - Wide shots can leave the audience guessing what is going on. Subtlety is lost. As the movie's screen is small close-ups are more effective, especially if a detail is important such as the look on an actor's face.
Choose shots that compress well - Favour images that will work well with the codec such as large blocks of colour, talking head shots and locked off tripod shots. Avoid lots of movement, complex patterns and constant cutting. Of course this is not always possible and is limiting on the film, but it is something to keep in mind if your film is destined for the internet.
Avoid fancy transitions - Try and use straight cuts. Dissolves and fades increase the file size and as the codecs struggle to make sense of them look terrible.
Have clean clear sound - Concentrate on making sure that the audio is compressed well. Balance the payoff between file size and quality. Bad audio can ruin a good film., as some codecs tend to make audio sound like its been recorded down a toilet by a team of gargling aliens. Keep the audio simple. Quicktime has audio codecs designed to favour voices (Qualcomm PureVoice) and music (QDesign Music). Be careful at low frame rates as you can lose lip sync, turning your delicate drama into a bad kung fu flick.
Make sure you have full copyright clearance for all material in your movie - Get signed releases from actors, location releases and music releases. That way you are secure if lawyers start knocking on your door.
Don't include credits - Small scrolling credits digitized from a video copy are impossible to read and unnecessarily bulk up the movie's file size. Instead make your final frame informative. Include your name, email address and the URL of your website. Chris Carter is well known as the creator of the X-Files precisely because his name is the first thing we see after the fade to black. The viewer can choose to read the credits on your website if interested. Chris Morris' TV comedy Jam recently included a link to its site (www.jamcredits.com) at the end of the show. Alternatively Quicktime allows users to combine codecs so that Flash (an animation package that produces very small file sizes) can be used to produce credits
*(the time it takes you to get your hotdog in hand into the stalls, through the ads and trailers, watch the movie and back out onto the street)

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Are you retarded?


You probably took 30 years (Yes people, she's that old) to right this shit, and not one person is gunna read it...

[Nosak]

Are you retarded?


You probably took 30 years (Yes people, she's that old) to right this shit, and not one person is gunna read it...

lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll dawm!!!!

[Sub-Z]

lol fa real,read all the other topics ruthless made they are all just as long

[Sikotic™]

Whoorider has alot of time on her hands.

You shoulda wrote a book about that shit.

[bLaDe]

haha yea dawm ... but y would sumone write lal that shit???

[maxi-padz]

for pplz benefit

[Miss NWA Whoorider]

because I wanted you guys to see how simple and complicated what Dre,Snoop and Cube are doing duh........that and I have a project that I am doing on my page.........