YouTube Sets Up 'Screening Room' for Independent Filmmakers
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Google Inc.'s YouTube is setting up a virtual screening room to bring the work of independent filmmakers to a global audience.
Struggling filmmakers already use YouTube to kick-start viral marketing campaigns. The new feature, which debuts Wednesday, gives them an easy-to-find home — and makes them partners in drawing new ad revenue.
"Hopefully as they see thousands of people watching their films, it's going to be a very eye-opening experience," said Sara Pollack, YouTube's film and animation manager.
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• Click here for the YouTube Screening Room.
The screening room will highlight four new films a week, picked by a YouTube editorial panel.
Submissions are welcomed. The panel also will scour film festivals and work with partners such as the Sundance Channel to identify prospects.
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Among the first eight titles to be showcased are "Love and War," a stop-motion puppet movie by a Swedish director; the Oscar-nominated short "I Met The Walrus," about an interview with John Lennon; and "Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?" by performance artist Miranda July.
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Filmmakers can choose to have a "Buy Now" button attached to their work for sales of DVDs or digital copies. They will also collect a majority share of ad revenue generated from views of their work.
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YouTube said people whose clips regularly attract a million viewers can make several thousand dollars a month.
The bigger prize can be exposure.
When YouTube featured the nine-minute short "Spider" by Nash Edgerton in February, it became the fifth-best selling short on iTunes, Pollack said.
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The creators of the full-length feature "Four Eyed Monsters," Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, got their break when more than a million YouTube views helped land them a TV and DVD distribution deal, she said.
"They ended up doing really, really well, ironically by putting their film online for free," Pollack said.