Sundance Halts Online Fest Initiative; Short Filmmakers Kept in the Dark by Aggregator Mediastile

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/10/sundance_halts.html

Here's an interesting article about how Sundance has halted their relationship with MediaStyle Inc.

WHY?

Because "the company repeatedly failed to send royalty payments and traffic reports to Sundance directors who screened films online via iTunes, Netflix and XBox LIVE".

Now, I think that this is a VERY important story for you guys out there looking to make money from your feature.

Every company where I worked, the management of process and staff required to maintain reporting and payouts to content licensors was fairly costly. This is because deals usually differ from licensor to licensor. Additionally, licensors get paid differently depending upon HOW their content was sold (i.e. subscription, single purchase, package/bundle purchase) and, in some cases, how much bandwidth was consumed.

When you have hundreds, if not thousands, of various licensors this becomes increasingly complex. Thus, for alot of these companies, they quickly realize that they are trying to bite off more than they can chew when it comes to managing royalties for content licensors.

What this means to YOU, the filmmaker, is that when you give your content to an aggregator such as MediaStile, there is NO GUARANTEE that you will be paid on time, or, in MediaStile's case, AT ALL!!

That, for the lack of a better word, SUCKS! :(

Now, here comes the sameless self-promotion part.. but, hey, it's done to benefit YOU GUYS and protect you from stuff like this.

Having seen this, we at NewFilmmakers Online allow you to get paid IMMEDIATELY, DIRECTLY, to your PayPal account. There is NEVER any waiting for a check to come in the mail and never wondering IF a check will ever come in the mail. When your film is accepted for digital distribution, you:

- Set up a PayPal account (if you don't already have one)
- Configure Instant Payment Notification (IPN) in your PayPal account to point to the NewFilmmakers Online IPN URL
- In your "Configure PayPal" section under "My Account", tell NewFilmmakers Online what your PayPal e-mail address is.

That's it!

No waiting to hit minimums, no waiting for checks, and no fuss. All payments for access to stream, download, and burn your film to DVD go DIRECTLY to you.

So, if you haven't signed up yet with NewFilmmakers Online, and like this feature, give it a try, even if you are already distributing through other aggregators.

One thing we can promise is, you will get paid much quicker using our service! ;)

- Bill