The Film Panel Notetaker: Silverdocs 2007 - "What's It Worth": Value vs. Values

When I stopped in at the Silverdocs Cinema Lounge on Saturday, I happened upon the panel discussion "What's It Worth": Value vs. Values. Below are some notes I took. Unfortunately, I missed the final portion of the discussion, because I was heading back over to the AFI/Silver Theater for the Sterling Awards Ceremony. If anyone else was at the panel and would like to submit additional notes, please do so.

DocaGora and International Documentary Conference Wrap

"What’s It Worth": Value vs. Values

Silverdocs Cinema Lounge

June 16, 2007

Peter Wintonick and Neil Sieling, Co-Moderators

Cameron Hickey, Session Producer

Panelists:

Pat Aufderheide - “New Deal 1.5” paper from The Center for Social Media and The Independent Television Service

Tamara Gould - Vice President of Distribution, ITVS

Yvette Alberdingkthijm - Joost Executive Vice President, Content Strategy & Acquisition

Angela Wilson Gyetvan - Revver VP, Marketing and Content

Notes:

Wintonick: The idea behind Docagora is to bring what's best and beautiful about the linear documentary world into the digital age. It's been a quest for me since the mid-1990s to find diverse financing for documentaries from the new world of "now" media. Trying to get festivals, corporations and philanthropic communities to come together.

Sieling: A recent recruit to DocsGora. Works for The Center for Social Media. Did a debate at HotDocs. Introduced the three different presentation at this panel. 1) "New Deal 1.5", 2) Revver.com and 3) Joost [***This is the portion of the panel I missed and if you have notes, you're welcome to submit them]

Aufderheide: The significance of "The New Deal: Verson 1.5, Monetizing and Mission" is how rights negotiations are changing so independent filmmakers can measure their goals against business practices. Worked with ITVS on it. Tamara Gould was the contact at ITVS. Pamphlet is titled "1.5" because there has only been a small change since last year.

Gould: The theme is energy, excitement and confusion about digital platforms versus traditional distribution models. The mission is to fund and bring documentaries to public television, as it is considering how to reach audiences, and to work with PBS to develop ways to reach all audiences across America. Last year, there was a lot of hype from producers about rights without a clear understanding of what they could do with them. "1.5" answers questions like: What can producers expect? What does this mean for independent filmmakers? What kind of revenues can you expect? What expenses? What rights to clear? There's also 164 right terms and distribution platforms such as traditional home video and download-to-own rights. The marketplace is confusing, uncomfortable and unclear, but we recommend you to find partners and experiment to earn a living, make revenues and distribute films to audiences.

Gytevan: Revver.com slideshow presentation:

A unique new chapter in media:
- Monetization and distribution platform for content
- A moderated environment; no copyright infringement
- Open syndication network; Allow content to flow freely around the Internet
- A powerful platform for advertisers

Capitalist Content Democracy – Open system to power the best form video content

Press Coverage – ex) sited in Time Magazine

Who’s Using It? – Best-of-breed creators who want to leverage this new medium

Examples:
- Ask a Ninja (supported by Ask.com)
- My Name is Bill (picked up for a CNN segment)

What’s Unique?
- Content is sticky and safe
- Customize programming
- Share revenue with content creators and syndicators

Unique Open Syndication Network

Unique Dynamic Advertising System

Unique Open API and Blog Plug-Ins:
- “video portal in a box”
- blogging tools – wordpress plug-in

Unique Content Review Process

Rewarding Creativity (Why we exist)