In an ideal world filmmakers would prefer it if everyone who viewed their movie saw it as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible. The easiest way to reach industry influencers, like movie critics and festival judges, is by sending them a screener copy.
But in this age of technological advancements, so many filmmakers still rely on sending their screeners on physical DVDs by post.
Why is this? We’re as dumbfounded as you are. Digital is the way to go. And we’ll tell you why:
1. Physical is much more expensive than digital
After checking your budget for the umpteenth time, you finally feel confident that you’ve covered every expense. But when it’s time to send out your screener copies to distributors, critics, film festivals and producers, you realise, wait, I’ll need to fork out more money for this.
Loads more.
Sending out screeners on physical DVDs is no small feat. Not only will you have to pay for the empty disc, you’ll have to buy a case and create some form of attractive custom labeling to go along with it.
If you’re a small indie film, sending this to ten, fifteen people can easily increase expenditure by several thousand if you include the price of watermarking your copies and shipping them out.
Digital distribution through a service like Screener Copy will not only cost you much less per copy, it has the added benefit of digital watermarking ensuring the safe delivery of your film to its intended recipients.
2. Physical copies can get lost; digital copies not
The problems with postal services aside, sending your film on a physical disc via any third party carries the risk of it getting lost. Once you drop off the DVD copy of your movie, you have no control of where it goes to from there or who handles it.
Cut out the middle man. Distribute digitally and know your film will never get lost along the way.
3. Going digital equals knowing where your film ends up
Even if your screener made it to its intended recipient successfully, where does it go from there? There’s no way of knowing if you sent a physical copy. While that movie producer or film critic might look all trustworthy, who’s to say he’s not giving his copy of the movie to all his mates to watch?
Or worse: uploads it to the internet for the world to download – for free.
Digital distributors like Screener Copy helps combat this by sending each intended recipient a unique version of your movie, each with their own private and password protected viewing link.
So, should it end up on torrent sites, you’ll know who to blame by tracing the copy back to its original recipient.
4. Physical copies can circulate forever
From a business point of view, sending out free copies of your movie and having them around forever makes no sense. One of the biggest drawbacks of sending your screener copies on DVD is that the recipients can keep them forever.
Digital distribution makes the film available for a predetermined period, be it a week, month, or year. After that period expires, that executive, movie critic or film festival judge will have to set off to their local cinema like everyone else to watch the film again.
5. Digital = excellent quality. Always
Film distribution technology has come a long way since the days of VHS tapes. But with HD streaming and services like iTunes and Netflix, distributing your film on DVD discs means you’re sacrificing quality.
Screeners burned onto DVDs are forever stuck in low-resolution standard-definition quality and only a small handful are sent in better quality Blu-ray, a step that will just add more to your overhead costs. Guarantee the best viewing experience for your intended recipient by sending your movie digitally and in full high definition, the next best thing to viewing it on the big screen.
Need further proof that digital distribution is the way to go? Head over here to try it for yourself. For free!
