B-Side Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While the options for indie-film distribution and exhibition are improving, it's still difficult for feature-length films to find larger audiences outside the festival circuit. IFC and B-Side have both been making distribution deals with lesser-known, lower-budget indie films in the past couple of years, and now they're uniting to give even better chances of success to those films. Variety has the details on the partnership the companies have made together.

If you're a regular film-fest attendee, you might have used B-Side's festival web application to schedule your movie selections, and maybe rate and review the films you saw at the fest. IFC and B-Side will examine those ratings and statistics to figure out which films audiences liked most at festivals -- and if the films don't have distribution elsewhere, may buy the distribution rights themselves. The films would then get airtime on IFC as well as online distribution through B-Side, which started offering DRM-free movie downloads on their site earlier this summer.

The first film to receive this new distribution option will be the 2006 documentary Before the Music Dies. B-Side bought the distribution rights last year, and the doc about the music industry is already available on the B-Side website to purchase as a download or DVD. Now the Forest Whitaker-narrated film will be aired on IFC early next year. The Variety article notes that this partnership is with the television division of IFC, which means that these deals will not necessarily include theatrical distribution. Still, getting time on IFC is a great deal for festival favorites that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle.

[via IndieWIRE]

B-Side Entertainment is perhaps best known to film fest regulars as the company behind the online scheduling application found on many festival Web sites -- I've used their calendars for several film festivals in Austin alone. However, the company has also ventured into movie distribution, and offers a number of festival favorites to download and watch online, or to purchase on DVD. The files are DRM-free, too, which is a plus since it's one less thing to worry about. The movie downloads on B-Side are quite affordable, but they aren't free ... well, except for the next week or so.

To lure you over to their site, B-Side is currently offering a free movie download to each person who registers for a new account on their site. You can download one movie at iPod resolution, choosing from feature-length films like The Outdoorsmen and Before the Music Dies, or cool narrative and documentary shorts. If you'd prefer to watch the film at a higher resolution or buy a DVD, B-Side will give you a comparable discount on those prices. I just downloaded Pirate Radio USA, which I saw at Austin Film Festival last year. The iPod-resolution movie is obviously not on a large screen size, but the movie looked and sounded clear on my desktop monitor. I've been wanting to share this movie with some friends, and am glad that B-Side is able to offer it distribution through this alternate model. I'll be interested to see how successful the B-Side distribution efforts will be.

The SXSW Film Festival has a screening schedule posted on the official SXSW site with the usual SXSW calendar program that allows you to make your own schedule. You then can port your schedule to iCal or Mozilla Sunbird. But for those filmgoers who want a different kind of calendar setup, B-Side and Austinist have teamed together to post an alternate (and unofficial) SXSW film festival site, called the SXSW Other Side Guide. If you're a frequent film festival attendee, you might have used B-Side's calendars for other fests and like me, already have an established account. Last year, I used B-Side calendars at aGLIFF, Austin Film Festival and Fantastic Fest so I'm well acquainted with the way the site works.

B-Side is offering inducements for you to try their calendar service: the first 50 people to build schedules on the SXSW Other Side Guide site and the first 100 to post reviews there will get B-Side t-shirts. And everyone who posts three or more reviews there becomes eligible to win one of four film badges for SXSW 2008. Although SXSW hasn't started yet, you can post reviews of movies you've seen already. The B-Side festival sites are meant to encourage interaction from participants -- you can rate and review movies, see other users' reviews and ratings, and even import reviews from a blog site if you have one. I like seeing the list of top films that people have added to their schedules, too, because I'm nosy that way. Even if you have a schedule set up already on the SXSW site or elsewhere (mine is currently in Google Calendar), the unofficial site is fun to visit and use.