Filmmakers looking to raise funds to complete their movies may want to look at BitTorrent. The file sharing software company and streaming network has created a special fund which will award content creators for releasing their projects online.
“We back creators. We don’t buy content. Because music and film is more than that. Because outside voices need to be heard.” - BitTorrent Discovery Fund Announcement
Originally the domain of video and music piracy, BitTorrent has sought to remake itself into a high impact release platform that gives content creators direct distribution to fans. “Our mission is to empower diverse, original, and outside voices,” says BitTorrent.
These days, the site is home to 30,000 creators including musicians, filmmakers, photographers, artists, and game developers, all of whom seek to distribute their works outside of the traditional Hollywood machine. That has a never ending series of gate keepers, and if you surpass those, you could very well end up losing control of your project.
With BitTorrent, users are their own distributor. Already, the company has created their own independent-minded Netflix alternative called BitTorrent Now. With it, the company is offering content creators 70% of all ad revenues and 90% of direct sales through online purchases. Now they will add to it with the BitTorrent Discovery Fund, which offers up to $2.5 million in awards for original work.
Looking for what the company calls “outside voices consisting of filmmakers, artists and musicians,” the BitTorrent Discovery Fund will help with cash awards and marketing support in order to expose new fans to “uncompromising and original work” released through the BitTorrent Now file sharing network.
The awards will be given to 25 select projects and will range from $2500-100,000. The best part is, that artists don’t have sign away any rights to their work, nor is there an application fee, and you don’t have any set deadline to get your application in. This is interesting because the fund operates on an “open rolling call” basis thereby allowing artists to apply for the awards when their project is ready for release.
Already BitTorrent has announced its first project funded through the Discovery Fund, a collection of 5 short films wrapped around a single theme of dreams called collective unconscious. That film was critically acclaimed at the South by SouthWest Film Festival.
To apply, content creators must provide the following information:
- Project description (3 pages or less): Tell us about what you are working on.
- Team description (3 pages or less): Introduce yourself, your team, and any similar work you’ve done.
- Release description (3 pages or less): Lay out a clear, specific timeline with your goals and budget.
- Sample references: Provide sample work from the team and/or similar references to your project.
- Acceptance of terms: Download Terms & Conditions and include a signed copy with the rest of your application (available here).
- Send everything to [email protected].
BitTorrent says that it will take about 8 weeks for awards to be approved and processed.
For more information, visit here.
So what’s my take on this? BitTorrent is working overtime to overcome the reputation of being a haven of piracy by transforming it into a viable distribution arm. In time, it may end up emerging like a butterfly from its Chrysalis like cocoon. But I think that time isn’t quite there yet. It is for the kind of artists that BT is trying to court, to be sure. The benefit of being able to spread out the bandwidth impact of downloading and streaming through the entire internet is an attractive one. But file sharing still exists, and until that perception is put to bed, BT is always going to be it’s own worst enemy.
But, any time an artist can get their project made with a new source of revenue and then get help promoting and distributing it is a good thing.
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