It’s the Napster of indie film and it’s finally arrived.
Transmission Films, Inc. has announced the launch of its online film distribution service. Transmissionfilms.com will feature quality independent and foreign films that are hard to find anywhere else.
Founded last summer by filmmaker Richard Matson, producer Stephanie Sharis and software engineer Jed McCaleb, Transmission Films is a unique presence in the burgeoning online film distribution market. Rather than slapping together a random collection of movies of varying quality as many sites do, Transmission Films is a curated library of high-quality films that stays true to a carefully defined niche.
Transmission Films boasts a unique delivery system powered by Edgeburst technology that downloads films to end users at lightning fast speeds. With other online distribution services, users wait hours before they receive their film. Files from Transmission Films not only arrive quickly, they can be viewed full screen or even on a TV screen. Plus, the image quality of the fully copyright-protected files is on par with a DVD.
Thanks to advertisements on McCaleb’s file-sharing networks, Transmission Films already has an active userbase. Since its August 2002 soft launch, over 40,000 members have signed up and over 140,000 visitors check out the site each day. During the Beta Phase, the company fixed technical challenges, surveyed customers, and monitored sales activity in order to ensure an exceptional user experience. The result is a brand new site that guarantees superior navigation and usability.
Transmission Films will now aggressively expand its library of independent and foreign films and forge additional partnerships with top-notch content providers and film festivals. The company already has strategic alliances with industry veteran Northern Arts Entertainment and rising newcomer CAVU Distribution (The Holy Land). Transmission Films’ acquisition strategy will continue to focus on high quality films with film festival buzz and awards, as reflected in its current library which includes “Spectres of the Spectrum” (Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award), “Luna Park” (Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm Nomination), and Japanese cult thriller “Angel Dust.”
Rather than view online distribution merely as a filmmaker’s “court of last resort,” Matson and Sharis wager that it can serve as powerful barometer for the traditional marketplace for films that first prove popular online.
