It was only a matter of time...

I love my Apple TV. I blogged about it extensively in my old blog. I was more impressed with what the device could become rather than what it is today but that was reason enough to be excited. It is my hope that someone deep inside the guts of Apple out in Cupertino is working to sign partnerships with not only the "big boys" of the movie world but also the little guys.

My personal dream of movie downloads and rentals would include some kind of partnership with IFC where any new movie debuting on IFC could be downloaded to the Apple TV for a nominal charge. Quiet down, I know what you are about to say: "if you could download content directly to the Apple TV and thus bypass IFC would not the channel starve, go bankrupt and off the air forever?" In my vision of the future, no. Here is why: each movie rental would, in the cost of the rental itself, compensate the film creator, Apple and IFC by splitting the monies collected through iTunes for that rental.

This kind of split compensation must be possible, in fact I don't see how Apple could be signing deals with the big movie houses without such a deal in place. There is no way on Earth that major motion studios would have signed on iTunes without this kind of plan in place so I don't see where the major impediment signing a deal would be. Another nice feature for Indy film fans would be to present collections of movies as presented in film festivals. Personally I would start with Durham's Full Frame Film Festival, but that is clearly showing my bias toward a particular genera, but work with me on this one.

Imagine submitting your movie to a film festival and, along with screening the film during the festival, doing the normal Q&A, etc, you also had the option to make your movie available by iTunes for the Apple TV. When attending a film festival it is impossible to watch each movie that appeals to you as multiple movies are shown in parallel. Wouldn't it be neat if you could watch what you could at the festival then go home and queue up another five or six you did not get to watch and then view those films as your leisure? I think it is a great idea plus the movie maker, and I would presume the festival, would make a little bit of extra money through rental fees.

Movie purchases through a film festival are another thing altogether. Major studios send reps to festivals to try and find "that next big movie" for cheap, so they might not want to make a festival movie available for purchase right away. I'm ok with that; I understand that a self-producer/director might want to hold out "for the big bucks" in the hopes of selling the rights to a big studio, but that should not impede movie rentals. If the festival created enough buzz about a particular movie and the rentals went through the roof that kind of thing might actually help a movie get picked up by a studio. Maybe. It sure would be an easy way to test screen said movie.

A month or six later, if the movie isn't picked up, perhaps the content owner would then want to release the movie directly to iTunes. Perhaps the dream of a major theatrical release would be over but at least the work is out there for millions to rent or purchase. And this wouldn't stop someone like IFC from picking the movie up and showing it on their channel (I wouldn't think).

So go now, Apple TV Independent Movie Content Manager, go and sign those deals. If you fly to Durham to talk with the Full Frame Film Festival I'll buy you lunch at Tyler's, or Cafe Zen, if you prefer sushi. Now you really don't have a reason to pursue the deal!