18/06/2012 - Works from Hitchcock, Greenaway, Jarman to be available

Online distributor Distrify has joined hands with the British Film Institute to create a web showcase for the BFI Production Board Collection, that includes 300 films that were co-funded by the BFI from 1950-2000, and as short films acquired after 2000, from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Greenaway, Derek Jarman and Terence Davies.

The company was founded by Peter Gerard and Andy Green and follows an innovative system where their native video player is embedded into users’ social media pages, enabling video on demand for a fee.

Gerard said, “You can choose to follow the recommendations of your favourite film critic, or follow your friends’ favourites from the collection. Anyone can set up their own collection and share it with the world, earning kudos and cash for recommending films that you love. Imagine you discovered an amazing British film from the 1960s - you are going to tell your friends about it, and via Distrify, you earn cash for sharing it legally.”

Distrify’s expansion strategy is aggressive. They say in a statement to filmmakers: “Imagine that your film is a nail. Distrify is the hammer. You need to hammer your film with Distrify in order to make sales. We won’t do the work for you. You know your audience better than anyone else and all you need to do is ask them to start embedding and sharing your film with the Distrify video player.”

It would appear that the approach is working, as Distrify have acquired more than 600 films since the beginning of 2012.