Very recently a Special Edition DVD of my first feature film Makebelieve, dormant since 2000, became available for purchase on Amazon.com. So did my second feature, Still Life, and my third, Ghosts of Hamilton Street. Later this summer, a 2-disc Special Edition Ghosts of Hamilton Street will become available to the worldwide audience that shops on Amazon every day.
How did this happen? Did I suddenly strike gold? Did I find that long-sought, hard-gotten distribution deal that indie filmmakers dream of? Not exactly. On a tip from MicroFilmmaker Magazine, I found a company called CustomFlix, and quickly realized they are one of the more exciting options that independent filmmakers, especially on a micro-budget, have had a in a very long time.
It was my pleasure to ask a few questions of Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of the company.
**[Editor's Note: CustomFlix has been purchased by Amazon.com and is now known as CreateSpace. In addition to films, they now include book and CD printing, which can be a great way to create collector's editions of films. -JH]
MF: First, what exactly is CustomFlix and how did it come to be?
DP: CustomFlix Labs, Inc. was founded in February 2002 with one goal in mind – to profitably connect filmmakers and content owners to a worldwide audience.
CustomFlix was acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. in July 2005 and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. The company’s original founders continue to manage operations today.
With a proven track record of creating solutions for the video industry, the CustomFlix team chose to tackle a new challenge – video distribution. The founders had personally seen the successes and shortcomings of streaming media in the late 1990’s. Today, these experiences fuel CustomFlix’s mission of addressing real world distribution issues that have been solved neither by traditional distribution methods nor through the current incarnations of downloaded media.
To accomplish this mission, CustomFlix marries the speed and flexibility of digital media with the proven customer desire for physical goods, but sidesteps the downside of traditional inventory through on-demand production. At the heart of the CustomFlix services lie the Future-Proof Archive™ service, a secure storage and reformatting platform that repurposes content into future digital formats.
The CustomFlix vision goes beyond DVD-Video to encompass future formats. Our service is a format-agnostic central hub, into which content providers place media for delivery in multiple formats based on customer demand.
Although CustomFlix had the technology and systems to solve the fulfillment piece of the puzzle on its own, the missing component was a direct connection to millions of customers. That need was perfectly met when CustomFlix teamed up with Amazon.com. Together, CustomFlix and Amazon.com provide a complete environment of content owners and tens of millions of customers, connected by a flexible on-demand production and fulfillment system.
MF: I've noticed that the number of services available to independent artists on the site has grown, from CD and DVD on Demand to Amazon Unbox Downloads and more. What services do you currently officer to your customers, and what services do you plan to offer down the road?
DP: Since the company’s inception in 2002, CustomFlix has expanded its service offerings based on demand from our members. We launched the CustomFlix CD on Demand service in September 2006 to serve the music community, as we do for filmmakers with DVD on Demand.
To keep up with our members demand for new technology, we launched our Video Download service through Amazon Unbox in December of 2006. Now, our members have the option of offering their film on DVD, as a video download through Unbox, or both at the same time.
DVD & CD on Demand
The concept behind DVD and CD on Demand is simple: we manufacture discs and provide fulfillment when customers order so no pre-built inventory is needed. Our filmmakers and musicians can start selling their content for a fraction of the cost of traditional distribution, while maintaining unprecedented flexibility and control over their content.
Our members can also make their content available to millions of customers by selling on Amazon.com, through a customizable CustomFlix E-Store, from their own website, or all three channels at the same time.
Unbox Video Download
We recently announced our support for Amazon Unbox - a new digital video download service which allows customers to purchase and download high quality digital videos from Amazon.com.
Unbox is the only video download service to offer DVD-quality videos and the Unbox RemoteLoad™ feature, which allows customers to buy from one PC and download to another. Unbox customers can also stream their Unbox videos to their Microsoft Xbox 360 console to watch on their TV, or view these videos on compatible portable players.
Also, just last week we announced a new component to our Amazon Unbox service called Amazon Unbox on TiVo. This means that our members who signed their titles up for Amazon Unbox, will also be able to make their titles available to TiVo subscribers.
While we cannot talk about future services, we have also announced plans to support all three of the industry’s major high-definition formats - Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, and WMV HD. We currently support WMV HD DVD, and expect the needed technologies for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD to become available this year. Stay tuned…
