A basic template for the future of streaming movies

There are several sites out there that you can watch free to the viewer streaming video content. They are quite successful in getting sponsorship with that media because the quality is good enough to get people to watch the videos available. Usually they are familiar with them from other sources and advertising.

What I am proposing here is duplicate the already proven methods of driving traffic to a streaming movie or video site, but add to it the social network aspect, because we are talking about working with indy filmmakers.

Let me paint a picture for you.

Say you want to watch a movie, or some short films and you get onto the forum. You'll see some of the titles that are creating a buzz, in whatever format that may be, bloggers talking about a film, articles written about a production or just the name of a filmmaker you know that you want to catch up on. You would in that case click on their profile see the productions they are currently working on, their blogs talking about the films they made in the past and movies or short films they liked, with links to the videos being discussed, right there in the meta data of the text. You could then click on the link and the viewer pops up and starts playing the film or short you were looking for, also right there in the player there will be links back to where you linked from as well as the profile or info page for the filmmaker or production team that created the film.

This is a small part of the web 2.0 experience that I think ultimately people will be looking for, a direct link to comment or email the filmmaker, view their other content and support any projects they may be trying to fund if you should so desire. All in one nice neat little easy to use site with very few distractions and banner ads to clutter things up.

Of course there is the financing aspect that I will get into at another time but it would suffice to say that logically if the viewer got to watch for free the quality of the player was the very best on the web, (I hear cinematographers sigh when I mention 720p streaming with no buffer) and the filmmaker gets paid a majority of the net profit, that this would be a winning proposition all the way around.

The real trick is the involvement of the viewers to blog about streaming movies they liked and create a viewer or reader base with rss feeds and Google clicks that should share in the profits to some degree as well. Anyone with a blog could have a link directly to the film they are recommending and get a "pay-per-click" income stream from the movies promoted on their blog.

Of course I think it would be important for everyone to be able to use the free system to link to their other content on other sites, like if a film is only available on Create Space, Veoh, Miro or Amazon, even a pay-per-view link to the filmmakers own website, there should be no criticism or bias, to linking directly and seamlessly to those.

This is what we are in the process of building and your involvement in the foundation is needed and wanted. You will see the links to the Streaming Indy social network around this and other sites. Go ahead, get involved now when it matters. No one will salute the 10000th member but the 100th that is still a celebration and a comrade won. Help us form web 2.0 for the indy filmmaker if you like what you are reading here and if you don't then tell us about it and make a contribution there that is what it was designed for.
Stay tuned and we'll see you there.