This morning, I woke to a Forbes article with a mention of the film and our “theatrical-at-home” model. I admit to getting a little teary. For some reason, validation in a business trade makes me feel like we’ve hit upon something special, and I’ll admit it’s something I have always aspired to. Several other distributors are now coming on board to offer their own streaming services with their films — Kino Lorber is featured in this Forbes article. This is good news for theaters, and hopefully the revenue shares will alleviate some of the strain caused by COVID closures. I’m guessing this model may last awhile, in a revised form, even after all the theaters reopen. Hopefully it will mean we all win — theaters, audiences, filmmakers and distributors.
Today was more low-key. Our streaming site “mostly” worked. I spent most of the day setting up Zendesk for support tracking. That relieved a huge burden, allowing issues to be tracked without me and not be devoured by my Inbox.
By the end of the day, 11PM — I finally cleaned up the login process so it makes sense. I will admit, it did NOT make sense and so many poor people were lost trying to find the screening link in their account. Embarrassing!
There were some video buffering issues today with Saturday night shelter-at-home viewers all using bandwidth. Yesterday, I started on CloudFlare, then moved to Vimeo — neither of which I’ve been happy with. Tomorrow we will try JW Player. I’ve known about that for years and used it in 2010 for Calvin Marshall. At that time, the streaming quality was good but the player was clunky. Now it seems to be top of the line in all respects.
I’m hoping that the updated sign-up process & improved playback will create a better experience for everyone. Next week’s plan is to create a TV app!
Topping off today, my Dad saw clips from the film featured on Fox Newswhile he watched from his armchair.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings. The plan is to improve playback and functionality.
We are also setting up more theaters for this week and next weekend.
Thanks to everyone who has watched!
♡ Annie