Set in lower Manhattan, Purple Violets is a relationship comedy about four friends from college ready for change. But perhaps more importantly, this marks the first time a full-length motion picture will premiere exclusively on iTunes.
Written and directed by Ed Burns, the film was screened at New York's Tribeca Film Festival. But even though Violets drew positive reviews from critics and attendees it only received lukewarm offers from distributors.
"The specialized movie business has changed so dramatically in the last five years," Burns said. "My style of filmmaking is dying on the vine. These small, talky movies have a hard time finding an audience theatrically, so you need to adapt. There are still people who want to see this nontraditional type of film, and now there are nontraditional ways to get them out there."
All of which lead him to Apple.
Apple has had difficulties getting the major studios to provide content for iTunes, primarily because of the online store's fixed pricing policies and because most studios didn't want to cede to Apple the same control over their industry that it had gained over the music industry selling billions of songs and millions of iPods.
Presently, the major studios selling through iTunes are limited to Disney, MGM, Lionsgate and Paramount, with just under 1,000 movies listed. This leaves out some of the most important studios, such as Fox and Universal. In fact, Universal has complained loud and long about the iTunes business model and the lack of control it gave studios over their own content.
Negotiations worsened to the point where NBC Universal recently decided to pull its network programming from the iTunes store, including the popular series Heroes. NBC indicated that their shows accounted for 40% of Apple's iTunes TV revenues, and that Apple "made too much money on them" (30 cents on the dollar).
In a move to reverse this trend, Apple began selling shorts nominated for the Academy Awards last year, and it distributed about half of the Sundance Film Festival shorts this year. iTunes is an attractive outlet for short filmmakers, who have not typically had a means to make money on their output.
Apple also recently released Hotel Chevalier, a prequel short film and promotional vehicle for the movie The Darjeeling Limited. According to sources, "Chevalier" was downloaded more than 400,00 times.
Personally, I'd like to see a lot more of this. Not only does it help convince the studios that Apple is not to be taken lightly in their industry, but it also gives filmmakers and directors an audience for more creative works than the watered-down mass-market follow-the-leader fare typically seen out of Hollywood.
As Burns indicates, not every movie can be a blockbuster. Nor should it be. But he hopes that with the buzz created by releasing through Apple he can reach the type of "long-tail" audience he believes to be out there.
Enough to help make Violets a success.
Purple Violets stars Selma Blair, Ed Burns, Debra Messing and Patrick Wilson and was produced by Wild Ocean Films. It will appear exclusively on iTunes through its first month of release before moving into other distribution channels.
[visit the Purple Violets website]
I downloaded it and watched it last night. Pretty good.
Posted by: John Jacobs | November 21, 2007 at 05:09 AM