case study: NO DANCE shimmies DVD across a new frontier

Emedia Professional, May, 1999 by Maria Misek

every risk presents a unique set of challenges. For the scientist, the engineer, and even the artist, the quest for success--in having your work used, seen, and appreciated--invariably includes the risk of failure or rejection. For independent filmmaker-turned-entrepreneur James Boyd, success meant taking Sir Francis Bacon's advice and making new opportunities out of old ones. The result: the NO DANCE Film & Multimedia Festival.

The story behind NO DANCE is as unique as the films the festival screens. In early 1998, Boyd was promoting his guerrilla film, The New Gods, within the Park City film community as part of a campaign to have it screened at the Slamdance film festival. Unfortunately, the film's producer was also festival director at Slamdance, and the event's organizers decided that previewing The New Gods would present a conflict of interest. As a result, Boyd's entry was removed from consideration and seemingly destined to remain unseen.

Determined to get his film in front of an audience, Boyd quickly organized NO DANCE. Conceived, he recalls, "with a credit card, dumb luck, and the support of other filmmakers," NO DANCE offers filmmakers an alternative venue for promoting their work. Like its competitors (Sundance and Slamdance among them), NO DANCE attracts independent filmmakers who resist the big-name, big-budget glamour of mainstream Hollywood. What really distinguishes NO DANCE from the other Park City festivals, though, is its "do-it-yourself" philosophy for making, promoting, and distributing films. "NO DANCE loudly trumpets the death of film projection and traditional filmmaking methods," Boyd boasts, "and is subverting film projection in favor of DVD and other Internet streaming technologies whenever possible."

In fact, NO DANCE--YEAR TWO--held January 26, 1999--was touted as the world's first DVD festival, screening in its 100-seat DVD Theater more than a dozen shorts and feature-length films that had been converted to DVD.

Among the films screened were Todd Verow's Shucking the Curve--which ultimately won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film; Gregg Cannizzaro's Get a Job, which took home the Audience Award for Best Feature Film; Steven Proto's The Shoe Store, which received the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary; and Shawn Schepps' Group, which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film. Each of the four feature-length films and nine shorts projected in the DVD Theater were encoded to MPEG-2, authored, and output to DVD-R (using Pioneer's DVR-S101 DVD-Recorder) by 6161.com Entertainment, a DVD production and self-distribution house founded in 1995 during production of The New Gods. With monthly Web hits of 30,000 and several digital video development projects in the works, Boyd expects 6161.com's growth to coincide with the ongoing expansion of the DVD market.

But why DVD? To Boyd, DVD is a win-win solution for the independent filmmaker seeking an audience and distribution. "The hype behind the format is substantial and justified, and will revolutionize the indie scene," he predicts. "Very shortly, an indie filmmaker will be able to create a DVD title on the desktop and sell it online at very little expense. Since the films submitted to NO DANCE are mainly looking for exposure, DVD offers a new method of securing distribution as well."

For independent filmmakers seeking distribution any way they can, NO DANCE is a particularly appealing venue. With a limited budget and strong word-of-mouth campaign, festival organizers managed to collect 183 entries and increase attendance by nearly 500 percent over the previous year. Indeed, an advertisement in MovieMaker Magazine and a free classified ad in FilmThreat Weekly drew media attention from CNN, Entertainment Weekly, E! Television, The L.A. Times, Daily Variety, and IndieWIRE, as well as representatives from the William Morris Agency, Sony Studios, and DreamWorks.

What's more, NO DANCE's support of the DVD format has increased its value (both technically and monetarily) as an industry-sponsored event. Since its inception in 1998, NO DANCE has acquired sponsorship from DVD EXPRESS--an online distributor of DVD titles--and Salt Lake City's One-Off CD Shops, a distributor of DVD hardware/software and mass replicator. Says Boyd, "Both companies are extremely supportive of the excitement surrounding DVD projection. It's gratifying to see how this new application is coming from the grassroots level, and raising eyebrows at the studio level is, for me, the greatest thrill."

Currently, Boyd is recruiting sponsors for YEAR THREE and plans to begin soliciting film entries in September. "With NO DANCE," Boyd says, "there are no film versus video requirements The main criteria is a good piece of work, and we'll especially promote young digital filmmakers." Interested filmmakers should visit 6161.com's Web site for more information and an online application.

(DVD EXPRESS, Inc., 7083 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90028; 888/383-9700, 323/465-1271; Fax 323/465-1478; http://www.dvdexpress.com. NO DANCE Film & Multimedia Festival, c/o 6161.com Entertainment, 703 Pier Avenue, Suite 675, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254; 310/939-6269; Fax 310/374-0134; http://www.6161.com/nodance. The One-Off CD Shops, 4910 West Amelia Earhart Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84116; 800/340-1633, 801/531-7585; Fax 801/531-7567; http://www.oneoffcd.com)