Filming with the full-size train and the Mustang

Today I want to explain a little about Distrify, the on-demand video platform which Going to Hell: The Making of Soul Searcher is now hosted on.

When selling films on-demand on the internet became a reality a few years ago, it wasn’t that different to other modes of distribution. The filmmaker licensed the exclusive IP (internet protocol) rights to their film to the platform – Joost, Babelgum, whatever – and it was then largely up to the platform to bring in the traffic. The platform then took a big slice of the financial pie and passed the dregs onto the filmmaker.

But in the last couple of years a different model has emerged, championed both by Distrify and Dynamo Player amongst others. Their set-up is more a like a YouTube with money. You upload your film to their site, you embed the film on your own site and wherever else you want, you drive traffic to it, and they take a relatively small cut of the money the film makes. No exclusivity, no middle men, no chasing sales reports – just log in and check the stats.

Distrify in particular has two unique features that appealed to me.

Firstly, the Distrify player doesn’t just allow the viewer to watch a free trailer and pay to stream the whole film if they like what they see; it lets you sell anything you want – other films (perhaps behind-the-scenes featurettes), downloads of films or any type of file, or physical objects which you mail to the buyer like you would with eBay.

Secondly, Distrify encourages people to promote your film by giving them a cut of the profits; anyone who shares your film by embedding it on their website, posting on Facebook, etc, etc, gets a percentage of the money the film earns through this embed/post/whatever.

So what this means in practice is: if you click the Share button in the player below you can earn yourself some easy cash – a 10% cut for doing pretty much nothing….

Filming the recalcitrant model train

Two days to go until Soul Searcher is unleashed to watch in full for free. Simultaneously, Going to Hell: The Making of Soul Searcher will be released on Distrify to stream online for just £2.95.

Going to Hell is a 90 minute documentary which tells the whole tortured story of Soul Searcher’s production. This is not your typical “HBO First Look” style programme. It is not filled with actors explaining the plot of the film you’ve just watched and patting each other on the back. It’s a no-holds-barred, warts-and-all record of the many ups and downs (mostly downs) of the production. It’s like Lost in La Mancha, only Soul Searcher somehow got finished.

I was delighted to discover that Raindance selected Going to Hell as one of its top six documentaries about filmmaking, alongside such towering classics of the genre as the aforementioned Lost in La Mancha and Heart of Darkness. Read the article here.

Here’s the official Going to Hell synopsis:

In April 2002, writer-director Neil Oseman and writer-producer James Clarke set out to make an ambitious fantasy-adventure movie.  Telling the story of an ordinary guy who is trained to be the new Grim Reaper, Soul Searcher requires martial arts, countless special effects and a climactic chase between a 1973 Ford Mustang and an express train to Hell.
  Despite the pair’s optimism and over a year of development work, they are unable to raise financing for the project.  Oseman decides to go ahead with the film on a shoestring budget, and although Clarke has reservations, he agrees.

In October 2003 they begin a six week shoot, taking place almost entirely at night, with an unpaid cast and crew.  They have just £7,000 in the bank.
  The shoot quickly becomes a nightmare with freezing temperatures, props that fall apart and a malfunctioning camera. 

Filming on the roof of The Courtyard

But the problems are just beginning.  Two weeks in, Clarke quits, leaving Oseman and his heroic Assistant Director Ed Reed to carry the project.  The schedule overruns, exhausting cast and crew as they shoot from 5pm to 9am more than once.


As post-production arrives, the troubles continue.  Reed drops out, the money is long gone and there are 250 FX shots to complete, not to mention that Oseman is dead-set on recording the score with a real orchestra.  Can he complete what may just be the most ambitious movie ever made on a five figure budget?

Also from Monday, for £3.95 you’ll be able to rent the deluxe edition of Going to Hell, which includes some invaluable “how to” featurettes for any indie filmmaker covering low tech FX, lighting, martial arts, props and sound design. That’s almost two and a half hours of content for less than £4 – bargain!