A couple of big things are happening together.

The threshold has flattened for anyone to make quality video, and to distribute it everywhere. For indie filmmakers distribution has always been the bugabear: How do I screen my film for an audience? How do I attract an audience? How do they find me?

No more.

You can create and show a film in a digital chain of custody, straight from a digital videocam to Internet distribution to viewing on a high-def screen.

Vimeo is a high-def self-distribution outlet on the Internet. Anyone can post content on Vimeo, their content on Vimeo is available as a channel on the streaming service Roku, and it’s easy to access. Make a high-def video, post it to Vimeo, which is distributed on Roku, and now it’s on your big-screen 1080P LCD or plasma TV!

Videocam   →  Vimeo   →  Roku   →  High-Def screen.

The audience is everywhere: Roku is an Internet technology. Use social media on the web to alert the public, then “broadcast” your film through Vimeo and Roku.

I recently watched some indie video on a giant plasma screen at a friend’s house, streamed in from Vimeo on Roku. It was CINEMATIC. The video itself was original, fresh and polished. It looked fantastic on the huge smooth screen.

It was clearly made by pro videographers, who probably have day jobs shooting for the commercial/advertising or network/cable worlds. They had complete control of the camera and of the physical material they were shooting.

It was high def digital video. We were watching it together on a big screen, sitting together as an audience cinema-style.

The threshold is flattened. Distribution access is here. Anyone can do this (except for the being Great Filmmakers part).

It’s a new and different place. Here’s what’s shaping up!

High-Def Cam + Vimeo + Roku + High-Def Screen:

–      High-Def screen, demands…
–      High-Def signal (Roku), demands…
–      Fresh content in High Def (Vimeo), demands…
–      Filmmaker/Users (with High-Def videocams)!

Which demands Talent, but that’s another story.