Last month, the beginning of the short films of DEIDOX launched along with their website. These stories are a great combination of documentary film and Christian media.

My interaction with the Brent Gudgel and Dave Mahanes at Chronicle Project (CP) started almost a year ago and it wasn’t until May that we started kicking around the idea of working together on a web portal that would be different than a lot of other short film download sites.

“These stories help us focus on something bigger than ourselves.” – Brent Gudgel

Early on I was able to see their business plan and being in the same suite of offices got to enjoy the ups and downs along the way to last months launch. This was a great project to work with because we were able to really collaborate on the site. Having worked previously together and continually with Union Rescue Mission’s Stories from Skid Row helped establish a great work flow and exchange of ideas.

In October we really went to work talking about the features they’d like the site to have and came to the conclusion that since Chronicle Project has had great success with Dear Francis (Heartland Film Festival Crystal Heart, Best Documentary at NY AIDS festival) The site had to convey and be on par with the kind of work that they do. We set about making a laundry list of features including making the focus and experience of the site highly visual.

Their initial idea was to develop a site that allowed for easy access, distribution and download the short films that they’d be creating. We took a look at other sites that were distributing on a massive scale in the faith based community (Sermon Spice, Worship House Media, Bluefish.tv) and while they were hitting a massive audience the choice was made to self distribute and augment the process through publicity and working network/contacts for awareness.

In similar fashion to Independent music, independent film (specifically shorts) don’t have a lot of options. Both iTunes and Amazon.com distribute video but unless you’re a major studio, there isn’t an option for distribution due to the length of the piece. What we eventually decided was to use e-junkie.com as a cart due to the fact that they allow a really flexible checkout solution and allow for digital downloads hosted on their servers.

Throughout the process of development, two companies were tapped for their expertise. Domestic Equity, based in Orange County and East Coast based Outthink Group. Prior to this project I’d worked with Greg Crosariol’s design in updating the CP website to be database driven on their back end. Greg is really amazing at conveying different looks and feels with his work. When I saw his design/look/feel of DEIDOX.com I thought it conveyed where the films were headed and communicated to the audience that would be checking out the site. He thought through so much of what would be needed that it was really a joy to work with.

Outthink Group has consistently been my right arm for web development in making the impossible happen. My favorite part about working with them is that they anticipate problems and get really involved in their projects. Tim Grahl was fantastic in bending javascript to his will, making the complex move simply and for general miracles.

Every project has it’s own unique problems/opportunities and since this process was blazing a trail in a cross platform melding of the professional film world, faith based communities and self distribution there was a fair amount to get past. We decided to harness the power of Vimeo HD (I think it’s the best player on the web) and showcasing the trailers by giving them a whopping 900×500 pixels of space above the fold. Everything on this site is designed to engage the viewer with video. Last years reports on web traffic said that 60% of traffic was viewing video; furthering the idea that if a picture tells a thousand words, video tells hundreds of thousands.

Also part of the genius in this business plan/model is the “pay-what-you-want” element. Where the music industry went wrong 10 years ago is where the independent film community can go right. There’s an important balance between having value on your work and creating product that is quality. This way you can see what you’re getting for a relatively low buy in ($2.99 or less) and enjoy the films at lo-resolution for your iPod, iPhone, etc. The dangerous part for the CP guys is the great trust they’re putting in their audience. I totally applaud them for this move but if the support isn’t there.. they won’t be making anymore of these films. Other price points for the SD and HD versions are $19.99 and $24.99 respectively.

DEIDOX.com was a great project to be involved in and I think the guys from Chronicle Project are doing some powerful things with film – check it out.

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