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DVD, Video and Reaching Audiences

Experiments in Moving-Image Distribution

University of Sunderland, UK

The advent of the internet (as a means of marketing and selling) and DVD (as a delivery medium) has revitalized interest in selling/delivering ‘alternative’ moving image work direct to the public. The potential these avenues offer for reaching wider audiences are proving particularly attractive in the light of the recent UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity. However, similar initiatives were undertaken when VHS took off as a mass delivery medium in the 1980s. This article examines some of the attempts to embrace the video sell-through market in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of getting artists’/independent moving-image work to a wider public. However, these attempts met with mixed results. The reasons for this are discussed, and the article concludes that while digital technology has in some ways made it easier to reach audiences, there are important lessons to be learned from its video precursor, if the potential of DVD and the internet is to be maximized.

Key Words: artists’ and independent film and video • DVD • film and video distribution • marketing and promotion • sell-through video • VHS cassette • video labels

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