Posted Mon Jul 2, 2007 at 05:55 AM PDT by
Amazon and Microsoft have announced that they are joining forces to subsidize the authoring of up to 1000 independent films to the HD DVD format.
The unique promotion, dubbed "The 1000 HD DVD Indies Project," will see Microsoft provide free HD DVD authoring services to qualifying independent filmmakers, which Amazon will then package and make available for sale on its website, with royalities flowing back to the filmmaker for each disc sold.
This new HD DVD program is the latest addition to Amazon's CustomFlix CD and DVD service, which produces and ships discs only as they are ordered, eliminating the need for costly inventory. Filmmakers can then set the sale price, and earn royalties for each disc sold.
While CustomFlix has also released select titles on Blu-ray in the past (including the 'Living Landscapes' series), this Microsoft-sponsored promotion is HD DVD specific, as are the accompanying promotional materials.
In quote from the press release announcing the program, Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, co-founder and managing director of CustomFlix had this to say about HD DVD: "From a technical standpoint, we found that the HD DVD format fits our business model perfectly."
Filmmakers interested in more information about the "1000 Indies" program can visit the CustomFlix website for complete details.
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