I work in a very small industry, supplying content to a niche market, which is populated by even small niche markets. The industry in which I work is that of surf movie production. I am interested in distribution and the increasing ability to narrowcast to a niche audience.

Distribution and the striking of a good distribution deal seem to determine the financial success or failure of a lot of projects. Particularily within my own practice a good distributor who will pay a fair price and actually deliver that money according to the terms of your agreement is a great asset, but unfortunately hard to come by.

In my eyes it would be great to cut out a lot of the money running around when dealing with distributors and allow content producers access to funds as they are paid by the consumer, effectively cutting out the middleman. The internet and pervasive digital technologies offer great scope for the delivery and distribution of a niche product straight to its intended consumer, which would make my practice sustainable and when working as a co-op of like minded content producers, support a whole niche industry of creatives who just want to share the joy of what they are documenting.

So is it possible for creatives to take control of distribution?

This first assignment is about looking back to understand how we have got to this present situation. What factors have determined the nature of, how content and format have changed as a result of, changes in distribution.

The first thing to do is to identify when and where the surf movie industry began and then the critical incidents that led to its development in terms of distribution, content and format. These incidents will probably be a mixture of technological and social factors, but i will keep an open mind to other influences.

I will continue my analysis and shaping of the assignment on numbered & dated pages entitled: Retrospective

Please feel free to have a browse and comment.

Hello out there, this is my first ever blog, which must sound pretty lame to some of you, but it is exciting for me. I hope to share with you my thoughts on distribution, content and format, with reference to the surf movie industry. It is just a small industry, but very relevent to me as this is how I make my meager living. It is not my intention to enable fellow surf movie makers and myself to purchase gold Rolls Royces, but simply to help us attain a fairer income share for the content that we pour our hearts and souls into. At the moment, we are frankly getting screwed!

If I can I would like to change this.