November 1999

What is AtomFilms.com?
Atom is a next generation entertainment company that specializes in the best short films and animations from all over the world. It’s the coolest place for consumers to see up-and-coming and established artists.

Why do you consider yourselves distributors?

"Shorts are cool and we want to make them a viable part of the entertainment spectrum," says Mika Salmi, founder and CEO of AtomFilms.com To that end, AtomFilms is not only webcasting shorts, but acting as a sales agent and making deals with airlines, cable networks, and other websites for the few hundred short films and animations now in its fold. [see Distributor F.A.Q., p. 46]

Provided we all make it through Y2K safely, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has another milestone in mind "2K3" denoting the final, April 2003 deadline for all of the nation's 1600 television stations to be broadcasting in digital.

"It's really not about distributing films over the Internet," says Bit Screen creator Nora Barry. "To me, it's a completely new art form." On-line in the summer of 1998, more than six months before other Internet distributors, The Bit Screen got a big shot in the arm after a New York Times profile last January.

www.nogatekeepers.org

The Bit Screen
www.thebitscreen.com

Announced this summer with a full-page ad in Variety, Media Trip is a new site from some familiar faces: Robert Faust (president), founder of the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival; Patrick Lynn (VP of acquisitions), a well-known producer's rep and former distribution executive; and Tom Brunelle (director of programming and marketing), former associate publisher of Filmmaker.

What is AtomFilms.com?
Atom is a next generation entertainment company that specializes in the best short films and animation from all over the world. It’s the coolest place for consumers to see up-and-coming and established artists.

Why do you consider yourselves distributors?

"We accept all formats," explained Always Independent Films (AIF) president Gary Zeidenstein. "We do have a screening process, [but] as long as it's not the backyard homemade movie, we're going to post it on the site." In its first few months AIF received some 300 entries and about 50 were rejected.

For self-publishers everywhere--whether they're activists, advocates, renegade film critics, or opinionated cranks--you can't beat the web for access and reach. All you need is an idea and an ISP, and your work is available, globally. Meanwhile, the recent emergence of online bazaars like eBay have made it possible for anyone to sell anything (while making some fascinating comment on the mutable nature of worth).