The internet continues to expand in it’s ability to offer distribution alternatives. The nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute in New York and Amazon.com are teaming up to create an online space/service called Reframe : reframecollection.org, where they plan to make available films that normally aren’t seen or have had historically small distribution in the past. The films will available digitally and some, that are already owned by others, will be available on DVD:

Reframe, Mr. Newman and others said, is a hybrid. It is expected to serve as a nonprofit clearing house for short and feature-length films and video works, while giving rights holders a mechanism by which they can sell or rent downloads or DVDs through Amazon.

The service is unusual in that it offers to convert works to the digital format from video without charge and will convert film formats to digital at cost, under an arrangement that allows duplication of a 90-minute feature movie for as little as $672, far less than the thousands of dollars filmmakers usually spend on conversions.

Reframe then returns a digital copy to the rights holder, while retaining the work in Amazon’s archive, from which it will be sold at a price set by the owner. The owner is expected to receive a royalty amounting to 50 percent of any download or online rental, or a sliding share of DVD sales that grows as revenue increases. [NYTimes]

Seems like this could be pretty cool and open a lot of cinematic doors in terms of what we have access to. I’m a little skeptical of what they might consider to be “rare” works but here’s hoping that DeNiro and company extend their catalogue beyond our borders and pick up some pieces with subtitles!

Read on:

• Tribeca launches Reframe
• New Digital Revenue Stream? TFI Unveils Ambitious Online Outlet …
• Tribeca Debuts Reframe Film Digitization & Retail Service