Indie Filmmaker Releases Award-Winning Feature as a Download for Keeps

Whilst the Big Studios grapple with Apple over pricing, independent filmmakers are racing ahead to exploit this emerging revenue stream. Now independent producer HARP28 has released a segmented feature-film, Crooked Features, for digital download in conjunction with Lulu, the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books and hosted digital video pay-to-downloads.

The film segments can be put on a playlist and played back on millions of video devices such as PCs, Macs and iPods. The film is unencumbered by Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions, making this the first paid-for digital feature-film download internet users truly own after purchase.

Award winning Crooked Features is a risqué and controversial docu-drama which follows Rod Shuffler as he brings his vision of Attack of the Clowns to the silver screen. It created a stir with investors as it was alleged funds were squandered, compromising any theatrical release. It is now freely available for sale as a H.264 encoded pay-for digital download, or on DVD video.

HARP28 became involved in the production of Crooked Features to show the truth behind the glamour of the extremely low-budget end of the British film industry. They came to Lulu because they saw little value in deals offered off the back of festival circuit success and found Lulu's pay-for-download tools to be fast, easy and, most important, free.

"Independent digital moviemaking and pay-to-download-on-demand is the way of the future, and the future is now," said Mike Peter Reed of HARP28. "What happens to audio always eventually happens to video. The Lulu process allows me to cut out  bureaucratic money-obsessed fatcats and get my work out there the way I want it and when. Crooked Features is much like Lulu itself-it shows that with a little conviction, anything is possible."

Link to Downloads