Dave Boyle takes the self-distribution route with SURROGATE VALENTINE

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Kevin Smith’s Red State tour kicked-off yesterday at Radio City Music hall, but his self-distribution model isn’t something most filmmakers can recreate. That’s what makes today’s announcement that Dave Boyle’s Surrogate Valentine taking a progressive self-distribution approach even more exciting. The model outlined below isn’t new, but Boyle has enough cred to stir things up.

From the press release:

Tiger Industry Films, the boutique production and distribution collective today announced the release plan of its new film Surrogate Valentine via movies-on-demand platform of major national cable systems, including Comcast, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Dish Network, and Direct TV. Premiering at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, the film will be available for a limited time on DVD during the festival run and on VOD starting fall of 2011.
…
Dave Boyle, director/co-founder of Tiger Industry Films said, “On VOD and DVD alone, White on Rice returned three times the budget of Surrogate Valentine. So it makes sense for us to go those routes with the festival run as the theatrical. We’ve found an economic model for our films that is sustainable through self-distribution.”

My first experience with a Boyle film came from the VOD streaming on Netflix. While much can said be about the collective in-theater experience, for indies VOD is a bottomline win. Even Tribeca’s distribution arm made it a major part of its distribution plans. And with more digital theaters popping up, films like this one are just a Blu-ray disc or flash drive away from a special screening.

Of course, you can always catch Surrogate Valentine in theaters on the festival circuit. The film will premiere at SXSW and move  screen at other film festivals, including one in my backyard–The Cleveland International Film Festival.