Should You Give Away Your Movie For Free?

A pretty heated debate broke out on the Twitters last week about the merits of giving a film away for free. Here is a portion of it:

1. 
   lmcnelly I know everyone thinks giving your film away for free online is the future, but I'm not convinced. Does it help the filmmaker? 18 Jun 2009 from web
2. 
   lmcnelly It seems like it essentially turns the film into a commercial 18 Jun 2009 from web
3. 
   britmic @lmcnelly a commercial for what? How to not pay your mortgage? :) 18 Jun 2009 from Twittelator in reply to lmcnelly
4. 
   lmcnelly @britmic i'm not looking to pay the mortgage. i'm looking to break even so i can afford the next one. 18 Jun 2009 from web in reply to britmic
5. 
   thraveboy @lmcnelly @britmic That's why my films cost $100 - $500 dollars instead of $1M. Much easier to break even. :) 18 Jun 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to lmcnelly
6. 
   lmcnelly @thraveboy @britmic but if you give it away, aren't $1k and $1M equally far away? 18 Jun 2009 from web in reply to thraveboy
7. 
   lmcnelly @thraveboy @britmic i love it too, but i like not living in my car more. :) i can't make the films I want to make for $100 18 Jun 2009 from web in reply to thraveboy
8. 
   lmcnelly I'm not against using a film to build and audience and brand yourself, but I'm wary of an approach that relies completely on that. 18 Jun 2009 from web
9. 
   thraveboy @lmcnelly @britmic If you create then something can happen but it might not be in your lifetime and might not make money from your passion. 18 Jun 2009 from TweetDeck in reply to lmcnelly
10. 
    thraveboy @lmcnelly @britmic Starting off by making something great and sharing it for free is the way that 90% of silicon valley startups work. 18 Jun 2009 from TweetDeck

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Obviously, it depends on the filmmaker and the film and the intentions for the film. Even now, free distribution over the internet relies heavily on the video hosting sites that are subsidizing the bandwidth. A precious few YouTube partners manage to make a living.

So there has to be a promotional value if you're giving it away free. That's the subjective part of the equation and why "free" works for some filmmakers and doesn't for others.

PS: If you're on Twitter, you can follow me @johnott. If you want only the filmmaking tweets, I've set up a Making the Movie account at twitter.com/makingthemovie.