If you're wondering how to sell your short film on iTunes, you're not alone. As you know, iTunes is one of the most prestigious platforms for selling movies. And when you think about it, aside from putting your short film in festivals, you might be wondering what to next…
It is at this point when many filmmakers either decide to put the movie on YouTube or put the movie in a closet. But these days you have to option of working with a video on demand aggregator. These companies allow you to access premium video on demand platforms like iTunes, without giving away ownership of your content. And many work with short films!
How To Sell Your Short Film On iTunes
Before you fully decide to sell your short film on iTunes, it is important to know that getting on iTunes is more involved than simply uploading your movie on YouTube. There is no direct upload process. Getting your short film onto iTunes will involve putting your movie through a professional level submission process.
This means that in addition to investing few hundred dollars to cover the submission, your movie will have to pass a rigorous, manual quality control process. This is because iTunes is very particular about the technical quality of the movies they accept. It helps if you start the process by getting all of your deliverables in order.
To get started, reach out to aggregator to get their most up to date delivery guide. This is a very common guide that outlines the specs and files needed for each platform. For acceptance into the US iTunes store, the closed captions file must be in the .scc file format. If you do not have closed captions, many aggregators offer this service for an additional fee.
Upload Your Short Film Deliverables
Once you have your deliverables in order, the next step is to upload your short film files (both the movie and the artwork) to your aggregator. Once your aggregator has everything they need, your film will begin the very rigorous process of quality control. This means that every pixel in every frame will be scrutinized to make sure it is at a standard the platforms will accept.
Most aggregators are very filmmaker friendly. You simply pay them a fee for their services. From there, they either get your short film into iTunes or they work with you to find an alternate solution. Either way, getting your short film into a popular platform feels pretty good. Then once your film is available, your next step is to market and promote your film to maximize exposure.
