The end of dvds is near?

[Deirdre Towers]

Will all exchange of digital materials soon be transacted on-line? It would seem that for all the entrants/producers of film festivals, soon only an address on-line will be necessary. The burning of dvds, mailing them, storing them may all be a thing of the past.

[Marc Kirschner]

You're right that infrastructure is a problem, and unfortunately, its one that is outside of our capabilities to solve, which is why on the survey there wasn't a check box for Africa. (To clarify, it's not that we excluded Africa from being an option, in as much as that there was a specific reason behind the territories for which we included a check box).

[Jeannette Ginslov]

Just a thought: the only problem here could be when you live in a place without high speed and limitless internet broadband...as in South Africa where the download bit rate is very s/low and expensive if wanting to download at 1MB on an ADSL line. This may get faster, but chances are very slim that this will improve sufficiently in order to keep up with the rest of the world. Apparently extra cables need to be laid down under the sea and there is also a monthly cap on usage! Well one can get speed and buy an industry standard ADSL contract but which dance company /curator has money for that?

[Marc Kirschner]

I want to quickly thank everyone who has responded so far. We're getting a very interesting picture of the field, and there are some of you whom we are definitely going to be able to help.
Of course, we would love to get more responses, so keep them coming.

[Marc Kirschner]

For those interested in sharing their experiences, please consider answering filling out this very brief survey for artists, curators and presenters. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.

Dance Films Submissions Survey

[Jeannette Ginslov]

And the being a Curator is even worse...you have to go so often to the Post Office to collect the damn things, pay for petrol, parking, CO2 emissions etc. We should only send DVD's when selected !

[Jeannette Ginslov]

Hurray! I've had enough of burning dvd's, then standing in Post Office queues, then hoping that the postal services are not on strike AGAIN, and then having to pay extra $$$$ for speed deliveries or for courier services so the dvd get in on time...as there are SO many deadlines to meet and most of the festivals give such short notice that one HAS to courier the dvds...and then we hardly ever get $$$$ when the video is shown anyway! What a business????

[Marc Kirschner]

For viewing of submissions, I would agree. That being said, I have heard that some festivals/presenters are still requiring VHS, which is almost an embarrassment. For actual delivery of theater ready materials, you're a minimum of 5 years out, maybe 10, maybe 20. Internet simply isn't built for anything close to that scale of data transfer without highly specialized infrastructure (eg. satellite delivery).