I couldn't agree with you more, Ms. Jacobson! Many of us aspiring filmmakers are so disillusioned and we need concrete facts to set us straight. This panel did a pretty good job establishing current realities; however, I feel other than Mr. Burns' comments, there was little constructive help, especially for us "nobody" filmmakers...

For low budget independent films VOD is a tough sell unless you can gain some heat for your film. Otherwise it can get lost in the mire. "Monsters" is a good example made for around $500,000 dollars and has done well at festivals and created buzz off the back of the limited budget and the effects in the film so when it hits VOD it will have a chance. I'm a documentary producer and we made our first film "Beyond Biba" with a solid niche market and took it round the UK to screenings like a band goes on tour and we did pretty well. We released via digital through Cinetic filmbuff on Amazon VOD but haven't done the numbers we wanted to because unlike our UK release their was no heat.