Internet is used for the first time to screen a film premiere.

In what could well be a sign of the future and a world’s first, the writer of Oscar-nominated, and very funny movie, "The Full Monty" decided to premiere his latest film on the Internet.

Simon Beaufoy's latest film "This is not a love song" was being streamed on-line on the Internet as it debuted simultaneously in a handful of UK cinemas.

The website, www.thisisnotalovesong.com, was launched last week but due to excessive demand the movie was only available to be downloaded from 6pm on Friday night.

The experimental project had been previewed in the British media, picked up by CNN but probably more importantly, been made the top of the Google search list to alert the Internet community.

With the costs of film production being what it is, wouldn’t this be a risky approach?

This unique approach to movie delivery proved so popular, its website was almost immediately crashed due to overload. Thousands of people around the globe logged on to the site in the first few hours of it running the movie short.

Obviously organisers of the low budget experiment had not expected the project to generate such international interest and the website could not handle the demand. Almost immediately around 50,000 people had logged on but in the couple of hours after the film launch an extra 75,000 tried to access it.

The release of the new movie is a relatively low-cost affair however. It was made for under $800,000 and shot in about two weeks.

Why would the film industry “want” to show films on the Internet?

This project was launched because one of the major downfalls of the film industry is the difficulty of getting distribution for the movies that are produced. The real interest will probably come from those filmmakers who find it difficult to find distribution deals for their productions. It means often their only outlet is to go straight to video.

Movie bosses will also be keen to see how much interest there is in watching movies on the Internet. Some experts are predicting that films will soon be able to reach audiences in completely new ways and that by embracing the possibilities of the digital world of computers, they will be able to offer a whole new form of entertainment to new audiences.

What of the movie itself, does it appeal to a small fringe element of Internet movie buffs only?

It would certainly seem not. The movie itself, called "This is not a love song" has thus far been described as a gritty form of "Deliverance" style film. It is about two fugitives on the run from a group of vigilante farmers after an accidental killing on a remote farm. The films actors though, will probably not be well known outside of the UK.

So can anyone just go out and shoot a film and put it on the Net for the world to see now?

Perhaps not, the director of this movie shot the film “digitally” rather than using the standard film technique. The same digital method was used on the recent hit "28 Days Later" which was a big hit in the United States and has grossed more than $65 million worldwide.

If they want to, how will people be able to access the movie on the Internet?

I think most people are going to need a “broadband” connection to be able to enjoy the film. It is being streamed at http://www.thisisnotalovesong.com and was also available for download.

The film needs to be run on Microsoft’s “Media Player”, which unfortunately means that Mac and other non-windows users won’t be able to view the film

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au