Film London has received a £125K grant to explore the release of independent films on new digital platform We Are Colony, with help from Edge Hill University.

Film London, together with We Are Colony and Edge Hill University has been awarded a £125,000 grant from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts to explore the release of independent films on new digital platform We Are Colony, which launched June 2014.

The grant will enable Film London and Professor Philip Drake from Edge Hill University to analyse the potential of the new digital space, which is dubbed as the only VOD platform designed to engage and grow audience from the outset of a film’s life.

The transactional VOD platform enables users to pay to access the film plus a bundle of additional content, prior to and after general release. From trailers and teasers, to deleted and extended scenes, scripts and storyboards, to interviews with cast and crew.

A partnership between Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Nesta, the Digital R&D Fund supports collaboration between arts projects, technology providers and researchers to explore and increase audience engagement or develop new business models.

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said: “This is a very exciting expansion of our work in interrogating and supporting new distribution models for independent filmmakers. I thank the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts for their vision in funding this work and am keen to see how it develops.”

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