Netflix mistake boosts indie film maker
Cute little story about “Elsa Letterseed” and an indie film maker who gets a boost after Netflix mistakenly lists her debut film in its catalog:
“Elsa Letterseed,” a low-budget film about a young violinist’s struggles in adulthood, was written, produced and directed by 34-year-old Sacramentan Sarah Kreutz. It was screened at the Crest Theatre in August 2003. And went no further.
But late last year, the film inadvertently appeared in the online catalog of Netflix, the company that charges a monthly fee to ship rental DVDs to its customers nationwide. Even though not a single DVD of the film existed.
That led to negotiations between Netflix and Kreutz. The result: The company will buy copies of the film from the Sacramento filmmaker and start offering them to its 4.2 million customers later this month.
Kreutz is working feverishly to do some last-minute editing, add musical scoring and then produce about 1,000 copies of her movie, which tells the story of a child prodigy’s adulthood.
She doesn’t expect the Netflix deal - or sales to other rental companies - to fully repay the $200,000 or so she has invested in her film, which she started while in her 20s. But it’s given her the confidence - and the cash - to start on her second film.