BitTorrent, that curse of all filmmakers has been looked at in a different light by people associated with super brain Andrew Denton. According to the Melbourne Age, Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, co-writers of the horror-thriller mockumentary, The Tunnel, (Andrew Denton is the Executive Producer) it can be taken advantage of.

The film is about about a news crew that hunts for a story underground but finds itself hunted, was shot on a shoestring budget in derelict tunnels and bunkers under Sydney.

Instead of blaming BitTorrent for all the ills of the filmmaker and the world in general, these two have decided to enlist its help in promoting the film by making it available free of charge for download for a limited time. The ultimate hope is that this will contribute to later DVD sales. They say selling a ‘few thousand’ will allow them to break even.

"There's a huge audience right here that everyone's ignoring," Julian Harvey, the film's other producer and writer told the Age’s Adam Fulton. "I think you can't be closed to the potential."

"I don't think James Cameron is going to release his next film on BitTorrent for free," Harvey, 29, says. "But I think for young filmmakers who are about getting their story out there and getting noticed, it could be a game changer in that small part of the industry."

Their first attempt at money raising entailed selling individual frames of the movie at $1 each, however their efforts came well short of the $135,000 needed.

The Tunnel will be launched on Wednesday at Event Cinemas, Bondi Junction, in a Popcorn Taxi screening followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers and Andrew Denton.

The full story from The Age is available here.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com