Showing posts with label hollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hollywood. Show all posts

Saturday, October 07, 2017

Movie Making Trends



Movies are about to enter a whole different realm, mostly for the good. Some of the trends are:

(1) A Screen In Nearly Every Hand

The smartphone will get there before the broadband will, but the connectivity will get there fast enough. It is a legitimate expectation that people should be able to watch new releases on their own screens. You could charge 10 million people $10 each in a theater, or you could charge a billion people one cent each. Or that cent could be an ad they opt to watch. The numbers work. Micro-payments will become much more of an option.

(2) Reduced Production Costs

A small crew dabbling in the art form could do all the camera work on a smartphone and all the editing on a computer today. That opens up the floodgates of production. Every language, every culture can have its own movie industry. Every such industry has a ready global audience among the scattered peoples, all connected. Let a thousand flowers bloom. That also creates a spectrum of success. A movie making 100 K can meet someone's definition of robust business. A movie making 10 K can. What if you could earn a living making 10 minute long movies? Does that beat serving tables?

(3) Really Big

The small can do brisk business. But the big can get really big. A global super hit movie could make outsize money.

(4) Computer Graphics And Animation

For what you can show on the screen, the imagination is now the limit. You don't have to actually build a physical set. Which means it is possible to have small high tech studios. Right now the costs are high. But they will go down. Spices used to be gold. Now they are commodity. The liberation of the background should give added focus to the human element. Movies have to be thought of as therapy sessions for society at large.

(5) The Script

Some things never change. It boils down to the story, not the technology. Ultimately it is about telling a good story. That ancient art has currency.



Monday, September 29, 2014

20 Hour Long Movies

Amitabh Bachchan
Cover of Amitabh Bachchan
They are not movies, but they are not called movies, but I am calling them movies. I did not watch them any differently than I watch movies on my computer. They are movies, as far as I am concerned.

First I watched Kevin Spacey's House Of Cards. I was mesmerized. There is no way you could do justice to the material in a two hour movie. It had to play out. I binge watched. Then I watched Amitabh Bachchan's Yudh. I will watch anything with Amitabh Bachchan in it. And I just finished watching 24, Season 4, all 24 episodes of it. I binge watched. Such superb treatment of the material.

Hollywood is society's imagination wing. It helps process scenarios.

I have become a huge fan of 20 hour long movies. Bring it on.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Drones In The Sky

A MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle prepares...
A MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle prepares to land after a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The Reaper has the ability to carry both precision-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is like the Google Maps truck peering through your window, all the time. Allowing domestic use by law enforcement will be tricky enough. Wait until civilians get their hands on the licenses. This thing is a serious invasion of privacy, potentially speaking. Paparazzi would have a field day. Too bad because so many great uses can be thought of.


Lawmakers Want to Know: What Are Those Drones Doing Up There?
issue licenses to commercial drone operators and to make it easier for law enforcement and other government agencies to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles ..... Drones are already used to monitor movement on the borders .... shooting Hollywood movies, monitoring oil spills and conducting criminal investigations ..... the possibility of ubiquitous surveillance, especially because the law currently protects the right to take pictures of anyone and anything in public. ..... a voluntary code of conduct which includes a provision to “respect the privacy of individuals.” .... The prospects of any imminent movement on Capitol Hill, though, seem to be minimal. Stubborn partisan divisions have so far doomed agreement on a bill that seeks to strengthen cybersecurity for the electrical grid, nuclear power plants and other critical infrastructure

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Twitter Goes Hollywood

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase
Twitter, Hollywood Working on In-Stream Video Series
the possibility of launching several original video series via Twitter ..... the show could live on a standalone Twitter page similar to the events page that Twitter launched in partnership with Nascar in June, although the series’ page would more closely resemble a microsite in order to feature an expanded video player. Another possibility is that the series would be distributed within tweets—promoted, organic or pinned to a brand’s Twitter page—with users clicking to expand the tweet into a full-fledged video player. ..... With the potential series, Twitter is aiming to get big-budget advertisers on board, with sponsorship deals possibly running around $4 million. ..... theoretically user tweets would somehow influence the show as it airs
Old media does not go away. New media simply infiltrates that old media. And gives it a new life. This is interactivity taken to a whole new level. User tweets influencing the show as it airs is so Twitter.
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Thursday, March 01, 2012

Kim DotCom On Outdated Business Models

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - FEBRUARY 22:  Kim Dotc...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Kim DotCom: "Piracy comes from, you know, people, let’s say, in Europe who do not have access to movies at the same time that they are released in the US. This is a problem that has been born within this licensing model and the old business model that Hollywood has where they release something first in one country but they show trailers to everyone around the world pitching that new movie but then the 14-year-old kid in France or Germany can’t watch it for another six months, you know? If the business model would be one where everyone has access to this content at the same time, you know, you wouldn’t have a piracy problem. So it’s really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn’t work anymore in the age of the internet and that’s what it all boils down to."
I had never heard of the guy before his arrest, although there was no avoiding the MegaUpload name. I agree with the statement above. Movies should be released globally online at once. For $1 per viewing. The movie studios would make tremendous money at that price point.

The Movie Industry's Non Innovation
What Price A Movie?

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Solution Is Tech Heavy, Data Heavy

Hollywood Might Not Get Killed, Any More Than Silicon Valley Might
What Price A Movie?
MegaUpload, SOPA, PIPA
SOPA Went Down
SOPA Has Egg In The Face
SOPA Is So Going Down



TV ads are not as effective as Google ads. On TV you could be showing me beer ads and I don't even drink beer. But you are hoping many of the million people who got bombarded do.

When I search for beer on Google and you show me beer ads, that is way more effective. You already know I am interested in beer. TV ads not as effective. Search ads more effective. Social ads even more effective. You are more likely to buy something a friend bought and recommends. The engagement on Twitter for ads is more than on the Google platform.

Big Data ads should be 10 or more times more effective than even social ads. And at that point the freemium model really takes off. All you want as content people is people's attention. You don't want their money, at least not directly. I think that is the real solution to the piracy problem.

Fred Wilson: A Post PIPA Post
Clay Shirky: Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood
O'Reilly Radar: The week the web changed Washington

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Hollywood Might Not Get Killed, Any More Than Silicon Valley Might

Paul Graham: Kill Hollywood
SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying .... What's going to kill movies and TV is what's already killing them: better ways to entertain people.


Technically speaking Silicon Valley could be anywhere, the magic that happens in Silicon Valley could be replicated anywhere. But instead of Silicon Valley getting parceled out, what has happened is Silicon Valley has gone on to do the next big things like clean tech. It is amazing to me how many of the new energy companies are based in California.

I guess geography matters. It takes some time to build that optimum ecosystem. People meeting people in person is magic. You can't take that over to Skype or a Google Hangout.

I mean, I am a huge fan of Hollywood. I love watching movies. And I think there is a magic happening in Hollywood that is not going away any time soon. As far as the production of movies goes, they have nailed it.

Silicon Valley has staying power. Hollywood has staying power. But innovation and creation will get replicated across the country and across the world. I hope the movie houses adopt to the Internet better. And I think it will end up happening one way or the other. But something tells me it will not be a smooth ride. There's just something in the nature of change. Disruptions by definition are not smooth.

In the far future good movies could come out of anywhere, and could be seen anywhere. Hollywood could end up a rust town. As could Silicon Valley, theoretically speaking.

Movies have their place in the grand scheme of things. And software will not take that place. Although it is hard to imagine a future where software is not key to every single aspect of movie creation and distribution.

What Price A Movie?
MegaUpload, SOPA, PIPA
SOPA Went Down

We need a new generation of movie production and distribution companies. Just like we need a new generation of finance companies.

Friday, January 20, 2012

What Price A Movie?

It's All in the MoviesImage via WikipediaNew York Times: Dodd Calls for Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Meet
..... no Washington player can safely assume that a well-wired, heavily financed legislative program is safe from a sudden burst of Web-driven populism...... “This is altogether a new effect,” Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing “an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically” in the last four decades, he added.
Say it is 10 dollars at the movie theater on release day. Some places it is 13, some 9. But let's say it's 10.

If the movie industry would move such that new releases can be watched on your laptop the day of the release, how much should you be asked to pay for it? It has to be less than 10. They did not build the home you are sitting in. They are not having to pay for the air conditioning, or the chair. The laptop is yours. The Internet is not charging them for the streaming.

The only thing they need is the production cost and the profit.

I think three dollars. Maybe even two.

They will make more money that way than they do now. They will reach a much, much wider audience for one. They could stream it from their own websites. Ads at that site would be the new popcorn.

I don't understand what stops them.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Hollywood, Silicon Valley, DC, Wall Street, American Hinterland

Image representing Mark Zuckerberg as depicted...Image via CrunchBase
TechCrunch: Zuckerberg, ‘The Social Network’ And The Rise Of The Terror Nerd: With The Social Network, Hollywood has made an artful attempt at taking the inferiority, fear and awe that it feels towards Silicon Valley and projecting it onto the cold, calculating (and fictional) Zuckerberg; “Creation myths need a devil,” spoken by Rashida Jones’ Marylin Delpy, is the most resonant line in the film..... people who understand how to code and build websites have power ..... Sorkin himself told New York Magazine, “I am not a fan of the Internet.” ..... Mark Zuckerberg is the perfect scapegoat for the whole damn thing, being someone who stole Hollywood’s cultural influence and built a half a billion strong distribution network it could only dream of, delivering a brutal blow to its business model as a side note.

NY Mag, NY Times, All Things D, CNet.

9/11 was Hollywood not doing its job. The Gulf Oil Spill was Hollywood not doing its job. When the political pundits were saying because the Cold War has ended and history has ended, it was Hollywood's job to point out otherwise. America always has had to violently tussle with chunks of autocracies. The fact that most of the Arab world was not democratic should have had alarm bells ringing, but did not.

America as a population should not have had to go through the trauma of a Gulf Oil Spill to start thinking seriously in terms of a zero emissions future. That emotional jolting should instead have and should come from Hollywood.

By that measure this Facebook movie is a stark failure. It does not even begin to fathom what it takes to build an epoch changing company. To say it is just fiction is not a good excuse.

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Sunday, June 20, 2010

Saavn's Great Business Model For Movies



I just finished watching one of my favorite movies by my favorite actor on the planet, Amitabh Bachchan. It is a full length movie that you can watch legitimately on YouTube. I think they made me watch three 30-second ads along the way. And I was happy to watch those ads. This is the comment I left with the video.

"Amazing business model. I hope your library size grows by a factor of 1,000. Hollywood should also follow this business model. Don't fight the technology. Instead come up with better business models. Great lesson that I hope more people learn."

Brazil And Argentina: My Choices And Those Of My Favorite Actor

This particular movie has had almost a half million views to date on YouTube.

I love it that the movie has English subtitles. I understand perfect Hindi, but the subtitles allow me to share the movie with those who don't. I have always believed Amitabh has global appeal. He is the most recognized face on the planet.

I grew up watching Amitabh.

And, by the way, the ads were served by Google. So all movie producers have to do is agree to use the YouTube platform to serve full length movies. After a movie has been out in the theater one summer, put it up on YouTube. What about one year? You keep making money ad infinitum, pun intended.
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