Hitting the Reflex Point

On June 6th, 1944 the Allied forces (The United States, Britain, Canada, Free French forces, etc...) hit the beaches in Normandy, and in one of the bloodiest battles over inches of sandy ground confronting high cliffs, the tide of the war turned. (Military) Historians call this a "reflex point" - a point in history, a conflict (War) or nexus of thought (The Renaissance) and action where everything turns in a new direction. D-Day was just such a day in our planet's history. Suddenly the Germans and Japanese (shocked by such a massive campaign launched by the "sleeping giant") were on the defensive. The Allies were truly taking the battle to the enemy...

And now just such a reflex point is being "hit" -- though on an entirely new battlefront.

(The Doctor gets out his little hammer, feels around and whack! "Hollywood" springs its leg out in an entirely new direction)

You can read about it here, and here.

What this means:

1. A viable business model is being put in place for Hollywood to get onto the web. More jobs. More opportunities.

2. All you Canadian creatives out there who are outraged about the CTF and the CRTC?
(see here, here and here...oh yeah and here)

Time to tell your broadcasters and your commitees and panels and investigative bodies to go to hell. YOU DON'T NEED THEM. There is an infrastructure being built that has financing, star power, capability of reaching a much wider audience, and potentially yield far greater benefits than the MBA signed by the guilds.

I am reminded of the story when William Shatner, another Canadian, who made a deal with Priceline.com for stock in exchange for his representing the company in its brilliant ad campaigns. People chastised him for lowering his fees to near nothing, but he laughed all the way to the bank. His stock went to the moon.

3. Oh, and it means that if you have the talent and the gumption you can join the battle and do-it-yourself. You don't have to be an employee - you can own the company.

4. Bear Stearns is predicting that most of the web content will be advertiser supported. There is nothing holding you back from approaching an advertiser to fund your show.

5. The Guilds and Unions have to catch up and negotiate rates for employing its members realizing: a) this is a new business model. It isn't exactly television. It isn't exactly movies. It is the web. b) momentum is going to start slow then pick up...

6. You don't have to live in Los Angeles. If you want to you can do a lot of this stuff from wherever you have a broadband connection (virtually everywhere).

7. This isn't going to be for the faint of heart.

There's going to be a few stumbling blocks - integrating all the media applications for a program, the planning, the new roles being created, redefined and yes, lost. We are all going to have to think and act differently.

"The Battle" isn't over, but damn if we haven't hit the beach and turned the tide.