Technology That Affects You and Me

Mark R Robertson at Reel SEO Video Marketing reports that YouTube is now supporting HD 1080p video. They're also going back and re-encoding previous uploaded 1080 video capable projects. What does that mean?

Hmmm... let's see:

• Broadcast quality video streaming for free to the producer.

• Ad capable (if it gets enough hits)

• Basically you have your own network!

So get that Canon 7D out there and start shooting!

Jim Shelley runs down the whole ITablet and open source tablet rumors. This is important because quite frankly no one really wants to read their comics on an IPhone. It really does the artists and storytellers a disservice. We can do better.

And yes - we must do better. We are poised to take some of the business away from people who forgot the audience. Well hell, we are the audience and we at least deserve a shot to try an entertain "our people."

While at AFM I heard Stephen Susco (GRUDGE) talking about genre writing, and I'll paraphrase here and say:

You don't see thousands of websites that get millions of hits and funnel billions of dollars centered around the Rom-Com. There's a huge audience for genre material (Scifi, Action, Horror and the blending of same) that's always hungry.

Feed them something good.

Listen Up!

Heard this story this morning during the raging winds of the Hollywood Executive shuffle.
NPR talks about all of the things we talk about here - branding, audience, creating "properties" and so on...

It does not paint a pretty picture of the Hollywood business model, but points the way for indies. I am especially pleased that PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is singled out.

Ingenuity > Dollars every time. EVERY time.

It's the pulp way.

Science Is Pulpular...

When it's accessible and presented in an easy-to-use format. Used to be that you had to go to the library to get a free copy of POPULAR SCIENCE magazine... and even then you couldn't photocopy stuff out of it. Now, all you need is a good wifi connection and you can read and understand and apply.

Google Books - the controversial service from Google - has partnered with Popular Science to make all issues of the magazine available online. Here's the issue from my birth (which has a Lucky Strike cigarette ad inside the front cover. Can't have 1960's science without nicotine right?)

(And yes, I AM old. I'm also good. I will also disembowel you with a glance)

If our generation is going to count for anything at all, if we are going to make a difference, if we are going to restore the ideals of value and innovation and craft to the entertainment industry (in all its forms) then we need to get ourselves back on the track of making stuff.

That's not going to be easy. It's going to take access to information. It's going to take sharing. It's going to take dedication. It's going to take overcoming that fear that you're somehow not good enough. That you can't.

(Yes, before someone else says it - I do sound like an Obama speech)

I am telling you right now that YOU CAN. IF YOU WANT IT BAD ENOUGH.

The tools are shiny and sharp on on the workbench. The networks are building. Information is flowing. And believe it or not there are alot of people who are in your corner rooting for you. When one succeeds we all succeed. When one fails we all fail, and we all learn and grow from it.

So what have you made lately?

Here endeth the sermon.

I Like Anne Hathaway...

But damnit, I think I LOVE Nora Ephron....

From the "Future of Filmmaking" Panel at W Union Square by Syracuse University.
(as reported by Variety)

Anne:

"She said cutting her fee to make "Rachel Getting Married" was the kind of move that should be made automatically by stars who believe in low-budget projects. "Why make a movie for $30 million when it should look like it was made for 10?" she said. "'Brokeback Mountain' cost $11 million and it was absolutely gorgeous. I think I made SAG day rate for that one."

Nora:

Ephron said she mistrusted studios' frequent cries of poverty, especially their claims that talent and writer/director costs have hit them hard.

"I look at the movie business as this giant Ponzi scheme set up to compensate a small number of people," she said. "Everything about it is puffed up, including the executives. You wouldn't believe the scale of wealth in Hollywood. They live like pashas. I know people live like that here, too, but we all live in apartments so you can't see it."

And just so we're clear, I don't like this guy Michael Lynton a bit:

"I'm a guy who sees nothing good having come from the Internet, period," said Sony Pictures boss Michael Lynton, sitting between Anne Hathaway and Nora Ephron. "It seems to have done damage to every part of the entertainment business by creating this notion that people can get whatever they want right now, for free."

This would be quite the statement if Sony Pictures TV hadn't financed ANGEL OF DEATH and put it up on Crackle.com. What he's really saying is that the internet hasn't allowed him to arse-rape consumers the way that Theatrical, DVD and Television has so he sees no value in it.

Even then he's talking out of his ass.

Let's face it - the internet is for the rest of us.

That Rushing Sound You Hear...

Is Hollywood moving in to meet the demand of the internet.

Yes, we live in interesting times, folks.

Television isn't commissioning many pilots so creatives are moving around to fill, what they see is a void. However the internet isn't TeeVee, and there will be many challenges to overcome:

- less money upfront.
- a different creative/production/distribution methodology.
- the need for flexibility, responsiveness.
- the job isn't done because the episode is up and running online. The job is only starting.