Digital Neanderthals! The Evolution Has Already Happened!

Recently I posted a couple of rants regarding the lack of urgency on the part of several indie clients to reformat their key art for the 21st century's wired world. You can read them here and here.

In response, I received a couple of emails that can be summarized thusly:

'We're not going to be doing any reformatting in the near future as A) we really aren't required to in our delivery packages we provide our digital carriers, and B) we're still a few years off and have plenty of time to reformat everything.'

Guess what?

You're not a "few years off."

It's. Happening. Right. Now.

Widescreen images are being used on Hulu and elsewhere.

Now ask yourself:

If these were indie movies with few or no stars in them, would they sell the movie we've made?  (I included the STARSHIP TROOPERS image as it seems to exemplify the movie, and gives you a direction toward what I'm talking about)

If you didn't know who Tom Cruise is (was?), or that DR. STRANGELOVE is a classic, these would be - and I am using this term lightly - lackluster sales tools.

Add to this the idea that someone else who doesn't really give a damn either way (the web designer makes the same rate per hour) has an impact on how your movie is seen and it's not a rosy picture. People judge a book by its cover and a movie by its key art.

And in our wired world of tomorrow TODAY that affects your sales. Especially when its all done on a royalty basis.  Screenwriters and Directors and Actors who struck for a slice of that digital pie?

You are getting hosed because someone can't be bothered to protect their investment (and yours). It affects your bottom line because this sort of short-sightedness leads to added expenses later on (which of course, will be charged back to the film and affect your royalties / residuals) 

And just like when movies' key art was reformatted for DVD covers this will happen, excuse me, IS HAPPENING. Be the one to take control and present your movies to the audience with the most sales value.

Next time: What properly formatted key art gets you.