Film Futures

Great advice for those interested in marketing for films.

One constant in our world is that everything changes. Everything began somewhere and will end somewhere else. Some things change very quickly. Others take millennia to run their course. Seduced by how stable things appear to be in the short term, we wander around thinking that the world’s current state will continue into the future. Many great people, organizations and civilizations have fallen victim to this sort of thinking.

The major studios, networks and cable companies may hold the power today but eventually things will change, as all things change. Will today's or tomorrow's indie filmmakers be that driving force? Maybe, they seem to have the desire to change the system. Or will it be another player, perhaps someone quite unknown to us today?

Right now, today's indie filmmakers and their hacker ethos are definitely disrupting things.

In this long post by Mark Suster, he touches on a lots of interesting points that point to potential future directions for the entertainment sector.

Torso TV - the stuff between the "head" of consumption "(largest number of views) was dominated by platforms that had massive distribution (think TV stations, radio or retail outlets that sell CDs and DVDs. think Apple. think Amazon)" and the "long tail" (content that only the platform provider (ie YouTube) makes money on). The Torso TV is the content that is developed for global niches of watcher, niches that are likely much better than originally suspected

So if you want to be a content producer and want to make money you can develop content for global “niches” of watchers who might like: Japanese Anime, South Korean drama, Bollywood productions, reality TV on any topic – fashion, cooking, travel.

Participation - he uses the Harlem Shake video to illustrate how audiences aren't happy with just sitting back and consuming content, they want to take part in the party too.

The bottleneck that is access to Hollywood versus the many professional content producers worldwide. Drawing in Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma, he proposes that the dominent media production industry is ripe for disruption by producers armed with mobile video; cheap and easily accessible post-production tools, local and cloud storage, and upload bandwidth; rounded out by easy sharing and amplification platforms.

Add this to the fact that studies have already shown that while people love  movies with high production values, they are not necessarily put off participating in/consuming entertainment properties that have much lower production values and higher relevance to their interests, whims and lives.

MMOVs - riffing off MMOGs, all the fun of watching together mixed with all the fun of interactivity of fanfic.

Can't wait to see what storytellers dream up with these developments!

What acting like a rock star means here is taking responsibility for your brand, your work and your future.

This idea was at the heart of my Masters thesis. Creators have the opportunity to build a fan base that will stay with them throughout their careers - not just people who will come and go depending on the project. This is what a rock star does.

Each project they embark on is an expression of their brand and an opportunity to gain new fans and deepen their relationship with existing fans.

A committed and engaged fan base provides a creator with more power to shape her future.

Even if you're not a big TV producer you can employ some of their tactics for engaging audiences.

In the age of the Internet, how is storytelling changing? Freed from the tyranny of the broadcast schedule what are storytellers exploring? What is that revealing about how audiences respond and want to engage with storytelling?

The whole of House of Card is now on Netflix. No waiting a week for subsequent episodes. You can indulge your story lust and dive right in or you nibble at it with little bites.

Choice is yours.

What will you do?

I'm not a fan of predictions per se but since we are talking about the very, very near term (in terms of foresight or futures thinking), I am sharing this article on Deloitte's media and tech predictions for this year.

Of note:

Despite the popularity of smartphones and tablets, the PC is still king because of large screens and comfortably sized keyboards. Voice and gesture controls aren't going to challenge the standard remote control due to unreliability, impracticality and physical effort.

Over-the-top services are expected to be more beneficial to broadcasters and distributors than "pure play" services. Given the stronghold the cable and satellite distribs have on the content creation, broadcast and distribution, we probably won't be seeing OTT services serving up much of the popular and fresh content.

Global shipments of smartphones are expected to surpass a billion units.

If you are thinking about using crowdfunding services to fund aspects of your production, here's some info from Kickstarter about the projects that have been funded (pledges and totals collected).