Time for another round of "oh no, all our jobs are going to [insert country here]". Oh gebus. Spare me How many years of offshoring scaremongering do I have to put up with? I remember it from the 80s.
There are other business models available here that the networked bit world makes possible. Yes, the libraries are attempting to do their best to do a reasonable enforcement of the asinine restrictions placed by the old school businesses, but that doesn't alter the fact that DRM is actually impossible to do. And bad user interface design to boot.
Yes, people are getting a lot more chatty about films, from sms to blogs, and the current buy the gross marketing ploy is dead.
But if the film makers come down from their ivory towers and get amongst it, they can use these mediums to hype their movies. I knew I had to see both Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me and Zach Braff's Garden State because I was following them on their blogs, and I could feel from the community that both had real stories to tell.
For too long hollywood has valued the shallow (name actors, special effects) over the deep (a real story). It's just that story telling is the real difference between a dog and a standout film.
I like going and watching movies on the big screen. In fact, I am waited with baited breath for the introduction of the digital cinemas so that there will be the possibility that we will get to re-watch the classics on the big screen. Casablanca, for instance, I would happily pay my $15 to see...
Every single one of those vendors is an old vendor. Selling versions in excess of at least version 5. Where are the version 1 shrink wrapped box versions? Where are the new software startups who are selling shrink wrap software?
Apart from the two to ten person teams rolling out software on OS X, I don't know of any.
I think you misunderstand me when i say "relationship". The "relationship" I form with the stars in a film, is by definition, pathological. It is one sided, unrequited. That isn't a relationship. It's stalking.
No, I want to enter into a relationship with the provider of my entertainment, be that my cinema, my dvd supplier, my cd store, et al, such that they come to know me. I'm the most important person here. Because I hold the cash.
Realistically, the halo of angelina and brad, is marketing fodder. They have to be careful to maintain their image, because that is part of their bankability. But that decreases in strength as blogs etc route around the press.
It's an investment for a one off hit. For a serial it is working capital. You are still thinking about making one offs. Think further out along the curve.
Okay, come into my world for a second. I write software. Back in the bad old days, to write software, you hired a team of programmers, testers, ui designers, documenters, and so on. You designed, developed, and then boxed the software. You shipped the boxes to stores. And hope it sold. Not too much, otherwise places would run out of stock. But also not to little, otherwise you wind up with returns. And if you did really well, you'd get to do it all over again with a sequel. Version 2.
But now we have a new reality. Software on the web. You start developing your idea, and you throw up an early version, get feedback from some alpha users. You throw in the revisions, and your changes are up same day. And you continue to get feedback as more people come to using your software. And you keep rolling out the changes. You still wind up with the full software development team, but you release your software every day, instead of once every 18 months.
Can you release a movie everyday? No, not if you define a movie as a 2 hour product. But a web application isn't a boxed software product, but it is the same creative team, using pretty much the same skills, just using the new distribution medium...
Well, think of it this way. The fact that I got addicted to firefly has sold at least three box sets and ten serenity tickets. In most marketing text books the original content would have been called a "teaser", because it was low quality et al.
But, if you had your perfect world, where i couldn't get access to the pirate firefly content, you know what would have happened? I would have gotten addicted to something else. A web comic series, say...
Let me change the wording of your first sentence for you. What i'm implying is that people still want to pay for content. Yes, yes I do. But on different terms. I want a relationship, not a constant stream of one night stands.
I don't think DRM is required. Heck, it's not even long term effective. It actually reduces the ability of people to evangalise you. Because it is not your back catalog that is important now, but your future catalog.
Yes, blogs are toasting movies. I live in australia. I know the stinkers three months before they are released, thanks to the US screenings.
As to the risk adverse reaction to only build conservative movies, that is a fatal mistake. Because you wind up building fewer and fewer movies, but your hit rate doesn't change.
The real reaction is to make more movies, for less. A lot less. That way you get the breakout movies that cost 7k to make that still gross 100 million.
Assumption 1: you need to spend a hundred million dollars to produce two hours of entertainment to capture my attention.
Assumption 2: you do this in one off hits.
Both of these assumptions are based in the manufacturing reality, where spools of film had to be manufactured, transported, and then shown in specially built cinemas. Both of these assumptions are now completely bogus.
In fact I prefer listening to podcasts, which have a budget in the order of $50 an hour, to watching the latest block buster crap, with it's $50 million an hour budget.
Why? Because the podcasts are closer to my interests, they treat me as an intelligent, thinking, emotional human being, not a pair of eyes to be dazzled with tits and explosions.
Story telling. It's an amazing tradition. Something I'm hoping Hollywood rediscovers sooner, rather than later.
In small words, just for you. The hollywood movie system has had a habit of producing crap movies, and then buying their gross on the first weekend of release with lots of marketing.
But, sometimes, a product gets made that is really quite good. Like say firefly. Some friends download it. We sit around, watch the first couple. Go out and buy the DVDs. Watch the DVDs religiously. Get involved in communities pushing the upcoming release of Serenity. Go to the previews.
See a pattern here? It's all about finding the occasional signal in the wall of noise. And the nature of the meta communication that happens around the file downloads is helping to spur winner takes all for good content.
It's not the p2p file downloading which is tanking the industry, its the communities forming around movie sharing that is doing the current industry in.
This move will actually make the survivors stronger, because good content will again matter. Instead of who has the top name actors and the marketing budget.
What business model works when content is free? Lets think for a moment. Ah yes. Search. Google is turning into the worlds biggest media company on the back of free content. Recomendation engines. Helping me, the time poor internet professional, find interesting stuff amongst the hordes of boring stuff. It's all already up on The Long Tail weblog...
I never said I pirated. In fact, I said I go to the movies, in the cinemas. Ten points for being able to read. Pretty much every week.
But, then again, it is just easier to assume that the person who disagrees with you is one of those evil file pirates. Because that would be congruent with your understanding of the world.
It is sad that you missed the constructive criticism component. Oh well. Bring on the new video podcast reality.
you're not exactly a customer anymore than a shoplifter is a customer at a store
If you are going to astro turf, at least come up with a new line. That line was old the first time i heard it over decade ago.
It saddens me that you guys are fighting a pointless rear guard action here, instead of coming to the community and asking how we can work together on building new business models.
Hint: Long Tail. Hint: Filtering. Hint: Time poor internet professionals. Hint: Your movies suck. We have gotten used to the industry lying to us. Now you are reaping what you sowed.
Yes. Because the world is neatly dividable into those good people who buy everything, and the bad people who pirate everything. Yes. Really. The world is that simple.
Did I mention that the last three computer books I have purchased, I read a chunk of them online before hand? Or that I buy cds based on what i have listened to off the web? Or that the movies I go to in the cinema are influenced by the recomendations of my friends, some of whom are downloaders?
Let's sue the customers. Because that so worked for the music industry. Instead of accepting that networked transfer of information is the new reality and going with it. There are so many ways of making money here. But no, have to defend the old way. Man, they have NO VISION. No wonder Hollywood is addicted to creating formulaic movies. Risk aversion is fatal in creative industries, ya'know.
Ahh. Where i grew up VoIP was a set of defined standards, a particular implementation of the voice over the internet meme, with specific protocols and specific ports that needed to be punched through firewalls.
Thus voice over iChat and skype are not VoIP to me because they use very different data transmission protocols.
But, if you want to believe that VoIP is application and protocol independant, far be it for me to dissuade you. *sigh*
Y'know, the least you could do is check your sources before chipping someone. According to Google, the original quote goes back to Benjamin Franklin. Jeez, louise.
Slashdot Mirror
Time for another round of "oh no, all our jobs are going to [insert country here]". Oh gebus. Spare me How many years of offshoring scaremongering do I have to put up with? I remember it from the 80s.
*sigh*
There are other business models available here that the networked bit world makes possible. Yes, the libraries are attempting to do their best to do a reasonable enforcement of the asinine restrictions placed by the old school businesses, but that doesn't alter the fact that DRM is actually impossible to do. And bad user interface design to boot.
Because they need to return it because having it checked out stops other people from using it...
Yes, people are getting a lot more chatty about films, from sms to blogs, and the current buy the gross marketing ploy is dead.
But if the film makers come down from their ivory towers and get amongst it, they can use these mediums to hype their movies. I knew I had to see both Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me and Zach Braff's Garden State because I was following them on their blogs, and I could feel from the community that both had real stories to tell.
For too long hollywood has valued the shallow (name actors, special effects) over the deep (a real story). It's just that story telling is the real difference between a dog and a standout film.
I like going and watching movies on the big screen. In fact, I am waited with baited breath for the introduction of the digital cinemas so that there will be the possibility that we will get to re-watch the classics on the big screen. Casablanca, for instance, I would happily pay my $15 to see...
I suspect your interests will continue to be covered by hollywood for some time :-)
Every single one of those vendors is an old vendor. Selling versions in excess of at least version 5. Where are the version 1 shrink wrapped box versions? Where are the new software startups who are selling shrink wrap software?
Apart from the two to ten person teams rolling out software on OS X, I don't know of any.
Point of note. Shrink wrapped software is dead. No one does it anymore. Apart from MS. Which is losing to google. Notice the pattern?
I think you misunderstand me when i say "relationship". The "relationship" I form with the stars in a film, is by definition, pathological. It is one sided, unrequited. That isn't a relationship. It's stalking.
No, I want to enter into a relationship with the provider of my entertainment, be that my cinema, my dvd supplier, my cd store, et al, such that they come to know me. I'm the most important person here. Because I hold the cash.
Realistically, the halo of angelina and brad, is marketing fodder. They have to be careful to maintain their image, because that is part of their bankability. But that decreases in strength as blogs etc route around the press.
It's an investment for a one off hit. For a serial it is working capital. You are still thinking about making one offs. Think further out along the curve.
Okay, come into my world for a second. I write software. Back in the bad old days, to write software, you hired a team of programmers, testers, ui designers, documenters, and so on. You designed, developed, and then boxed the software. You shipped the boxes to stores. And hope it sold. Not too much, otherwise places would run out of stock. But also not to little, otherwise you wind up with returns. And if you did really well, you'd get to do it all over again with a sequel. Version 2.
But now we have a new reality. Software on the web. You start developing your idea, and you throw up an early version, get feedback from some alpha users. You throw in the revisions, and your changes are up same day. And you continue to get feedback as more people come to using your software. And you keep rolling out the changes. You still wind up with the full software development team, but you release your software every day, instead of once every 18 months.
Can you release a movie everyday? No, not if you define a movie as a 2 hour product. But a web application isn't a boxed software product, but it is the same creative team, using pretty much the same skills, just using the new distribution medium...
Well, think of it this way. The fact that I got addicted to firefly has sold at least three box sets and ten serenity tickets. In most marketing text books the original content would have been called a "teaser", because it was low quality et al.
But, if you had your perfect world, where i couldn't get access to the pirate firefly content, you know what would have happened? I would have gotten addicted to something else. A web comic series, say...
Let me change the wording of your first sentence for you. What i'm implying is that people still want to pay for content. Yes, yes I do. But on different terms. I want a relationship, not a constant stream of one night stands.
I don't think DRM is required. Heck, it's not even long term effective. It actually reduces the ability of people to evangalise you. Because it is not your back catalog that is important now, but your future catalog.
Yes, blogs are toasting movies. I live in australia. I know the stinkers three months before they are released, thanks to the US screenings.
As to the risk adverse reaction to only build conservative movies, that is a fatal mistake. Because you wind up building fewer and fewer movies, but your hit rate doesn't change.
The real reaction is to make more movies, for less. A lot less. That way you get the breakout movies that cost 7k to make that still gross 100 million.
Heh. I'm a cranky coder on friday afternoon, with a hang over, and misbehaving code. Oh, and I'm an australian. Everything comes with irony.
Sorry about the personal attacks.
Assumption 1: you need to spend a hundred million dollars to produce two hours of entertainment to capture my attention.
Assumption 2: you do this in one off hits.
Both of these assumptions are based in the manufacturing reality, where spools of film had to be manufactured, transported, and then shown in specially built cinemas. Both of these assumptions are now completely bogus.
In fact I prefer listening to podcasts, which have a budget in the order of $50 an hour, to watching the latest block buster crap, with it's $50 million an hour budget.
Why? Because the podcasts are closer to my interests, they treat me as an intelligent, thinking, emotional human being, not a pair of eyes to be dazzled with tits and explosions.
Story telling. It's an amazing tradition. Something I'm hoping Hollywood rediscovers sooner, rather than later.
In small words, just for you. The hollywood movie system has had a habit of producing crap movies, and then buying their gross on the first weekend of release with lots of marketing.
But, sometimes, a product gets made that is really quite good. Like say firefly. Some friends download it. We sit around, watch the first couple. Go out and buy the DVDs. Watch the DVDs religiously. Get involved in communities pushing the upcoming release of Serenity. Go to the previews.
See a pattern here? It's all about finding the occasional signal in the wall of noise. And the nature of the meta communication that happens around the file downloads is helping to spur winner takes all for good content.
It's not the p2p file downloading which is tanking the industry, its the communities forming around movie sharing that is doing the current industry in.
This move will actually make the survivors stronger, because good content will again matter. Instead of who has the top name actors and the marketing budget.
Since when has logical basis had anything to do with human behaviour? Jesus man, get with the program.
But you admit some are. Heh.
Oh wow. You are willing to listen? *amazed*
What business model works when content is free? Lets think for a moment. Ah yes. Search. Google is turning into the worlds biggest media company on the back of free content. Recomendation engines. Helping me, the time poor internet professional, find interesting stuff amongst the hordes of boring stuff. It's all already up on The Long Tail weblog...
I never said I pirated. In fact, I said I go to the movies, in the cinemas. Ten points for being able to read. Pretty much every week.
But, then again, it is just easier to assume that the person who disagrees with you is one of those evil file pirates. Because that would be congruent with your understanding of the world.
It is sad that you missed the constructive criticism component. Oh well. Bring on the new video podcast reality.
If you are going to astro turf, at least come up with a new line. That line was old the first time i heard it over decade ago.
It saddens me that you guys are fighting a pointless rear guard action here, instead of coming to the community and asking how we can work together on building new business models.
Hint: Long Tail.
Hint: Filtering.
Hint: Time poor internet professionals.
Hint: Your movies suck. We have gotten used to the industry lying to us. Now you are reaping what you sowed.
Yes. Because the world is neatly dividable into those good people who buy everything, and the bad people who pirate everything. Yes. Really. The world is that simple.
Did I mention that the last three computer books I have purchased, I read a chunk of them online before hand? Or that I buy cds based on what i have listened to off the web? Or that the movies I go to in the cinema are influenced by the recomendations of my friends, some of whom are downloaders?
Moron.
Let's sue the customers. Because that so worked for the music industry. Instead of accepting that networked transfer of information is the new reality and going with it. There are so many ways of making money here. But no, have to defend the old way. Man, they have NO VISION. No wonder Hollywood is addicted to creating formulaic movies. Risk aversion is fatal in creative industries, ya'know.
*face desk*
Ahh. Where i grew up VoIP was a set of defined standards, a particular implementation of the voice over the internet meme, with specific protocols and specific ports that needed to be punched through firewalls.
Thus voice over iChat and skype are not VoIP to me because they use very different data transmission protocols.
But, if you want to believe that VoIP is application and protocol independant, far be it for me to dissuade you. *sigh*
It may well be an attempt to kill VoIP. It sure smells like it. But, it doesn't kill skype. Or voice over iChat. Or hundreds of other similar apps.
And that, my friend, is what is really killing long distance phone calls.
Y'know, the least you could do is check your sources before chipping someone. According to Google, the original quote goes back to Benjamin Franklin. Jeez, louise.