Glitner finds a new home…

May 28th, 2010 No Comments

I am really happy to announce that Glitner finally has a new home adapted to its needs … Here is the press release; stay tuned for the follow-up!

Press Release

Paris May 27th 2010

Paris based Independent Pan European Digital Association (IPEDA) has acquired all of the intellectual property of the Glitner Project, including its B2B collaborative rights-declaration platform and database. An agreement was reached on the 19^th of April 2010 in Copenhagen, and is effective immediately.

Created in 2007, GLITNER is a Business-to-Business (B2B) service related to the specific world of Video-on-Demand exploitation of audiovisual content. Through an open and collaborative platform, it allows rights-holders to declare their VoD rights availability per version/territory. Acting as an info mediation platform, and without handing rights, it dramatically facilitates content acquisition and sourcing for VoD aggregators and platforms. Glitner has received both the support of the Media Programme of the European Union and the Centre National du Cinema et de l’Image Animée (CNC) in France.

Founded in 2009, IPEDA is a Paris based non-for profit association dedicated to using new technologies to the advancement of the European Film industry.

IPEDA gathers a large number of European Professionals and associations such as Trust Nordisk, Docuzone in Austria, and Cinefilco in Hungary for instance. It is dedicated to increasing the circulation and monetisation of content within the European Union, to provide market and research information to all stakeholders of the industry, and to sustain a healthy development of VoD to the service of the independent film industry.

The team at IPEDA is currently working on the integration of the Glitner technology in a new collaborative platform (www.ipeda.eu) open to all actors of film digital distribution in Europe. Over and above already existing Glitner services, IPEDA will provide new functionalities such as a dynamic listing of VoD offers on all legal platforms in the European Union.

IPEDA’s President, Ms Rikke Ennis (CEO of Copenhagen based Trust-Nordisk), said of the acquisition:

“Since 2007, we closely followed the evolutions of the Glitner Project. For many years, we recognised its position as a thought leader and pioneer in the development of innovative solutions for VoD rights circulation in Europe. It really only seemed natural to work hand in hand and build on the work done so far… We are very excited by this acquisition as Glitner’s technology, know how, and network will greatly benefit the development of our association and of the VoD industry in Europe.”

Pierre-Alexandre Labelle (President of Glitner):

“I am thrilled that Glitner is joining IPEDA in order to share the ambition and dynamism embodied by Trust Nordisk and all members of their association. This is the best possible outcome to three years of hard work by the whole team at Glitner. There are many of us who think that digital distribution is a great opportunity for the creation of a real and strong European market through a fluid cross border circulation of films. We have the ambition, through IPEDA, to achieve this by preserving its cultural differences, and by working with all current national actors. All IPEDA members share this common vision essential needed to improve the presence of European films on VoD platforms. With more than 700 legal VoD platforms in Europe, and a rising consumption, the stars are finally aligned.”

For more information please contact:

The Independent Pan European Digital Association

24 rue Louis Blanc

75010 Paris

France

contact(at)ipeda.eu

VoD, DVD, Piracy …

February 19th, 2010 No Comments

Just saw this and thought it was good food for thought … (click on it to make it bigger)

Social Media in 2010

February 19th, 2010 No Comments

Two months into 2010, if you took the TIME to browse the Internet … you probably noticed that left and right, a whole lot of people are getting worked up on social media as being the next big thing … What does it mean for the Film Industry … and should it be taken seriously?

Well I just got back from Berlin, where some people talk of it, but (luckily) I found that most people still talked of making movies and keeping the storytelling alive…

Aren't these people suppose to be online?

Anyway, in all cases, here are a few quotes that I’ve picked up from various sources conversations … (mainly offline and online), pertaining to social media, which I though we’re relevant and could be used as fuel for thought:

Online marketing, promotion and advertisement is a
great way to effectively reach an audience
I use facebook to talk about my films

I committed Facebook suicide

More and more people will realize spamming and blatant sales tactics WILL NOT work in social media. Community building will be key and it takes time and sustained effort..hence, I think we will see a fall off of people who got in there doing a sprint…its a marathon.

2010 will probably see a shift from “knowing” and “monitoring” towards actually taking proactive and preemptive actions

Listening is key before participating and engaging…
Leadership will begin looking for ways to collect and analyze this data and then use it to improve product development, customer service, marketing and other aspects of business
Is Twitter for reals? I mean, what the Puck?

Now what?

Well, if we bumped into each other during the Berlinale, we probably talked about all of that and more (VoD, Film distribution, Burgers, …) and this:

but we probably mentioned one or two things about Social Media, the importance for film professionals to come together and to harness new technologies in distribution and promotion … and that things will never be the same… Hit back to keep on talking!

Evolutions in film Financing (4/4)

January 29th, 2010 1 Comment

In partnership with the Biz and Tech Lab

The day of conferences was concluded with a panel dedicated to the evolutions in film financing, moderated by producer Eric Neve (La Chauve-Souris) and a panel composed of Gael Nouaille (Sales at Wild Bunch), Vicente Canales (Director of Sales – Filmax) Gustavo Ferrada (Head of Cinema – TVE), Bernard Tani (Head of TV and VoD at Orange) and Joaquin Garcia (Head of VoD and PPV at Telefónica).

Even though speakers normally communicate through very corporate presentations on their respective service offerings, Gaël Nouaille from Wild Bunch initiated a reasonable questioning on the current developments of investments throughout the value chain in the film industry, while Gustavo Ferrada called for a more appropriate and “fair” distribution of Spanish public investments.

The three funding crises

Emphasis was placed on the profound changes facing the industry today. The economic crisis (in particular the credit crisis) has largely dried up the banking resources of national distributors to, on the one hand, pay advances as minimum guaranteed (MG), and, on the other, to fund P&A campaigns associated with theatrical releases following an inflationary trend. From the perspective of the Theatrical Box office, the figures are certainly encouraging, but as pointed out by the exporter, given the number of films released every week, revenue per film is following a declining trend. Another effect of the economic crisis, investment funds and venture capital companies, which had invested large sums in film, withdrew from the area after having suffered between 2007 and 2009 global losses of around 2 billion dollars. Notably, funds that financed the acquisitions at Wild Bunch since the inception of the company, have completely withdrawn from the sector and I quote “are unwilling to set foot in it for a while” .

Nevertheless, focusing on the potential attractiveness of the market, Gaël Nouaille was optimistic about its ability to attract new capital (especially from the Middle East or India). He moreover highlighted the need to streamline production, suggesting a slowdown in the number of films for the independent sector (following the example unanimously implemented by the U.S. studios last year).

Concerning sales, even if U.S. studios saw their international market share reach record highs in 2009, the market share of national productions in each market has also grown substantially during this period, accentuating the market share for non-US foreign productions. French films are particularly affected by this competition, seeing their international attractiveness greatly reduced (except for a few key titles on certain markets)… In the United States especially, where, two years ago, award-winning films would find theatrical distributors (Sony Pictures Classics, Magnolia Pictures, etc..) ready to market the film and pay sometimes hefty advances for such productions.

Today, the crisis in the independent sector has resulted in a disengagement of many distributors in the US. This leaves the task to IFC Films for finding an audience in the United States, especially through their VoD service. But these new distribution channels, and their revenue sharing schemes, do not offset the shortfall of MG for exporters and producers (on some titles, it was up to 30% of the production budget of the film).

Another consequence of the economic crisis is directly linked to the reduction in amounts invested from broadcasters. With drastically declining advertising revenues, many players have announced a sharp reduction in investments in early 2009. In Germany in particular, 90% of projects “greenlighted” until last year were subject to a pre-purchase from a TV channel. ProSieben, which was a major player in the market, announced, in early 2009, a 80% decrease in its acquisition budget, which has greatly cut production budgets. Similarly, in Spain, a reform intended to reverse the investment obligations of TV channels in the domestic and European films is currently under way.

On the export side, the underlying trends are showing a decreasing turnover of international sales with national distributors.

They have indeed suffered from a reduction in video consumption, which has, in turn, significantly cut their resources… And producers are seeing their resources dried up in both banks, and TV channels.

So, one might conclude that the market is at half mast … But maybe we should consider releasing fewer films in theaters, and perhaps produce less expensive movies… That is to say, produce films with budgets commensurate with their commercial potential. For smaller films, those that are essential to produce, but do not generate a kopek in revenues, they could benefit from viral marketing campaigns at lower costs… The expression of cultural diversity can also take new forms at the digital world. No?

The legal offers and the fight against piracy (3/4)

January 20th, 2010 No Comments

In partnership with The Biz and Tech Lab

First of all, Rafael Cabrera, in charge of promotion at ICAA, started by strongly asserting that Spain was the Paradise on Earth of Internet Piracy, because there is state-of-the-art technological networks and a total absence of normative laws (Spain considered that illicit sharing of content over the Internet was not subject to the penal code, and since it is impossible to link IP addresses in civil pursuits, nothing is currently being done on a judiciary point of view…)

In 2008,more than 80 pages pointing towards illicit downloading of illegal material was being watched; we now account for more than 200. Rafael Cabrera then underlined that ICAA chose to concentrate their efforts on storage providers and dedicated servers rather than the users themselves (17 million of them in Spain; thus too many to keep under watch…), which is contrary to the position adopted by the French government. Finally, since the “illegal downloaders” are bound to become “future clients”, the idea is not to pass as a “bad guy”. Its in this perspective that FAPAE is also taking action choosing to propose a “mixed” model, administrative and legal.

Either through the creation of an Intellectual Property Commission (independent body reporting to the Ministry of Culture), which would be in charge of launching procedures to block web pages and shutting down dedicated servers, and the setting up of a judiciary control of decisions taken by this commission. If these two procedures to not help in curbing the problem, then users will also be concerned. Rafael Cabrera concluded by hoping to set up self regulation amongst professionals, in order to establish an economic model benefiting all actors of this new value chain (producers, distributors, ISPs, etc.); this is the third attempt… will it be successful this time?

Christian Soulié, the ALPA’s lawyer (Association de Lutte contre la Piraterie Audiovisuelle – Association against Audiovisual Piracy (see its very informative website…), ask the question of the author’s right: How do we solve the problem of VoD, and Piracy while respecting the author’s right? According to Me Soulié, the three consequences of piracy are impersonation, filtering access, and encryption: They are (and I quote) major dangers for the security of our countries… Me Soulié then explained that France decided to ask itself how to prevent illegal downloads, by responding through sanction , but also through education, fundamental principles of the three-strike-and-your-out policy.

Jacques Toubon, former minister and member of the Zelnik Commission (whose report was handed in last week, see story), presented the main propositions of this report starting from the original hypothesis (what means do the public powers and professional actors have to ensure that legal offers thrive?), while underlining that legal offers were yet to be interesting to consumers because of rights-holders reluctance to adhere to new profit sharing mechanisms… We then speak of three propositions: Availability of new releases, tv programs, and thus, of the renegotiation of Media Chronology; The widening of the film offer available on the Internet and IPTV services (he wished to underline that they had been “prospective” by asking the CSA and ARCEP to oppose the offer restriction coming from broadcasters and producers); and finally the support of digitalisation of content. He then insisted on the question of profit sharing underlining the dominating power of Google… He finished his intervention on this maybe famous quote to be… “The Global license is the legalization of piracy in exchange of the electricity bill…”

Finally, Aldo Olcese, president of the Spanish Coalition “creative and cultural industries and audiovisual” briefly presented three existing VOD offerings in Spain (where 3% of the downloads are legal):

Filmotech.com launched in 2007 by EGEDA – The Spanish Collective Management of Audiovisual rights – offers downloading and streaming, with 400 to 500 movies

Pixbox owned by Telefonica, compatible with Windows and mobile phones

Filmin launched by Spanish producers and distributors such as El Deseo or Alta Films, which offers downloads and streaming, in original version and subtitled, accessible on both Windows and Mac

Alas, we regret that this eternal VoD debate is always structured around the fight against piracy, repression, instead of supporting innovation and narrowing the gap between rights-holders and new technology companies.

Presentation of the French and Spanish Cinema Markets (2/4)

January 16th, 2010 No Comments

In partnership with The Biz and Tech Lab

Benoît Danard, head of research, statistics and prospective at the CNC, started by presenting the French Market : 2008 was a great year for Cinema in France with more than 200 million admissions and a 5.7% increase due to the film offer, to renovated screening facilities, and – not to forget – the economic crisis (which, as we know, pushes people into cinemas either for them to take a break or because “they cannot afford to go on vacation” …). But it’s also the year of the “Sticks” and its 20 million admission …

The market share of French Films was at 37,1% : 18 films made more than 1 million admissions (4 of them making more than 3 million admission), and 38 made more than 500 000 admission. Finally, 20% of the french films are responsible for 80% of admissions (yes yes … it’s Pareto who told us…). Concerning Spanish films released in France, the market share is about 1-2%, with 13 unedited films released in 2008 (on the 90 released). The Spanish co-productions did about 10% of admissions; knowing that it includes Astérix… It is important to underline that there was a set back in investments of 26,3% in 2009, and to mention the 3 coproductions in 2008 with budgets of almost 40 million euros such as Océans from Jacques Perrin (currently in French theatres – magnificient film…) and the two Arthurs from Luc Besson.

93 films were produced with almost 30 countries : 40,4% of approved films are coproductions, and 24,7% of films from French Initiative (FIF) are also coprodcutions. Majority Coproductions with Spain are declining, whereas minority co-productions are increasing (thus more financial coproductions vs artistic ones…)…. Spain is the 9th export market for French Films, a setback vs 2007. 3,7% of exportation revenues of French films come from Spain… whcih gives us a pretty grim vision of the MG’s value on this territory…

Then, Pedro Perez, President of FAPAE (Spanish producer’s association), did a rather pessimistic observation of franco-spanish Cinema… In 2009, 111 Spanish films were produced, out of which 39 were coproductions, and 116 were released in Cinemas. The market share of Spanish films is 16% (13% in 2008)with a box office increase of 20% vs 2008 (518 million euros for the Total Spanish Box office, including 494 million euros for foreign films)… Only 3 films made more than 1 million admissions (and only one made more than 3 million – Alejandro Amenabar’s Agora with a production budget of 50 million euros). The problem with Spanish films is that they make more money abroad than on the national territory… Juan A. Bayona’s The Orphenage (Sales Agent : Wild Bunch) and Jaume Balaguero et Paco Plaza’s REC (Sales Agent : Filmax) are the Spanish movies that fared the best in number of territories sold, followed by Vicky Cristina Barcelona from Woody Allen (Sales Agent : Wild Bunch).

Concerning French Cinema in Spain, its market share is 2,2% with only 7 French films , 10 bilateral coproductions, and 3 trilateral… Daniel Monzon’s Celda 211 co-produced by Spanish Morena Films, Vaca Films and French producers La Fabrique de films, (sold by Films Distribution) was the most prolific with 16 nominations at the Goyas. It is certain that the revision of the cinema law is one of the consequences of the number of films co-produced (as producers are blind concerning the year to come…). As of the 1st of January 2010, publicity will disappear from public television – just like in France – et the two private operators Telecinco and Antena 3 will share 90% of publicity revenues. Pedro Perez used the metaphor of a house in construction in order to talk of the cinema law… we have to wait for everything to be done before starting to plan things… :-/

Ignasi Guardans continued by mentioning that the Cinema law can only be put in application once some of the application decrees will be approved y Brussels, notably : the general law on audiovisual means imposing the participation of private and public televisual networks in the financing of content, and the (r)evolution of Spanish radio. The changes to come will cover: the funding programmes for scriptwriting, animation production, TV film production, public/professional new technology training (hooray!!)

Many films have not received the necessary production funding; thus creating a discrimination between two types of films: “Commercial” films and “Authors films”, which need to be treated differently as the stakes and expected outcomes do not serve the same purposes… He insisted on the fact that “smaller” films should receive more attention (hooray!). There is a real willingness from the Spanish government to support international co-productions. The other important modification will be to consider as a Spanish spend, expenses carried out abroad (we can raise Spanish funds and sepnd them in France or the UK). All in all, Ignasi Guardans confirmed the interest of Spain to establish a coproduction mini-treaty (such as the existing French-German)…

The 3rd Franco-Spanish Cinema Meetings organised by Unifrance (1/4)

January 15th, 2010 No Comments

in partnership with The Biz and Tech Lab.

Unifrance organised for the third consecutive year the Franco-Spanish Cinema Meetings in Paris in order to cast light on these two markets, whose interactions are unfortunately limited, notwithstanding the reciprocal affection felt by these two countries on many accounts…

Antoine de Clermont Tonnerre, Unifrance’s President, opened the debate by introducing Véronique Cayla, Head of the CNC, and Ignasi Guardans, recently appointed head of ICAA.

Underlining that only the negative aspects of the digitalisation of Cinema is often pointed out (the fragmentation of the audience, the weakening of historical players – thus the financing of independent features, and piracy) , Ms Cayla chose to be optimistic for 2010, by insisting on the positive effects of new technologies such as the more open environment for new talents and the development of digital distribution such as Video on Demand (VoD). Just like Spain, France has been working on the deployment of solutions in order to reach common objectives: To develop a legal offer of films online, and to implement the so-called graduate response. Moreover, she finished her intervention by wishing for the creation of a European Fund for Cultural Diversity, which could be financed by Media Mundus, without disclosing any details.

As for Mr. Guardans, he still does not understand the mutual feelings of sympathy between the two countries does not translate itself into more common projects : especially when both countries are confronted with the same problems (he insists on piracy both also on new economical models to put in place). He also insist on the fact that we must reinforce the bilateral relations of France and Spain, especially at a co-production level. Since the Spanish laws are currently in the midst of mutation, the authorities are in need of concrete experiences from professionals in order to adapt the rules throughout the process.

Three debates occurred during the afternoon sessions:

- Presentation of the French and Spanish Cinema Markets,

- The legal offers and the fight against piracy,

- Evolutions in film financing

They will each be treated in a separate post … stay tuned.

Film Festivals in 2010 …

January 11th, 2010 No Comments

Festivals, Audience, and Social Media…

Festivals are essential to the proper development and marketing of audiovisual content; they allow for professionals to scout new talent, to meet their peers, exchange and build trustworthy relationships essential to the production/monetization of a high-risk prototype industry such as filmmaking.

Festivals are also increasingly becoming a platform where core audiences gather in order to discover the new films that will then be marketed and distributed to audiences around the world. Indeed, people gathering at festivals turn out to be active communities in grass root marketing, whose interactions and conversations are becoming more important in the effective distribution of audiovisual content…

In many countries, successful commercial distribution of “independent films” is made difficult due to the “niche” aspect of the market, and filmbuffs rely mostly on International Film Festivals in their home countries to catch a glimpse of what the International community of filmmakers has best to offer.

Kirchleintragen

Traditionally, the recommendations made by Cinema affectionados were mostly ineffective and not usable by their entourage… Even though Fritz had seen this great film during the Viennale, his friend Carl (living in Carinthia) could not easily have access to it, as the movie would not get (or limited) distribution in traditional networks… Carl would slowly nod his head saying “Das ist interressant Fritz”; however his thoughts would quickly go back to something more familiar to him, or something he could hope to eventually enjoy like a a good old Kirchleintragen (pictured here). Furthermore, Fritz excitement for the film would slowly but surely die off due to the arrival of the Rathaus Weihnachtsmarkt in Vienna, and the lack of friends with whom he could share his interest…

But voilà, the Internet was invented, and along with it came promises of a better world for everyone… in other words, Fritz is no longer alone; his interest can be stored, and shared as he see fits with a growing community of cinema lovers, and Carl will finally have access to all films available for him to choose exactly what his friend is recommending at anytime he wants; at the tip of his fingers…

With the help of Social Media Technologies, 2010 could rightly be the year where Festivals and Audiences come together to reintroduce these events as the main platforms for film promotion around the world…

Sundance; a trend setter?

We have been seeing in the professional press, since the beginning of 2010, many articles (such as this one, that one and this one) concerning Sundance Select partnering up with the Sundance institute to make selected films available simultaneously to Festival screenings via Video on Demand (VoD)… but that’s not all… Let us dream a little.

Sundance also has many online tools in order for a person like me to follow what is going on via their website/player, twitter account, and facebook account.

I’ll let you take a look at what they have in store for us in 2010 …

Festivals as Promotional Platforms

Now what?

In order to fully reap the benefits of these promotional circuits, Film professionals are currently in need of solutions in order to reach these audiences. However, the singularities of different events, cultural differences, the costs, and lack of resources/time needed to properly prepare for such events are currently hindering film professionals to harness the full potential offered by festival exposure.

Glitner has been working on modernizing its approach based on the mutations actually taking place in the industry… and we believe that new technologies are currently changing many existing paradigms, and that they will play a central role in tomorrow’s film industry. More to come on our solutions adapted for festivals …

Niche vs Massmarket and the pricing of online content…

December 1st, 2009 1 Comment

Lemon Pie

In the Market for Lemons, the economist George Akerlof talks of used cars … Used-Cars-756615

There are good used cars and defective used cars (“lemons”), but because of asymmetric information about the car (the seller knows much more about the problems of the car than the buyer), the buyer of a car does not know beforehand whether it is a good car or a lemon. So the buyer’s best guess for a given car is that the car is of average quality; accordingly, he/she will be willing to pay for it only the price of a car of known average quality. This means that the owner of a good used car will be unable to get a high enough price to make selling that car worthwhile.

Can this be true for online content? A film is a perfect example of an asymmetric information market; you pay for an experience without really knowing what your level of satisfaction will be… it’s like a box of chocolate… (just kidding); Anyway, the film industry is primarily one of prototypes, and according to Akerlof, this should mean that people would only be ready to pay average prices to watch films. One could argue that there are some variables to throw in the formula …

Test-Market screenings
Festivals
Press screenings and critics

Going further, by including recognizable features in films (Brad Pitt or Natalie Portman) and by increasing Publicity and Advertisement budgets; the industry managed to “reassure” the audience that they would get there money’s worth. However, as shown in many examples, this is not always enough, and might not be appropriate for independent films.

Indeed, according to some, what will make or break the film mostly depends on word of mouth…

But online, one question remains:

Arguably people are willing to pay for content, however, are we (as Internet users) so overwhelmed by content that we are not willing to put up some cash to access it online?

Let us look at a couple of videos …

First Rupert Murdoch on the necessity of having people pay for content:

Then Eric Schmidt, who doesn’t seem to be bothered by this question:

(Update on the 2nd of December) … It seems that Google is firing back. In an announcement yesterday, Google is now proposing a First Click Free program by suggesting to publishers to let traffic on their website for free (landing page), and once the user clicks on the website, to start charging for it… Google is in essence saying, we bring you billions of viewers, it’s not our fault if you can profit from this. Smart response but won’t change much for the publishers …

How can the Internet be used by premium content owners in order to enhance the value of their content? We’ll get back to this a bit later

let us first dig into different “trending” categories of cinematographic content …

Blockbusters of Blockbuster?

A very good article was published in this week’s Economist on the current divergence of media into blockbusters or niche – while the rest remains “stuck in the middle”…

In its weekly edition, the journal deciphers the current trends in Media consumptions and challenges the theory of the long tail by quoting economists suggesting that “obscure” films are being supplied at a greater rate than they are being discovered by the public, and wonder if media companies can actually profit from selling very little of great many things. It seems that the outcome is not as black or white as Mr Anderson, or his detractors, would like it to be, and that, as a matter of fact, both the hits and the tail are doing quite well. So what’s the deal?

Well the deal is pretty much everything that remains in the middle … all that content produced that do not make it to the top or does not actually serve a niche market; all those movies that people used to watch because there was nothing else on telly. Looking at this chart for music, which one could argue would also be valid for cinematographic content, it seems that only the top guns are actually faring better, and that the rest is losing. Moreover, according to the article, blockbusters often get better reviews than other films due, partly, to “Formal Theories of Mass Behaviour” as explained by William McPhee in his 1963 essay… It basically says that people watching blockbusters do not watch as many films as people watching more obscure content, and will therefore lack the critical knowledge of a more astute audience (watching many more films). In other words, Transformers will get more stars on Netflix than Sin Nombre could expect not because of their respective quality, but rather because the former will have more clueless critics rating it … :-/ which would explain why, past a certain point, it seems that word of mouth becomes less relevant… But remember; there can only be one.

At the other side of the tail, as more content becomes accessible and word of mouth playing a central role in the promotion of quality content, the best content serving the critically demanding public will surely benefit from the Internet. Moreover, that premium content does not have the “Theatrical Problem” of being pushed out before effective word of mouth can develop. Furthermore, the Internet will (and should) increasingly be used months before theatrical release as it is an incredible promotional vector for independent film distribution.

Here is an interview from Michael Lynton recorded in New York during the Economist Media Convergence conference. Mr Lynton believes that no matter what, the film narrative structure as we know it will thrive in the future. Furthermore, according to him, “cheap” films are a reality that will prompt studios in adapting themselves, without replacing them.

Better than Free

Now what?

Pondering on these topics brought me back to a very interesting read by Kevin Kelly, which can be found here (to keep in your bookmarks I reckon).

I am certain that in it lies some great advice in order to

Serve your niche audience online (in the case of Independent films),
Behead your blockbusting opponent online (in the case of Multi-hundread-million dollar productions),
Recoup the economic gap created by online lemons (if your content is worth it…),

But mostly prepare for the times to come …

Picture element … In other words … a Pixel

November 25th, 2009 No Comments

… in other words, the upcoming event being organised in Paris at the Forum des Images by Arte, the French Media Desk in collaboration with the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and coordinated by Media Consulting Group.

As a follow-up to the excellent Power to the Pixel, this one day event will be a open platform to speak of the past, present and future of the film industry, it’s authors, directors, distributors, critics and die-hard fans. It will most likely cover topics such as freenomics, crowd funding, online distribution, promotion and social media … with guests such as Brian Newman, Michel Reilhac, Michel Peeters from Content Republic, and Fabio Lima to name a few … In other words, Pixel is an event not to be missed if you happen to be in Paris…

Meanwhile, you can actually download the Micheal Gubbins’ report from Power to the Pixel’s Think Tank.

In it you will find that:

The panel questioned the future of a system in which value resides in the selling of rights to a restricted territory and for a single platform,

Value is likely to shift towards the relationship with an understood and active audience,

The cross media argument is that audiences ultimately decide the hierarchy of platforms,

Empowerment in the film industry is about a culture of creation and participation where the gap between creator and audience – and between participation and consumption – is blurred.

The temptation – seemingly irresistible to many in the industry establishment – is to see these participatory digital developments as mere amateur tinkering that will have no impact on “real film”. But for the Think Tank, such thinking misses the point.

“Most people fell in love with the atmosphere of the industry and they want to be a part of that. They are not about storytelling. They are about being a member of the film community the way it has always been. Part of a mythology.”

The challenge to the industrial status quo from the cross-media movement is to see beyond the idea that value can only be based only on licensing, rights, territories and windows.

and much more…

All of this is likely to be interesting food for thoughts for the upcoming Public Consultation from the European Commission on Content Online, in which all interested parties are invited to comment on the ideas raised in this reflection paper, and in particular on the “Possible Actions” outlined in Chapter 5 by the 5th of January 2010.

Glitner

Insights into Glitner …

Glitner finds a new home…

VoD, DVD, Piracy …

Social Media in 2010

I committed Facebook suicide

More and more people will realize spamming and blatant sales tactics WILL NOT work in social media. Community building will be key and it takes time and sustained effort..hence, I think we will see a fall off of people who got in there doing a sprint…its a marathon.

Listening is key before participating and engaging…

Is Twitter for reals? I mean, what the Puck?

Now what?

Evolutions in film Financing (4/4)

The three funding crises

The legal offers and the fight against piracy (3/4)

Presentation of the French and Spanish Cinema Markets (2/4)

The 3rd Franco-Spanish Cinema Meetings organised by Unifrance (1/4)

Film Festivals in 2010 …

Festivals, Audience, and Social Media…

Sundance; a trend setter?

Festivals as Promotional Platforms