End of the World As Hollywood Knows It

mikehudack:

xxxjustinralconxxx:

adamiss:

soupsoup:

tanya77:

“To: Charlize Theron, Hugh Jackman, Seth Rogen, Tina Fey, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, every actor, actress, screenwriter, costumer, best boy, cameraman, set designer, makeup artist, and agent—plus anyone else who makes their living in the film industry. 

From: Greg Sandoval, CNET media reporter and film fan. 
Re: Your livelihood

Cut your spending. Save your money. Many of the revenue streams that have gushed into your industry for decades, some for nearly a century, are about to dry up. This will likely mean a period of belt tightening like you’ve never seen before.

The end is coming for DVDs, traditional movie rentals, and yes, much of your cable money will likely disappear.” (via CNET)


Opportunity knocks

Mike and I were just talking about this on the fire escape yesterday.  It is a brave new world for film out there, but don’t worry, we still have talent, we still have passion, we still have creativity, we can get money.

An alternative film financing and distribution system will emerge in the coming years. Have no doubt. Do not worry. Embrace the change and you will be fine.

I think that alternate distribution/financing models are already in place. Sites like Kickstarter along with iTunes’ ability to distribute 720p quality movies makes the space eminently lucrative for low/mid budget filmmakers. The piece of the puzzle that is missing is marketing, but with everyone pimping out their Twitter/Facebook accounts, and YouTube/Blip/Vimeo as a source for movie trailers, behind the scenes footage, interviews, etc, we’re basically there.

The cost of distribution is relatively low - a 1500MB LibSyn account is $60 a month. That is enough space to put up an AppleTV spec’ed movie (as long as it’s under a couple hours).

The movie would come with a pre-roll (or some product integration) and cost 99 cents. Assuming a 70/30 split (same as iPhone apps) and a $50 CPM, it would take 80 views/mo to recoup the hosting/serving budget. Assuming a $15,000 budget it would take 20,000 views. Assuming a $100,000 budget it would take 132,500 views to recoup cost.

The creator/director of “Paranormal Activity”, Oren Peli, sold the rights to his movie for $300,000 (it is unclear whether Peli received any cut of the film’s profits or stands to gain from a possible sequel - I’ll assume, naively, he didn’t). For Peli to make $315,000 using an alternate distribution model (the movie’s production budget was $15,000), he’d have to generate 420,000 downloads - this is not an exorbitant number.

What I’m trying to say is that someone could make a great movie, generate a half million downloads, work in a sponsor, and stand to make more through an alternate distribution model than through a straight licensing deal with a large studio. Today.

This was posted 2 years ago. It has 45 notes.
  1. ronenreblogs reblogged this from mikehudack
  2. princeboucher reblogged this from mikehudack
  3. mikehudack reblogged this from rafer and added:
    There will definitely be revenue compression. There will also be fewer value choke-points that lead to the emergence of...
  4. rafer reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    Rafer sez: @mikehudack Your comment implies that you don’t think there will be revenue compression, i.e. that a dollar...
  5. andres reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    I think that alternate distribution/financing models are already in place. Sites like Kickstarter along with iTunes’...
  6. idkid reblogged this from takethecityandrun
  7. helloxander reblogged this from mikehudack
  8. brianvan reblogged this from tanya77 and added:
    pay rent on your own.
  9. mercurypdx reblogged this from tanya77 and added:
    If this means there will actually be a GOOD movie I’m willing to pay $14(+ snacks) to watch in a theater, then I am all...
  10. tanya77 reblogged this from takethecityandrun and added:
    Don’t get me wrong. I posted this because the knowledge that the Entertainment Business has taken an irreversible turn...
  11. ryanbrown reblogged this from christinebeardsell and added:
    If this is news to you, and you work in film/tv/entertainment, you should find another career.
  12. takethecityandrun reblogged this from mikehudack
  13. 6h057 reblogged this from justinalcon and added:
    Brother, can you spare a city tax-break for some CTO gel?
  14. christinebeardsell reblogged this from tanya77
  15. mcdavis reblogged this from justinalcon
  16. justinalcon reblogged this from adamiss and added:
    Mike and I were just talking about this on the fire escape yesterday. It is a brave new world for film out there, but...
  17. adamiss reblogged this from soupsoup and added:
    Opportunity knocks
  18. soupsoup reblogged this from tanya77
  19. avgas reblogged this from tanya77 and added:
    Bunk. I’m way too drunk to retort right now, but having done some very quick research,
  20. tanya77 posted this