"After drawing millions of views online in the past two years, (“In the Motherhood”) was transformed into a traditional network sitcom, making it the first Web show to be remade for network television. But what made the Web series unique — an interactive style of storytelling — was quashed by the legal engine of Hollywood. On the MSN.com edition of “Motherhood” (since discontinued), short segments about funny, frazzled mothers were inspired by the real-life stories that viewers submitted via an Internet forum. ABC, similarly, asked for story submissions on its Web site (itm.abc.go.com) and said that they “might just become inspiration for a story by the writers.” But ABC’s call for ideas from moms drew the attention of the Writers Guild of America, which said this type of request for submissions was “not permissible” under its contract with the network. This week ABC abruptly removed the language about “inspiration” from its Web site, effectively saying that the writers may not be listening to viewers’ ideas, after all."
Brian Stelter @ Moms Find Move of ‘In the Motherhood’ From Web to TV on ABC a Hard Shift - NYTimes.com
this is just silly. couldn’t they just figure out the legalities? oh… or is that what the real innovation would have been?
"The growth in viewing of long-form content online is also a boon for the growing online video ad market, he (Gian Fulgoni, chairman and co-founder of comScore) said. The longer people watch, the more advertising opportunities there are. The average online Internet user is watching 3.5 minutes at a time, and that keeps increasing. “That’s a really important metric because if we just stick with three-minute video clips that limits the number of ads,” he said. “You want these longer-running shows so you can maximize ad dollars. This is one of the key components of the future of online advertising.” However, work still needs to be done in where ads should live in online video, whether as pre-rolls, post-rolls or another form, he added."
Daisy Whitney @ comScore Chairman: Down with Clicks, Up with Video
video content on the web is a ripe advertising medium.
"There’s a myth out there among some newspapers folks that “if only” the newspapers hadn’t committed the “original sin” of putting content online for free, the newspapers wouldn’t be facing difficulties these days. It’s the kind of story that sounds good if you don’t look too closely at the details. … However, it looks like Mark Cuban believes in that “original sin” concept, and is posting a series of blog posts to try to prevent TV networks from making the same “mistake.” It started with the claim that anyone who thinks TV is going a la carte online is crazy, because the “content companies” will never give up the fees they earn from the networks. … He (like NBC Universal execs) laughs off the “threat” of people switching to all online access to TV content, noting that very few people have done so. This surprises me, since you’d think that Cuban would be familiar enough with Clayton Christensen’s work to know that just because there are only a few early adopters (and the quality isn’t as good) that it doesn’t mean that it’s not a potential threat. In fact, those questions are basically the de facto list of questions that an “incumbent” player tends to ask when facing a Christensen-style “innovator’s dilemma” just before the upstart technology really begins to hurt the legacy business."
Mike Masnick @ Mark Cuban Declares War On Free TV Online… But Misses Out On The Economics | Techdirt
free online tv is pissing a lot of people off.
"It looks like yet another filmmaker has realized that obscurity is a much bigger threat than piracy. Matthew Krum lets us know that the makers of the movie BLANK have decided to release the movie on all torrent sites, while also offering up a DVD version and a donation offering on their site. While I’m not a huge fan of give it away and pray business models, you have to like the attitude these filmmakers have: “No one should have to pay for a film they did not like. No one should be denied the right to enjoy the art of film. … Basically the consumer pays what they think the film was worth to them. They will also have the option to sign up for a newsletter for our next film. In this newsletter there will be a username and password to a web forum so they can follow us through pre production, production and post production of our next film."
Mike Masnick @ Filmmaker Releases Film Via All Torrent Sites, Says Pay If You Like It | Techdirt
another ballsy experiment.
"Until recently, most 3-D fare produced for non-IMAX movie screens was an afterthought, converted from 2-D. Monsters, however, was designed and filmed with added dimension in mind. … “There hasn’t been any real innovation in the moviegoing experience in many decades,” says (Jeffrey Katzenberg) the Hollywood honcho whose company’s output will be all 3-D from now on. “People want to be excited by something special and unique that happens in movies, something that can’t happen anywhere else.” All the better to compete with pimped-out home media rooms. Other benefits include cleaner prints and a deterrent to piracy. “Almost every movie would benefit from being 3-D, the way nearly every movie benefits from being in color,” he says, though the format has been best served by animation so far. “When James Cameron comes forward with Avatar, it will mark a whole new era of live-action films. When other filmmakers see what he has done, they will want to use it."
Susan Wloszczyna @ 3-D takes a giant leap into the future - USATODAY.com
3D in every film, in every theater, in every home? is this the future?
"The BBC Trust, which watches over the broadcaster’s budget on behalf of UK citizens who pay the license fee that funds operations, has agreed to a £30.7 million ($44.3 million) budget increase for the BBC’s web ventures. That brings the total to more than £145 million a year for the next three years. Meanwhile, traffic to online video web sites has risen 40.7 percent in the UK over the last 12 months, with YouTube garnering 62.9 percent of those visits, according to the Beeb. Further, traffic to the BBC’s iPlayer is up 152.1 percent, and is second to YouTube among video sites with an 11.2 percent share. Hopefully the budget increase will be enough to cover the growing bandwidth bill. The extra money comes at a time when the BBC is otherwise scaling back."
Jackson West @ BBC Trust Boosts Web Budget, Cuts TV and Film Money
follow the money.
"Amazon-owned IMDb, the mega-database for all things entertainment, has been skirting the issue for a while, but this week let out hints that it will finally be adding a new category for original web series and one-off web videos. Veteran web series creator Casey McKinnon (Galacticast) reports on her blog with news out of Austin’s SXSW Interactive conference that IMDb founder and managing director Col Needham states that the company is in fact preparing to add the separate categories for online content."
Marc Hustvedt @ IMDb to Add Web Series Category, So What’s a Web Series?
web series are for real, says imdb!
"With limited theatrical options for getting their films in front of audiences today, numerous filmmakers have explored (or at least pondered) the Internet as an outlet. … The challenge, of course, is balancing the widespread awareness afforded by the Internet with still emerging revenue models. “This isn’t where we are going to be making money now,” “Super Size Me” director Morgan Spurlock told a large crowd on Monday at SXSW. “If you are looking to pay your rent, not so much, if you’re looking to pay your phone blll, you have a chance.” Later, when the discussion shifted to panelists’ reluctance to talk about the hard traffic numbers, Spurlock offered a line that has already been picked up by media and bloggers: “The reason numbers aren’t releaed is because the numbers are pathetic.” … Spurlock also noted, optimistically, “The fact that it continues to garner eyeballs is the most important thing…the exposure is gigantic.” And he later predicted, “Down the road, [revenues] will grow."
Eugene Hernandez @ Digital Distribution: ‘Gigantic’ Exposure? ‘Pathetic’ Revenues’? - indieWIRE
everybody’s watching, but people aren’t getting paid. for now at least.
"I agree that the traditional distribution model is broken,” concurred (“Helvetica” filmmaker) Gary Hustwit, “But I feel that the way to fix it is to go directly to the audiences,” he continued. “Why are we building other people’s businesses when we could be building our own business.” Seated in the audience, an industry insider answered the question aloud, “Because not all filmmakers want to be businessmen."
Eugene Hernandez @ Digital Distribution: ‘Gigantic’ Exposure? ‘Pathetic’ Revenues’? - indieWIRE
will everybody have to become a mini distributor? i hope to god not.
"Hired to produce behind the scenes material for Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Knutson and Figueroa included as part of the package … webisodes that introduced audiences to the film months ahead of time; essentially an electronic press kit for the masses. “We just want to change the way the [electronic press kit] is done,” Figueroa says. “Because in my opinion, the way it’s done is boring.” … But there were some shorts they weren’t able to include, because it turns out that the MPAA now considers webisodes to be part of a film’s promotional materials, and it thus has to approve the content. Thus, a short featuring Rogan and other cast members discussing and interacting with the fake semen used for a shot was banned. The banned video (which they screened) is available on the Zack and Miri DVD as a special feature — but “it would have gone viral,” according to Knutson."
Liz Shannon Miller @ Zack and Miri Documenters On The Woes Of Webisodes « NewTeeVee
those darn ratings.
"When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to. There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie."
Clay Shirky @ Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky
it’s a revolution.
"File this in your the “Yet another way Fox has found to inspire geek hate” folder: According to a report by VideoBusiness (Via CNet), 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is going to start stripping rental DVDs SKUs of special features like commentaries and featurettes, in a horrendously misguided attempt to spur retail DVD sales. Retail copies available for purchase will retain all the special features. … It seems nobody is happy about this situation, including video store workers. According to one video store buyer in the VB article: “Can you imagine explaining this to all of your customers? People will think when they rent, it should have everything on it. And why shouldn’t it? This is just silly, and consumers aren’t going to be happy."
David Chen @ Fox To Remove Special Features From Rental DVDs | /Film
very silly indeed.
"Google recently spent more than $3 billion to acquire DoubleClick, a banner-ad-serving company that derived its value from having profiles on visitors to the net’s most popular sites and letting companies target their ads to particular groups. Google will now combine DoubleClick’s targeting with info from its sprawling AdSense network … and will quickly be able to build up robust profiles on Google users, whether they have an account or not. But more intriguingly, Google also announced YouTube ads will become targeted by categorizing what you watch, say and do on YouTube — combined with the other info from its DoubleClick. … That’s Google slyly telling you where all this is heading. Google says its mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google often says that it believes ads are information. What it doesn’t say, but clearly believes, is that you are information to be indexed, made accessible and useful."
Ryan Singel @ Analysis: Google’s Ad Targeting Turns Algorithms on You | Epicenter from Wired.com
here comes creepy.
"Many people mistakenly think that open source projects are emergent, self-organized and democratic. The truth is just the opposite: most are run by a benevolent dictator or two. What makes successful open source projects is leadership, plain and simple. One or two people articulate a vision, start building towards it and bring others on board with specific tasks and permissions. The best projects are the ones with the best leaders. Social media, on the other hands, doesn’t exist for a shared purpose. It exists to serve the individual. We don’t tweet to built Twitter, we tweet to suit ourselves. We blog because we can, not because we have signed on to a blogging project. Seen this way, open source projects are like companies. Social media is like a country."
Chris Anderson @ Open source is a company; social media is a country | The Long Tail - Wired Blogs
tweeting is selfish.
"In recent years many studies have shown that a large chunk of Internet users share copyrighted files on P2P networks, and this number is rapidly increasing every year. The results of a Canadian study published today show that 45% of all those surveyed use file-sharing networks to download movies and music. Also, this behavior is widely accepted since only 3% of the people who participated in the study said that file-sharers should be punished by law. … So should sharing copyrighted material be legalized? Not per se, but the entertainment industry should focus on monetizing filesharing networks instead of bringing them down. The Internet has drastically changed the way people consume music and other forms of entertainment. Every piece of information is only a few clicks away, and people demand the same for their music and other types of media. There are no boundaries anymore. 15 years ago it was unthinkable that someone could have access to millions of songs, on demand. Now, this has become reality, but the music industry is still hesitant to offer such a service."
Ernesto @ Piracy Has Become Mainstream, Studies Show | TorrentFreak
give me the convinence of P2P, charge but a reasonable fee, and then why would i pirate?
← THE PAST
PAGE 1 OF 13
