Our Changing Industry - Something for Indie Filmmakers to Consider

I was just reading a white paper on something unrelated to indie horror, but it had some pretty startling stats on video content. Now, we all know we're living in a pivotal time in media consumption, but what we don't really know is where it's pivoting to. This white paper got me thinking and maybe some of these stats can light the way and show us something... I'll extract some of the highlights for you.

Overall viewership of traditional television networks, meaning ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, etc... is down, although there's a 1% overall increase in television viewing. So, that means that people are watching far more cable and specialty programming. Also, time shifted television content via DVR's increased 26% and the consumption of video content via the internet increased by 24%. Now, here's the shocking stat, the consumption of video content via mobile technologies is increasing at a TRIPLE digit rate. According to Youtube, mobile viewership increased 160% from 2008 to 2009. Consider all this and know that, although theatrical revenues are up, theatrical attendance has been flat or declined every year for the last decade...

So, what's all this mean? Well, a lot... and there's a lot of reasons why this is happening. The main reason is, ten or twenty years ago, you, as a viewer, didn't have much choice. You had a handful of TV channels to choose from and they usually just aired your usual TV programming. If you wanted a movie, you went to the theater or you went to Blockbuster to rent one. Video on the internet? What's that? Fast forward to today... you have choice, a lot of it. You can choose what you watch, when you watch it and where you watch it. This creates a fragmented marketplace. There's hundreds of channels to choose from and they air everything from movies on demand to specialty networks to regular programming. Movies are available everywhere and in so many different formats via so many different ways, it's insane - on your phone, on your computer, on your tablet... and then there's there internet, it changed everything. Content doesn't fit a certain mould anymore, it's anything and it's delivered anywhere. The viewer gets to choose now. Not the networks. Not the studios. Not the theater chains. The viewer has the power and when the viewer has the power, things change. So, what's this mean for content creators?

When I say 'content creator', I mean you. We're no longer filmmakers. We're content makers... and our content will be distributed on everything from big screens to handheld mobile devices. Our content won't be defined by time. No more 90 minute features, 22 minute episodic TV. It can be anything and it can be any length. Personally, I think that, for the first time in the history of entertainment, talent will define success. If you make content that people will watch, they'll watch. It's easy to get it out there. Attract enough of an audience and you'll get sponsors, you'll get advertisers, you'll get people to pay and the networks, studios and executives will take notice. It's a revolutionary time and I think we're in the midst of massive change... but that's just me.

So, what do you think? I'm I wrong? Is this just a blip or an anomaly? How's all this going to effect you? ...or is it? How's this going to effect the whole industry? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

RIP Blockbuster... All Hail VOD!

Is it a coincidence that in the same week that "a slew of Hollywood studios and cable companies are teaming up for a $30 million advertising campaign... to further promote awareness of movies available on cable VOD" (THR.com - "Studios, cable companies team for VOD"), we have "Blockbuster shares tumble after bankruptcy warning"? (Associated Press) Well, actually, it is a coincidence, I guess, but there is a very specific shift in the industry that's causing both events to happen...

Truth of the matter is, the DVD is dying. I don't think it'll ever fully go away, but it's definitely being devalued. According to Redbox, the subsidiary of Coinstar that specializes in the vending of rental DVD's via self-service/interactive kiosks, the rental of a DVD is worth a couple bucks, at best. Then, you have the Hulu's and Netflix's. Hulu is streaming content for free and Netflix is mailing DVD's out using a subscription model, which pushes the value of each DVD even lower. However, even Netflix sees the downside of DVD's and they're pushing heavily into VOD and streaming, by partnering with the likes of XBox, PS3 and even TiVo. Blockbuster tried to shift with the times, concentrating their outlets on being a retail experience and getting into mailing out DVD's and creating their own VOD experience, but, hey... it's a crowded marketplace.

Now, for fun, let's go back a few years. Back to the early 90's... the Worldwide web didn't exist, Mark Wahlberg was just a rapper, email was a few years away, we were anxiously waiting for "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday", after the disappointment that was "Jason Takes Manhatten", and computers were relegated to getting information from floppy discs. Your computer was used to play "Leisure Suit Larry" and write term papers, that was about it. However, there were a few visionaries out there that knew what was coming... This thing called the Internet was about to come along and with it would come massive changes in hardware, software and infrastructure. Fast forward to present day and we now have the ability to interact, download and stream the richest of content, instantly. We got here pretty fast, didn't we? Now, what does this all mean?

Well, really, it doesn't mean that much. Looking back, TV meant the demise of the movie theater. VHS meant the demise of TV. Cable meant the demise of the Networks. DVD meant the demise of VHS. Now, streaming and VOD mean the demise of DVD. Looking at it that way, VHS is the only thing that really got hooped... poor VHS. Well, that was bound to happen. Remember when you used to have your VHS tapes and you'd keep their boxes all clean and on display? Remember how proudly you displayed your DVD collection? I don't know about you, but I've lost most of my DVD boxes and I have scratched up, old DVD's everywhere. This is just a shift in the industry and shifts will keep happening. After streaming and VOD, my bet is that everything goes to a cloud system - pay once for the rights to view content, then you'll get it forever, on any device... but it'll only be streamed, you'll never actually hold the file itself. Imagine if there was only ONE file at the studio and everyone, from the theaters to Billy Joe Bob in Utah, all just streamed from that. That's next. Remember when you needed a hard drive? That's so early 2000's... Next up, fully ubiquitous devices that can handle all media formats, you watch.

For now, I think this shift is good for indie filmmakers, I've been saying that for a while... and I feel it's been a long time coming. We're inching forward and I like it. It lowers the barriers of entry for distribution and the barrier for content creation is already low. Now, there's no tapes, DVD's or film. No shipping, retail outlets or kiosks. You'll just have a file. Upload it to somewhere and people can get it. Now, we just have to sit back, watch this all unfold and hope that the infrastructure is put in place for us indie guys to use it and profit from it.

Have a great weekend, see you next week!

The Future of Indie Horror and How To Survive The Singularity

Okay, I have no idea on how we're going to survive the singularity, but I DO have some ideas on the future of indie horror... which should entertain us until the robots do take over in a few years. I mean, not only is it one of the most asked questions of us... it's also one of the questions we ask the most, "What is the future of indie horror?" We're unwavering in our belief - there's a big, bright shiny future for it. However, a lot of people think that the economics just aren't there. It's a big debate and only time will tell the answer, but keeping that in mind, I'm going to make a couple of not-so-bold statements...

1. The idea of full-motion as a format, whether it be animation, video or film, isn't going anywhere.

2. People aren't going to stop telling stories.

I think we can all agree on those two statements, right? So, what can we take away from that? Well, I think it's safe to say that, in one form or another, you will always see stories in a full-motion format... at least for the foreseeable future. All the other factors may change, though, like: how we watch it, where we watch it, what format it's in, how it's displayed, etc. But I do think it's safe to say that there will always be stories to be told... and film/video will always be a medium used to tell them. How it's distributed? Different story.

Really, if you think about it, at the root, we really just want to be storytellers and, right now, we're just using film as the medium to tell it. So, as the industry is being shaken to its knees and we wait to see what rises from the ashes, we need to keep telling our stories, in a full-motion format, one way or the other... which brings me to this article. The article goes through three different stories being told using three different formats, all of which use the web as their distribution format. Are they financially successful? Do they have big audiences? I don't know, but they're telling stories in innovative ways and innovating is something that we should all be doing... until the robots kill us all.

"Horror Meets Comedy" on the XBox 360 and the future for indie filmmakers?

This was actually going to be a Linkapalooza post with links to a few articles and other stuff, but I ended up going on way too long about the first article. So, you get a whole post about video gaming consoles and why you, as an indie filmmaker, should know more about them, if you don't already.

"Xbox Channel Goes Live With 'Horror Meets Comedy'" on wired.com: As you probably know, the Xbox, PS3 and Wii are all fighting for space in your living room by not only being a gaming platform, but by providing you with exclusive content, connecting to your PC and playing media files. The above article is about a pretty cool series that XBox is doing called "Horror Meets Comedy", where a bunch of horror directors are making short comedies and XBox allows its owners to download them for free on the system, their laptops or PDA's. I'm not going to get on my soapbox here and rant about the future of entertainment, but you better start thinking about shit like this because, unless you missed what I just said, Microsoft is producing and distributing content from horror filmmakers. The simple fact is that film and television (print and radio, as well, for that matter) are not going to be the same in 10 years. I'm not saying it's dying, I'm saying that it's going to be drastically different... and if you want to get paid to make content, your check may be from Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony, not Paramount, Warner Bros or, well... Sony.

Much like most of you, I'm assuming, I WAS a big gamer. I loved the arcades, my first computer, I loved my Nintendo, my Sega. I loved it all. However, right around the time I went to film school, it faded away. Unplugged the console and plugged in a DVD player, movies are more important. HOWEVER, like I said, gaming consoles are back and they ARE the future. So, here's my question. I'm going to buy myself a system this Christmas, but I'm still not sure which one...

Here's my thoughts... The Nintendo Wii's games are a little out there, but they are really fun. It does connect to the internet, but outside of a couple news and forecast channels, it's more for communicating and talking with other Wii systems. There's been talk about a newer model having DVD-Video playback capabilities, but that's not happening any time soon. The Microsoft XBox is, apparently, the best choice for gamers. I have a friend who works at EA and he scoffed at getting any system but the 360. Outside of the games, it's compatible with the Zune and can share media files with it. It supports music and videos in a bunch of different formats, but it does not play DVD's. It will connect to the internet and can stream files from your PC, which is pretty cool. It also has it's own community, it's own channels and you can get content, such as the afore mentioned "Horror Meets Comedy" series. Recently, I heard that Microsoft is going to open the platform up to allow 'home brew' games and other content to be downloaded for free, as well. Then, lastly, there's Sony's PS3. I've heard that it's the best technical system out there, but it's never lived up to its potential. As far as games, it has very few unique titles. However, much like the 360, it's also compatible with just about everything, it supports all music and video files and it connects to the internet and can stream from your PC. However, here's a couple things that it does that the other systems don't, it has it's own Linux system, so you can browse the internet and it's also the best Blu-Ray player on the market.

For me, I think the fact that the PS3 is a Blu-Ray player (and can play ANY DVD, burned or otherwise) and has an internet browser to go with it, is going to push me in that direction. However, never underestimate Microsoft. So, what do you think? What's the way to go?

Now, some of you might be thinking that this is a site for horror filmmaking and what the fuck does this have to do with anything? Well, really, I think it has a lot to do with filmmaking. Video games are turning into a bigger entertainment industry that film and the studios are all scrambling to jump on board. They're working it from both angles... they're creating games and online content out of their films, plus their taking games and online content and turning it into films. If you know nothing about gaming and the consoles, do yourself a favor and learn about them. They are the platforms of the future and you better be able to adapt.

Before I finish, check out this article called "Miramax Web Games Build Buzz for 'Adventureland'", where Miramax has an online game built and creating buzz for a film that comes out in March of 2009.

The future is racing towards us, be ready!