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By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 - 1 Comment »
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CHANGING LANDSCAPE – 10/22/09

It’s a new Hot Blog offering… inspired by the last few days of noticing how many little changes were going on all at once. So, I am going to do a step more than we do on the front page and use these to note and comment on some of what is going on…
35MM 3D FROM TECHNICOLOR – This effort started rolling out publicly in September with tests of the 35MM 3D version of WB/NL’s The Final Destination.
Now, as we head into an even bigger glut of 3D films without enough 3D screens to land on and evidence that movies promoted as 3D experiences demotivate 2D viewing with a significant percentage of the interested audience, there is a sense of urgency about expanding the screen count for the 3D opportunity.
So now, Technicolor announces some progress with more specific news to land at ShowEast… and you can expect pretty much every studio except Disney to jump on board before year’s end.
This step could well be the tipping point for 3D and start the maturing process in earnest. Will people pay premium prices for 3D in non-IMAX, non-big-sound, regular movie theaters? We’re gonna find out.
I think it will take the next year or so – at least through next summer – to find out what kind of traction they can get when virtually every theater becomes capable of being a 3D theater. There is still a very real novelty factor. But that never lasts too long.
Still, a big moment.
DISNEY’S DIGITAL CLOUD – It’s news, but it’s one of those stories that will get wildly overhyped before reality sets in. Disney has been going this way for a while. It’s major DVD releases now get the Blu-ray treatment that includes a free digital download AND a non-Blu disc. The studio gets what many of us have understood for years. it’s not the specific delivery system that matters, it’s the availability and what people are willing to pay for it.
I am a firm believer (and have been for years now) that every studio will go in this same direction. That post-theatrical will be paid as one of number of “all-access” levels, which can start with delivery like this, but may also involve cross-charging of cable channels, radio, etc. The one sacred cow is and will remain theatrical release because it is the single opportunity to generate the largest per-person price point in this industry, because the experience is so unique and demands infrastructure (which buyers appreciate).
Like HULU, there will be some joint ventures along the way, but the bottom line remains the same. Every piece of content stands on its own as each studio/owner attempts to maximize revenues using all of the tools/delivery systems that are available.
Media needs to catch up with this. It is a world of multiple menus. You will be able to buy a la carte or you will be able to buy the entire Disney (or whomever) universe on a monthly basis. The studios will have to be concerned about the attractiveness of both kinds of packages in order to maximize revenues.
There will even be a direct-to-Redbox business build – you can bet – and it will act like direct-to-DVD used to at Blockbuster… and then Netflix Red Envelope. Someone will realize that promoting someone for Redbox exclusively, with the goal of reaching 2 million renters, generating about $5 million gross and $2 million net for the owner of the film, is a great opportunity. Of course, it will be for titles that are not likely to do huge sell-thru business. If I were Sony Home Ent, the next Left Behind movie would be the launch.
REPORTER LIFE 2K+10 – The Chicago News Co-Op signed the New York Times, which is a big step towards something really important. The basic notion is that serious reporting can be done by serious reporters on a local basis and that the shared revenues can be enough to make a good living… or at least a living, for now. The NYT (and everyone else) needs the help, really, as cutbacks on in-house reporters keep piling up. And with some sound editorial judgment from the leaders of the business, it should be an idea that can become viable all of the country and across the globe.
Add – 2:40p – Another communal concept
CIRCULATION REVENUE BEATS AD REVENUE @ NYT – “At the company

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1 Comment »

One Response to “CHANGING LANDSCAPE – 10/22/09”

  1. Wrecktum says:
    October 22, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    The Technicolor announcement is nonsense. It’s nothing more than the company trying to maintain their tenuous marketshare in the 35mm film biz, where they’re currently getting schooled by Deluxe.
    35mm over-under 3D looks horrible and any exhibitor who signs up for this retro band-aid deserves whatever punishment they’ll get.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon