Sunday, December 30, 2007

Audience on Our Side

Your audience wants you to be successful. As long as you have 50 or more people in the room, they'll laugh at your jokes, no matter how pathetic they are
(emphasis added, from Inc.com). I'm not sure the second sentence is true, but the first seems right. Earlier in the article are some good tips on avoiding air travel delays.

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this posted by David August at 5:38 PM - 0 comments -  

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Writing for Writers

Over at Firedoglake, they've set up a way to easily write to the CEO's and executives in charge of your favorite show and express your point of view on the WGA strike.

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this posted by David August at 2:22 PM - 0 comments -  

Sunday, December 16, 2007

WGA May Be Seeking New Deals

Only one thing though is certain. The longer the AMPTP corporations drag their feet, the more accelerated the Writers Guild's efforts to sign up major technology companies to produce TV series and movies for the Internet. (My understanding is they're already in early conversations with several major companies.) And when that happens - and eventually it will - the AMPTP corporations will find themselves in a new ballgame. Which is one more reason it would be insane for the AMPTP corporations to let this thing drag on
(emphasis added, from The Huffington Post).

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this posted by David August at 7:16 PM - 0 comments -  

First Studio-Backed Broadband Film

In a radical departure from the traditional movie business model, Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment and MTV New Media are co-producing Jackass 2.5, a sequel to its two-time boxoffice hit that will skip multiplexes entirely.
Instead, "2.5" will be offered online for free over a two-week span beginning Dec. 19 courtesy of Blockbuster and its new online property Movielink, which will exclusively host the 64-minute film during that period. The movie will be made available at blockbuster.jackassworld.com.
From there, the film will move on to different pay-per-view platforms including iTunes and DVD as part of a light-speed reinvention of the customary distribution-window chain. The domestic release strategy will be replicated internationally early next year, but with different distribution partners.
When all is said and done, "2.5" could end up a milestone in Hollywood's transition to digital media or an overly ambitious misstep
(from The Hollywood Reporter).

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this posted by David August at 6:49 PM - 0 comments -  

Monday, December 10, 2007

Web is Unstruck

From tomorrow's LA Times:
The studios have little to lose by stonewalling, since it's all too clear that they can win any prolonged strike. Their pockets are too deep, their weaponry too strong. But at what cost? Even many studio supporters admit that squashing the WGA after a prolonged strike would be something of a pyrrhic victory. If network TV turns into a 24-hour reality TV and game show channel, it will simply accelerate the trend of young viewers deserting the tube for the Internet.
For the writers, their best defense now is a good offense. As I've argued before, their future lies in becoming more entrepreneurial. This would also be good strategy for future strike negotiations. With the studios stuck churning out reality sludge, the barriers for entry for an outsider are lower than ever. What's to stop Google, Yahoo or Mark Cuban from striking a deal with a top TV show runner who has a proven ability to create characters and stories that would bring eyeballs to the Internet?
and the LA Times also wrote on Saturday:
With no fresh episodes, networks stand to lose tens of millions in ad revenue as they are forced to give free commercial time to sponsors to make up for a shortfall in ratings. They could also see a further exodus of disaffected younger viewers to the Internet and other forms of entertainment, eroding the networks' market share
(emphases added, from Los Angeles Times). This echoes two things Bob Fraser said in June (and had earlier said in 2005): the [TV] audience has left the building and the entertainment industry really belongs to the entrepreneurial artist.

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this posted by David August at 10:23 PM - 0 comments -  

Thursday, December 06, 2007

SC Johnson Might Pull Ads in Support of WGA?

Recent rumor has it that SC Johnson - Glade advertising executives have been feeling the heat from the public to pull all advertising from networks. Although a formal statement has not been issued, with networks turning to reruns and reality programming to fill time slots, advertisers may begin pulling advertising.
Some ad execs have stated that if viewers stop watching, which is common with reruns, that they may not only pull ads, but request that studios reimburse them for ad moneys already allocated to networks
(from associatedcontent.com). I have an email into SC-Johnson asking for their comments.

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this posted by David August at 2:59 AM - 1 comments -  

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Bean Counting

KCRW's Martini Shot podcast, by talented WGA member Rob Long, has been discussing the current strike, and in the most recent episode (Three-Bean Salad) discusses some possible economic realities of entertainment on the web.

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