Publishing and Distribution in Today’s Digital Era

After completing a work of art, whether it be a book, film, TV show, video game, etc., comes the time to make back the initial investment. Over the past few decades, Publishing and Distribution within the entertainment industry has drastically changed due to the “third wave,” a.k.a. “The Information Era.” Today’s society is one that expects information to be made available almost immediately. Decades ago, these entertainment products were only available via physical mediums. This included books, CDs, VHS, DVDs, Video Game cartridges, etc. Today, on the other hand, everything is moving to the digital platform. This has, unfortunately, opened doors to piracy and set the expectation to consumers that they can find these products at a much lower cost, sometimes even free.

Since piracy has had such an impact on the industry, it has caused a trickle-down effect to which all members of the industry have had to make cutbacks. For instance, “An 11-employee Independent U.S. film distributor, Wolfe Video, has had its profits halved due to piracy and costs to mitigate damages from piracy” (Strauss, 2013). This has led to slower wages and salaries across the board. The real issue is that, currently, there are too many people committing piracy and there is no way for the content providers to keep up with the convicts. Every time a site a closed down, due to piracy, there are more that takes it place. The ability to shut down these sites can be difficult if they are located in other countries. In the end, what content providers should be doing is to provide their content in a much easier fashion.

The birth of instant streaming has allowed members of the industry to recoup their losses due to online piracy. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are great examples of companies that have successfully changed the direction of the industry. In the same article, Mr. Strauss states that “the rise of streaming video content hubs like Netflix and Amazon has, to a certain extent, recaptured some users that may have resorted to piracy because in previous years there was no other way to find an instant feed of a movie or show without resorting to piracy” (2013). Eventually, this could be the perfect way to retain audiences and re-engineer how money is made (i.e. physical sales vs. subscriptions). This is good news for indie filmmakers, on the other hand. Since self-distribution is slowly becoming more and more popular, this has become a great way for the indie filmmaker to promote and distribute their films. It will be interesting to see what will continue to happen going into the future.

References:

Strauss, K. (2014). TV and Film Piracy: Threatening an Industry? Forbes.com. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/03/06/tv-and-film-piracy-threatening-an-industry/

Advanced Entertainment Law – Film/TV Liabilities

In the entertainment industry, especially, there are many issues that can arise as a result of copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret infringement. Since we now reside in the digital era and with everything being transmitted via cable, satellite, etc. the ability of intellectual property being misused has become that much greater. In an effort to obtain a better understanding of how large of an issue this has become, let’s take a look at a couple recent examples. These examples will give us some insight as to the issues many individuals and companies face on a day-to-day basis within the industry.

One of the most talked about new franchises within the film industry has been Lionsgate’s The Expendables. This movie franchise is well known all over the country as being action-packed films comprised of some of the most extraordinary and popular stars in the genre. Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson are just few examples of the highly regarded actors in these films. Unfortunately, the company, Lionsgate, is currently dealing with a fairly large intellectual property issue, a stolen high quality digital file of the third film circulating the torrent sites. Mr. Gardner, of Hollywood Report Esq., writes in an article that the company in an effort “to counter the Expendables 3 leak in advance of a Aug. 15 release for the film, Lionsgate's outside vendor MarkMonitor has sent about 2,770 take-down requests covering 10,846 unique host URLs. The film studio told the judge that it wasn't merely concerned about the amount of potential revenue lost at the box office, but also its relationship with theatrical exhibitors” (more info here). Per copyright law, once any film has been completed and exists in a tangible format (physical or digital), it instantly becomes copyrighted. However, this is something that is not new to the industry as this occurs almost too regularly. These torrent sites have become a major problem amongst all of the entertainment conglomerates. What people do not realize is the harm that downloading an illegal file has caused to the industry overall.

Another great example on the topic of intellectual property issues would be yet another recent case between the creator of an animated short film and The Walt Disney Company. After reviewing this article, Kelly Wilson, the producer of the short film The Snowman, felt that the teaser trailer of Disney’s movie Frozen infringed upon the copyright of her work. The overall story and sequence of events found in the trailer seemed to match almost exactly the story she told in her short film. From Mr. Gardner’s article, he writes that “in a ruling on Disney's motion to dismiss, California federal judge Vince Chhabria writes, "The sequence of events in both works, from start to finish, is too parallel to conclude that no reasonable juror could find the works substantially similar."” When a small producer goes against a fairly large company, such as The Walt Disney Company, it is going to make headlines and be a fairly large topic of discussion among those in the industry. In this case, Miss Wilson’s lawyers are going to need to prove, if this goes to trial, that The Walt Disney Company did in fact infringe upon her copyright. This will entail making sure that the Miss Wilson can prove the date that her work was created before the release of Frozen and whether or not it had been made public. If Miss Wilson had already registered her work with the United States Copyright office, she may be able to win this case.

Finally, there is one last case that is worth discussing and that is between the producers of the TV show ‘Southland’ and Hilda Abarca and Jessica Abarca, the relatives of man who was murdered. Within the opening credits of the TV show, there is an autopsy photo that is displayed which is the son/brother of the Hilda and Jessica Abarca. As one could imagine, the display of this photo has caused severe grief and hard ache to these women. Thus, both women have filed a lawsuit against “Warner Bros. Television, producer John Wells, NBC, Turner Network Television, the city of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles and Warner Home Video.” According to this article, “the suit says this has impacted their health, strength and activity and caused injury to their nervous system and person. It means they will have to incur expenses to treat psychological injuries using drugs and others “sundries” required in the treatment.” It is unfortunate that something like this happened to these women; however, this could have been avoided. When one produces film and television it is extremely important to verify the source of all materials used for production. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this lawsuit and whether or not both Hilda and Jessica Abarca will obtain justice.

Overall, intellectual property will always be an issue for all of those working within the entertainment industry (film and TV, especially). Since the products of the entertainment industry are, for the most part, not something tangible (in light the digital era) like other industries, it is extremely important to have a firm understanding of the concepts behind obtaining permission if you decide to use someone else’s work in your production. By being able to recognize all aspects of intellectual property law, one can safely avoid ever having to deal with these types of issues.

Current Challenges of Product and Artist Managers

The current state of the entertainment industry is constantly changing and with that comes many challenges along the way. Product managers, and even artist managers, are constantly having to adapt the ways they execute their plans to penetrate their desired target markets. Through my own person experience, I have seen some of these problems firsthand. While working at my prior employer, Testronic Labs, I would often times find myself engaging in conversations with product managers that would explain some of the difficulties they have had trying to figure out ways to bring digital products to market. Since there are so many different avenues, nowadays, to distribute film and TV shows, product managers are faced with the task of monetizing various physical and digital formats.

Film and TV shows are not the only two facets of the entertainment industry that are going through major struggles in the globalization of the digital era. Recently, I was in contact with a colleague of mine that is a product manager for a company called Ematic. The company creates and markets their own version of Android tablets for specific niche markets. Within the past year and a half, the company released a product called “FunTab Pro” which is a tablet that is designed and marketed towards a younger audience. When speaking to the product manager who designed the product, he described the experience as being a very “challenging and rewarding business venture.” In a brief interview I had with the product manager, we talked about all of the different obstacles he had to overcome in order to make this dream a reality. One of the biggest problems he faced was trying to make sure that everyone involved with production was on the same page. The entertainment industry, as a whole, is faced with many new struggles almost daily.

An article I found online describes the some of the key challenges almost all members of the entertainment industry are currently being faced with. It describes that “not only do companies need to shift from physical to digital technologies and change their business models to include all the new digital platforms, but these new challenges imply that companies must change the way they manage their workforce and the way they function to meet even greater consumer expectations.” Within the article, it describes four key challenges: “Extra effort to stay competitive in a globalized marketplace, An added challenge in maintaining leadership, Extra vigilance for the public (and published) opinion and A new kind of workforce = new pipeline challenges.” All of these give a great example of the kinds of things both product and artist managers need to be aware of for when it comes time to promote their products, services and artists.

Negotiation and Deal Management – Michael Amato (Feature Film Producer)

When you are a film producer there are many things that you must plan, organize and negotiate. From budgets, to royalties and even schedules, everything involves going back and fourth between different people with varying personalities. Mr. Michael Amato is a feature film producer best known for his films Dead Man’s Curve and Supercross. Both films were able to obtain worldwide distribution and he considers them to be some of his greatest accomplishments to date. Currently, he produces films primarily for the Lifetime television network and still today has to negotiate and make deals between investors, distributors and the like. Over the past two decades, he has been able to master his negotiation skills by separating people from the problem, using objective criteria and always aiming towards mutual benefit.

During our interview, Mr. Amato discussed in great detail how important it is to make sure to focus on the problem at hand. He said that sometimes “there are times it is incredibly difficult to appease everyone involved in the initial planning stage of a production. The director might have a vision that is very different from the writer and, being a producer, you must be the facilitator between them.” However, everyone involved in any given project has the common goal of wanting to see it all the way to the end. Often times he has had to objective criteria to make sure that nothing gets out of hand. He will have to approve and deny certain shots due to costs and must present enough material to prove his point. Directors always want every shot to perfect and it is Mr. Amato’s job to make sure that he/she stays within the budget.

While on set and during production, Mr. Amato’s job is to make sure that everyone is happy and everything is running smoothly. He has to make sure that the actors have everything that they need, the crew has all of the tools and equipment necessary to set up shots and make sure that there is enough food to feed the entire cast and crew. One of the hardest parts of his job is maintaining a comfortable and efficient work environment. He has to make sure that everything is running on time and within the confines of the budget. In the end, he very much enjoys the everyday challenges that producing brings and the feeling of accomplishment when he finishes each project.

Entertainment Business Finance: Are Film Remakes a Necessary Evil?

Over the course of the few years, I have noticed a fairly significant trend from a majority of the major film studios. It really hit me the other day while I was reviewing my The Hollywood Reporter alert e-mails and found out that Warner Bros is remaking Flintstones while Lionsgate has a new Power Rangers movie in the works. I have often wondered why? Why do they need to remake these films and not focus more on original ideas and stories? Then, I reviewed the amount of money these remakes pull in. For instance, the Hollywood remake of War of the Worlds produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise made over $592 million in the box office worldwide. That is stunning when you look at other films, those having original ideas, turn into flops.

The film business is all about taking risks. Knowing and recognizing a trend seems to be the primary basis behind the reasoning for these major studios to green light certain productions. According to Ross Miller of screenrant.com, “no one can say that remakes and sequels are a new thing – it’s a notion that has been around for almost a hundred years. But lately (perhaps over the last 15 years or so), they have come not only to full fruition and thus extremely noticeable as a trend – but also they seem to be getting made left, right and center.” Out of all of the genres of film, on the other hand, Ross makes a relevant point in the same article that most remakes are within the Horror category. The Amityville Horror, The Hills Have Eyes, The Ring and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are just some examples of the films we have seen follow this trend again and again.

Now that we have established the success of film remakes and its impact within the Horror category, does it mean that this trend will spill over into other genres of films? The answer: It already has. Just over the course of the past few years we have seen a major increase in the amount of remakes in other genres. The new updated versions of RoboCop, Batman and Superman seem to state the obvious that the major film studios are now exploring their options to remake adventure, Sci-Fi and superhero films. In the end, it is inevitable that box office breaking films will eventually be remade. However, according to Ben Kendrick, “the time between reboots and remakes has become shorter than ever (with only five years between the release of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man).” The success of these remakes is ultimately determined by how well they are produced and whether or not they pay homage to the original.

Business Storytelling and Branding - John Lloyd’s “An Inventory of the Invisible”

I had never known the significance of TED talks until I started my Bachelor’s degree program at Full Sail University. Now, I try to watch them as often as I can. Every time I review a video from the site, I am often times bewildered by how well the information is presented and the point made by each and every speaker. 

In a world so enthralled by the power of influence and the everyday norm, I repeatedly find myself asking the same question: “What is the point?” Meaning, why is it that I do the things I do everyday? What is my overall goal in life? I feel that lately we have all been concentrating so much energy on how to start a business, attract our target market and our careers to the point that we have forgotten the simple fact we are all in the same boat, traversing the unknown.

In John Lloyd’s TED talk “An Inventory of the Invisible” he begins the talk by asking the audience what is invisible. His response: “Everything, I would say. Everything that matters except every thing and except matter.” Throughout the talk, Mr. Lloyd gives many different examples surrounding the topic of how much we, as humans, do not know. “Thomas Edison once said, "We don't know one percent of one millionth about anything.”” So what does this have to do about media? Everything.

After watching this talk in its entirety, it started to make me thing about the entertainment industry and how much of it is dependent on data, analysis, trends and research. While this information is relevant (to a certain extent), I feel that we all need to recognize it’s place as tools and make better media by expanding our imagination just a bit more. Too many times have we seen remakes, remixes, etc in the market. What we all should take from this specific TED talk is to be unafraid to create something new and make mistakes. We need to learn through our experiences and open up our minds to take us to that next level.

References:

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_an_animated_tour_of_the_invisible

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_lloyd_inventories_the_invisible/transcript

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/apr/11/interview-john-lloyd-comedy-producer

To Cut or Not to Cut? That is the Question.

     I believe that we can all agree that cord cutting has become a fairly common topic of conversation within the entertainment industry. With so many different instant streaming services being introduced into the market constantly, is it inevitable that television will follow a similar path as the music industry? In my own personal life, I subscribe to Spotify, Netflix, Hulu and many of these other newer services. Previously, in a prior post, I wrote about the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable and whether or not this will cause a spike in people cutting the cord. Brent Lang wrote in this article that “the percentage of pay television subscribers who said they definitely plan to discontinue their service in the next 12 months climbed to 10 percent, a 2 percent gain.” The television industry is definitely changing.

     What is most interesting about this change is the simple fact that more and more people are resorting to their mobile devices to view content. The introduction of the smartphones and tablets have definitely made a large impact on the industry as a whole. If you have not done so already, check out Aereo. They have come up with the ingenious idea to take what is being broadcasted for free over the antenna and swing it back to the internet for live streaming. It has, however, caused a majority of the broadcasters to react with a lawsuit. The company has been able to retain service, for now.

     In the end, the main goal for everyone in this industry is to turn a profit in order to continue producing new content. (Thus, we all know what the effects have been due to piracy via torrent sites.) What needs to happen, more than anything, is an update to the overall business model. Cable television thrives on subscribers and advertising sales. However, in the instant streaming world, what does the audience prefer? For instance this Forbes article mentions that ““Hulu Plus carries current season episodes for 5 of the top 6 US broadcast networks, which is something that Netflix is only able to do for a select few shows in international markets,” Devitt says, noting that parent companies ABC, NBC and Fox have made huge amounts of their content available on Hulu, which currently boasts a TV catalog of 86,000 episodes from 2,900 TV series. In other words: Netflix may be great for binge watchers, but cord-cutters looking for next-day viewing of their favorite shows are likelier to go to Hulu Plus.” So if many are looking to cut the cord and resort to instant streaming, what will we choose? A service that costs less with more content readily available (with commercials) or a service that provides content within a later timeframe and no commercials. Only time will tell.