Listen in as Inside Digital Media ’s Phil Leigh interviews Tom Ohanian. Tom discusses how Signiant makes media move throughout the digital media supply chain.
Inside Digital Media is a place where you can see and hear interviews with thought leaders in the Digital Media industries.
Well, how amazing is that? Beowulf comes out and does $28.1M on its opening weekend. What’s even more impressive is that the Imax® 3D version contributed $3.6M of that, or 13%, this according to the usual entities that track these figures (the Wall Street Journal reported). Regardless of where you sit on the “Is 3D a fad or is it here to stay” debate, what is not debatable is the revenue generator that 3D can be. For example, “Chicken Little” (2005) did 2.5X the box office than that of the 2D version.
And what does that mean for technology adoption and transition? Digital cinemas, digital projectors, digital cinema mastering and, yep, you guessed it, eventually those files aren’t going to be delivered on a set of redundant disk platters, but will be electronically delivered. The digital cinema supply chain issue is rapidly approaching and will require solutions for the managed movement of content. It will be necessary to administrate the clean-up and maintenance of those drives (ahem…perhaps I should say: solid state…); the transmission will have to be secured; there will be strict verification that the content arrived, and, ultimately, the content will need to be deleted. All automatically, according to contractually mandated schedules.
We’re getting there…break out the 3D glasses and look behind you. There ain’t no film up there, Ma…!
I found out the latest news on the writers’ strike as I was multitasking - scanning the news, reading email and watching an episode of Friday Night Lights on hulu. While doing this – my eyeballs were awash in impressions and somewhere in some deep dark datacenter the ad-o-meter was spinning – I was generating revenue for someone (I even bought a re-certified GPS system at a great price). When the Dillon Panthers scored the winning touchdown and the credits rolled … the scoreboard said: The Man $ The Writers 0 (and 123 less emails in my inbox and 1 GPS coming via DHL second day mail).
Should the writers be allowed to double dip and get paid on internet based programming after they have already been paid to produce the content once? Should they be forced to work overtime in the coal mines on these vignettes or clips to promote their main body of work?
Should the producers and networks be able to open up all sorts of new syndication models and revenue streams without sharing with the writers? Should they be able to package up their content in all sorts of new ways and not share?
These are all relevant questions. I will admit that I have not followed the negotiations to the point that I know the exact positions of each party but there are some very relevant truths:
1) Viewing habits have changed — this is not at the traditional broadcast, cable, VHS or even VHS dollars. Those methods of distribution are as dead as train travel was once the Wright brothers took flight. While many people looked at that strange bird and said it was not practical and would never have mass appeal – just like today when the naysayers say 50 million television downloads on iTunes is not mass adoption. Don’t tell me that I did not fly on a plane this week or take an episode of Survivor with me (one that my damn DVR decided it did not want to record the last 10 minutes and I had to pay Apple the $1.99 for).
2) People need to get paid. If you attract a crowd – you will get paid. Just ask Tony and Paul who after 3.8M YouTube viewers watched their stopmotion video they found a home on IMDB, are linked all over the blogosphere and ultimately jumped the fence to Hollywood (I wonder if they are ready to go on strike now too?). I am sure that all those people working at the train stations migrated over time to the airport terminals and their lives went on.
3) Strike at your own risk … let them strike at your own risk. Holy crap – if the writers strike – what am I going to do with my time! No more Scrubs! Brotherhood! No more Grey’s Anatomy – my wife may want to talk ;). I need to run to the video store and fill my basement with VHS tapes and DVDs. In all reality, there are so many entertainment sources vying for our time (not to mention soccer games) – do the writers and networks really want to risk alienating their customers? Do you both want them to become more comfortable watching things in non-traditional methods? When I could not stay up (due to all the celebratory partying after the Sox won the World Series) to see Jonathan Papelbon on Letterman, I simply went to YouTube with no commercial interruptions. Look to the future, Pabelbon is being interviewed by the hot new VLogger and that YouTube page has a pre-roll, post roll ads as well as click on the ad for Steiner Sports to buy Red Sox memorabilia and click on the copy of SI to get a subscription (we can debate how much longer you will pay for a print copy of SI). Is this the world that you both want?
The world has changed and there are billions of dollars ($170+ to be close) at stake. Seems like one that is worth fighting over but also one that you share the same vested interest. I have to go … I have to see if I can exchange these shares of Union Pacific Railroad stock for Pan Am.
… Tools & Technologies to Liberate the Imagination
Tom Ohanian joined this panel discussion at Digital Hollywood this week and was joined by several industry experts including:
Stephen Jacobs, Vice President, Sony Corporation of America
Kenneth Yas, Market Development Manager, Cameras, NA, Grass Valley
Thomas A. Ohanian, Chief Strategy Officer, Signiant
Bernie Laramie, CEO, MOS Sync, Inc.
John Dietsch, CEO and Founder at Hook.TV
Ben Weinberger, CEO at Dgitialsmiths
The discussion was fantastically moderated by Joel Ordesky who has been kind enough to host a video of the panel discsussion on his blog - please visit his blog to have a listen in.
