72 (16)
In that book [Reading Television, 1978], the term ‘bardic function’ was coined to describe the active relationship between TV and viewers, where the book argued, TV programming and mode of address use the shared resources of narrative and language to deal with social change and conflict, bringing together the worlds of decision-makers (news), central meaning systems (entertainment) and audiences (‘vertically through the social scale’) to make sense of the experience of modernity.”

73-76 (17-19)
“Blaming the popular media for immoral, tasteless, sycophantic, sexist, senseless and disreputable behaviour is nothing new.” Taliesin, Chief Bard of Britain, criticised newcomers / new art perhaps as far back as the sixth century.

78 (N/A)
The antecedents of popular entertainment with political import go as far back at least as the medieval bards, heralds, minstrels and troubadours whose job it was to ‘broadcast’ the exploits, ferocity, largesse and (mis)adventures of the high and mighty.”

82 (23)
“It should be noted that the order of bards and popular television alike are specialised institutional agencies for delivering the ‘bardic’ function in a given culture. They take it on and professionalise it within evolving historical, regulatory and economic contexts, and of course in so doing they tend to narrow its potential, to exclude outsiders (the general public) from productive or creative participation, not least to maintain the price of their skills, and to restrict the infinite potential of semiosis to definite forms with which their own institutionalised ‘mechanism of translation’ can comfortably cope. These institutional agencies can optimise storytelling’s scale (a story can be reproduced many times) and its diffusion (a story can be heard by many people); but they also increase both formal and bureaucratic rigidity (‘transaction costs’) in narrative production and thus reduce adaptability to change.” Beginning is applicable to EA, but the rest is about broadcasting. He then says that the ‘bardic function’ needs to be reinterpreted.

84 (24)
“The challenge [of today's "dance"] is to understand how such a diffused system might work to propagate coherent sense across social boundaries, among different demographics and throughout social hierarchies. In other words, how does a fully distributed narrative system retain overall systemic unity? If everyone is speaking for themselves, then who speaks for everybody?” Two things:
1. This is a challenge for EA -> is the solution that there is none? -> that the old audience simply has to die out and a new generation of audience will renegotiate storytelling/narrative with EA?
2. EA answers this partly: an entarch is a professional service provider -> everybody can create with everybody, all good, but somebody will probably be successful as a mass entertainer/artist, as a star -> entarchs stand the chance of becoming the stars!

84f (25)
“As with democracy, so with musical or dramatic storytelling – the challenge is to find a way to think about, to explain and to promote mass participation without encouraging splits, divisions, migrations and anarchy on the one hand, or an incomprehensible cacophonous plurality of competing voices on the other, or an authoritarian/elitist alternative to both. The challenge is also a negative one – how not to associate ‘more’ with ‘worse’; mass participation with loss of quality.”

86 (26)
“Kings and knights were not known until praised.”

86 (N/A)
“Fame followed flattery – not the other way around.” You have to be praised by others to be famous, only then wants the world to sleep with you.

87 (26)
“For humans, storytelling itself is a form of schooling in the capabilities of language. It teaches us how to think (plot), what to think about (narrative), the moral universe of choice (character) and the calculation of risk (action), motivated by desire for immortality (fear of death).”

(33)
“Thence the most interesting question is what digital media might be used for. We should wait and see, not fall for the temptation of hurling abuse at the latest upstart medium that poses some sort of competition to the entrenched professionals of the day, just as the mythical Taliesin did in his own diatribe against strolling minstrels.”

(33f)
3 options for professional storytellers now:

1. The Taliesin function (“I’m a bard and you’re not”).
2. The Gandalf function (“I’m a bard and this is how it’s done”).
3. The eisteddfod function (“We’re all bards: let’s rock!”).

(34)
“Based on the lesson of previous step changes in the growth of knowledge, it is clear that evolution is blind, and the opportunities afforded by adaptations cannot be known in advance, whether it is the opposable thumb or the digital network.”
“Certainly, when writing and printing were invented, no one could have predicted their eventual uses from the purposes of the inventors. The printing press in Gutenberg’s day was based on agricultural machinery and used largely for religious clients. Its eventual success was not at all certain. Like many innovative startups, Gutenberg’s own firm went bust. How could anyone in the 1450s have foreseen the importance of printing and publishing for the growth of the great realist textual systems of modernity – science, journalism, and the novel – since none of them existed until printing made possible the development of a modern reading public? Similarly, who today can predict the cultural function of internet affordances; the outcome of the democratization of publishing; and the population-wide extension of semiotic productivity?”

90
“today’s transmedia producers are planning for multiple platforms from the start. They design fictional universes that are consistent however the audience engages.”
“In a world of multichoice TV, mobile and the web, competition for viewers has never been greater, and audience attention never more fragmented. That’s why many content creators are betting that transmedia will focus it once again.”

91
“transmedia also demands that narratives cohere, and this is where many previous efforts failed.”

97
“For Gomez, storytellers who embrace these possibilities will define pop culture. So what will happen when transmedia’s fledgling audi­ence comes of age? He gets whimsical. “We’re going to see our transmedia Mozart. We are going to see visionaries who understand the value of each media platform as if it’s a sepa­rate musical instrument, who’ll create sym­phonic narratives which leverage each of these multimedia platforms in a way that will create something we haven’t encountered yet.
“And it’s going to be magnificent.”"

64
Definition-business strategy:
“the essence of strategy is [...] choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals.”

98
“Don’t misunderstand me: business plans should include some numbers. But those numbers should appear mainly in the form of a business model that shows the entrepreneurial team has thought through the key drivers of the venture’s success or failure.”
“The model should also address the break-even issue: At what level of sales does the business begin to make a profit? And even more important. When does cash flow turn positive? Without a doubt, these questions deserve a few pages in any business plan. Near the back.”

99
Sahlman’s “framework systematically assesses the four interdependent factors critical to every new venture:

The People. The men and women starting and running the venture, as well as the outside parties providing key services or important resources for it, such as its lawyers, accountants, and suppliers.
The Opportunity. A profile of the business itself- what it will sell and to whom, whether the business can grow and how fast, what its economics are, who and what stand in the way of success.
The Context. The big picture – the regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic trends, inflation, and the like – basically, factors that inevitably change but cannot be controlled by the entrepreneur.
Risk and Reward. An assessment of everything that can go wrong and right, and a discussion of how the entrepreneurial team can respond.

100
“The assumption behind the framework is that great businesses have attributes that are easy to identify but hard to assemble. They have an experienced, energetic managerial team from the top to the bottom. The team’s members have skills and experiences directly relevant to the opportunity they are pursuing. Ideally, they will have worked successfully together in the past. The opportunity has an attractive, sustainable business model; it is possible to create a competitive edge and defend it. Many options exist for expanding the scale and scope of the business, and these options are unique to the enterprise and its team. Value can be extracted from the business in a number of ways either through a positive harvest event-a sale-or by scaling down or liquidating. The context is favorable with respect to both the regulatory and the macro- economic environments. Risk is understood, and the team has considered ways to mitigate the impact of difficult events.”

101
The People: “What do they know? Whom do they know? and How well are they known?”
Arthur Rock (Apple, Intel, Teledyne): “I invest in people, not ideas.” Rock also has said, “If you can find good people, if they’re wrong about the product, they’ll make a switch, so what good is it to under- stand the product that they’re talking about in the first place?”
“Fourteen “Personal” Questions Every Business Plan Should Answer” -> good list.
The opportunity: “Is the total market for the venture’s product or service large, rapidly growing, or both? Is the industry now, or can it become, structurally attractive?”

102
“Nine Questions About the Business Every Business Plan Should Answer” -> good list.

103
“Investors, of course, are looking for businesses in which management can buy low, sell high, collect early, and pay late. The business plan needs to spell out how close to that ideal the new venture is expected to come.”

104
Two graphs every business plan should have.
“The first picture depicts the amount of money needed to launch the new venture, time to positive cash flow, and the expected magnitude of the payoff.”

A reworked diagram by Eric Eikrem (10.08.2010), CC by-nc-sa:

“The second picture complements the first. It shows investors the range of possible returns and the likelihood of achieving them.”

A reworked diagram by Eric Eikrem (10.08.2010), CC by-nc-sa:

104f
The Context: “Opportunities exist in a context. At one level is the macroeconomic environment, including the level of economic activity, inflation, exchange rates, and interest rates. At another level are the wide range of government rules and regulations that affect the opportunity and how resources are marshaled to exploit it. Examples extend from tax policy to the rules about raising capital for a private or public company. And at yet another level are factors like technology that define the limits of what a business or its competitors can accomplish.”

105
Risk and Reward: “I’ve come to think of a good business plan as a snapshot of an event in the future. That’s quite a feat to begin with-taking a picture of the unknown. But the best business plans go beyond that; they are like movies of the future. They show the people, the opportunity, and the context from multiple angles. They offer a plausible, coherent story of what lies ahead. They unfold possibilities of action and reaction.”
“any business plan worth the time it takes to write or read needs to focus attention on the dynamic aspects of the entrepreneurial process.”

106
He provides a list of things you shouldn’t say.
“the plan must unflinchingly confront the risks ahead-in terms of people, opportunity, and context.”
“Those are hard questions for an entrepreneur to pose, especially when seeking capital. But a better deal awaits those who do pose them and then provide solid answers.”

107
“When professionals invest, they particularly like companies with a wide range of exit options.”
“Investors feel a lot better about risk if the venture’s endgame is discussed up front.”

107f
Don’t try to get the best conditions for yourself or regulate every possible aspect. Try to find an investor who is actually experienced and knows how to help.

NZ film pretty much didn’t exist before the commission was founded in 1978. Now it does.

They support the need for a commission. But with many changes.

Around 1:19:00
Definition-creativity:
4 (not 5?) different conceptions of creativity are out there:

1. Manhattan Project version: clever people -> you organise & structure them -> together they achieve what nobody alone would be able to achieve -> record industry model -> producers -> the maestro behind it -> they should earn 90%
2. The mad genius: all in his head
3. Genius in the community: the community creates together -> Mississippi blues delta
4. The jam session: “Rather than the individual genius there is the synthesis of things that happens when you get ??? people together in a rather unstructured free form kind of way.
5. The live event: never to be repeated, will never be the same again -> you were there, you were part of the magic

Young people think 5. is what is creative. => There will be a shift. It’s not about perfection, it’s about being live and real.
“A younger generation, they think creativity is something messy, something that happens in the field, that they can talk about because they were there, they were part of it. And it’s actually reconfiguring the notion of creativity.”

Gives very PRACTICAL advice: specific numbers, costs, prices, positions, tasks, etc.
Mentions transmedia 3 times.
Quite radical from a filmmaker’s perspective. I specifically mean indies, who always seemed to see themselves as a smaller Hollywood -> Hollywood’s concepts / business models / etc. should also work for them. Which they never did. But now it’s becoming more clear that they don’t and perhaps never will.
Not radical enough from my perspective. It’s a filmmaker sharing his insights from his struggles within the film industry. It’s not a step back to reassess the big picture.

29-36
Define who your film is for (hopefully not for yourself) and how you will reach it.

37
“The new 50/50 is as follows:
50 percent of your time and resources should be devoted to creating the film. 50 percent of your time and resources should be devoted to getting the film out to its audience, aka distribution and marketing.”

45-52
A good “overview of rights, markets and windows”; how they have been and how he reconceptualises them.

53-59
Know what YOU want to achieve and think about how to get there.

61-72
He describes “the bare minimum” of team members you need, and some more recommendable positions if you have the money.

127-131
His “Introduction to Transmedia” is less than 5 (!) pages short.

128
“media consumers don’t consume in one unified pattern anymore.”

129f
Definition “extradiegetic”:
“This material is called “extra-diegetic” and includes all content that is not part of the final released film, especially material that is created but never intended to be part of the final released film. However, as our understanding of film expands, there will not need to be a separate classification between diegetic and extra-diegetic; it will all be part of a seamless whole.”

133-136
Chapter 13: Redefining the Theatrical Experience
His new Definition-theatrical:
“It is time for filmmakers to reclaim the meaning of a theatrical release so that it is inclusive of a multitude of live-screening event scenarios. The theatrical experience needs to be redefined as people watching “films” with other people. Any place. Any time. Any media.”

143
“Unfortunately, due to contract obligations, IFC is currently only set up to do VOD day-and-date with their Festival Direct Program.”

151
“[...] Chris Hyams (the head of B-Side) did the research and found that all films (studio and independent), on average, lose money from theatrical.”

171
“I believe that incorporating aspects of an event into your screenings is the future of independent live event/theatrical releases.” A bit of a nonsensical sentence, but it goes back to stressing experiences.

172-174
“Ways to create a sense of an event:

1. Personal Appearance by the Filmmaker/Cast
2. Personal Appearance by a Celebrity
3. Parties
4. Partner with an Organization
5. Sell Advance Tickets
6. Live Audience Participation Part 1 (?)”

174f
“Transmedia Aspects to Screenings

1. Live Musical Remix
2. Live Film Mixing [Peter Greenaway]
3. Add Live Storytelling Elements to Your Screening [Head Trauma]“

175-177
Other options:

• One-Night Events
• The Film Tour

195
“The alternative theatrical grassroots screening model has shown the way to democratize and return a shared film experience to the control of individuals and groups,. With that newfound power, people will continue to find new ways to exhibit and congregate in order to watch films.”

243
“I think transmedia has tremendous potential for how narrative filmmakers can find new audiences and engage with them. Again, this is not just about marketing, it is about finding and engaging the audience for your film and your oeuvre.”

244
“Audiences don’t consume media as they once did. They have their own preferences, whether it is a movie theater, DVR, their iPhone, Xbox console, etc. Audiences have media and art form preferences. You can’t bend them, you must accommodate them.”

245
“Part of the death of DVDs has been due to people realizing that they didn’t need to watch a film more than once. Transmedia creates a life beyond the one viewing of a film.” -> Not sure about that. Isn’t transmedia even more ephemeral than a traditional movie?

275
“merchandise can be points of entry for films or narrative extensions – so they can be important to a transmedia strategy.”

289
“Television’s core business is repeat viewers.
It is difficult for television to command repeat viewers with individual films. When there was a plethora of fledgling channels such as HBO, Starz, Showtime, AMC, etc., they needed to buy movies to fill their schedules. But as those networks have matured, they have turned to series to bring back repeat viewers. Even indie stalwarts IFC and Sundance are buying fewer films in favor of series programming.”

296
“Ways to monetize your digital rights”:

• “Fees Charged Per Download, Rental, or Viewing”
• “Ad Revenue Share”
• “Subscription Fee”
• “Merchandise Sales”
• “General Promotion/Theatrical Launch”
• “Ad Sales/Banner Ad Sales”
• “Branded Entertainment/Product Placement”
• “Sponsorship”
• “Pay What You Want/Online Tip Jar”

299
“There is an argument I have heard on panels lately: Most filmmakers have a greater problem with anonymity than with piracy. I think this is a false argument.” If nobody wants to pay for it, perhaps nobody wants to see it, so perhaps the film is simply shit or doesn’t have an audience. -> Market it properly!

347
“Dentler observes that if you look at the history of consumer media, you always have different models for different types of publications. Some things are free, some things you pay for. He uses print media as an example, pointing out the difference between the Wall Street Journal and the Free Press.“

Entertainment = Unterhaltung

220
“Unterhaltung is [...] historisch bestimmt.” According to Hügel.
-> the word “entertainment” means something -> because of history
-> will the word survive, but the meaning be entirely different?
-> will entertainment (in our historical sense) disappear?
-> or will the word itself disappear?
=> I think youth will appropriate it.

222
“Dabei soll das Konzept der Convergence Culture, wie es Henry Jenkins (2006) expliziert hat, den Ausgangspunkt für meine Erörterung der Frage bilden, was es für >unsere< Unterhaltungskultur bedeutet, wenn sich Unterhaltung nach ihrer Emanzipation zur eigenständigen kulturellen Institution nicht nur mehr und mehr entgrenzt, sondern wenn sich mit jüngsten technologischen Transformationen der Medien und dem Entstehen von >Kulturen der Konvergenz< jene spezifischen Produktions-, Distributions- und Rezeptionsverhältnisse verändern, die die Emanzipation der Unterhaltung im 19. Jahrhundert und ihre kulturelle Dominanz im 20. Jahrhundert erst ermöglicht haben.”

223
“Bekanntlich ist die historische Entwicklung der Unterhaltung nicht denkbar
ohne das Entstehen der Massenmedien mit den ihnen eigenen Merkmalen
der Arbeitsteilung, wie sie für moderne Industriegesellschaften charakteristisch
sind (MAASE 1997). Nicht nur in der Sphäre der gesellschaftlichen Produktion, auch in der Sphäre ihrer kulturellen Reproduktion ist die Trennung in Produzenten und Konsumenten bestimmend für den Charakter kulturellen Austauschs von Unterhaltung als Produkt, das durch professionelle Unterhaltungsmacher für ein breites Publikum hergestellt wird und das auf dem Markt der Unterhaltung als Ware zum Konsum angeboten wird. Dass Unterhaltung als Ware gehandelt und konsumiert werden konnte, hat zu ihrer historischen Stabilisierung als kultureller Form beigetragen, wie die >Ware< Unterhaltung als kulturelle Form sicherlich auch wesentlich zum Erfolg der technischen Massenmedien im 20. Jahrhundert und insbesondere zum Erfolg des Fernsehens als der Inkarnation des Unterhaltungsmediums (vgl. MÜLLER-SACHSSE 1981) beigetragen hat."
"Die Konvergenz der Medien impliziert vor allem eine Neudefinition des Verhältnisses zwischen den Sphären der Produktion und der Rezeption (vgl. MÜLLER 2oo9a).”

225
“Unterhaltung lässt sich, so lautet ein weiterer Lehrsatz aus der ersten Lektion im Hügel’schen Propädeutikum zur Theorie und Geschichte dieser besonderen kulturellen Form, nur »als Prozess, als Vorgang oder als Beziehung « fassen (1993a: 121)”

226
“im Unterschied zu bloßer Zerstreuung [ ... ] erlebt der Unterhaltende sich jedoch als anwesend; er braucht zwar kein Engagement aufzubringen, läßt aber die Möglichkeit zu, dass die Unterhaltung ihm etwas sagt« (HÜGEL 1993: 137f.).”

228
“Ich will [...] fragen, welcher Art der Prozess respektive die Beziehung ist, die YouTube bei denjenigen >usern< initiiert, die aktiv am Online-Video-Sharing teilhaben.”

229
“YouTube-Clips beanspruchen demnach nicht, abgeschlossene ästhetische >Schöpfungen< unbekannter >Autoren< zu sein; sie stellen vielmehr Beiträge durchschnittlicher >user< dar, die einen Baustein zum kollektiven kreativen oder diskursiven Prozess beitragen: YouTube erscheint in dieser Perspektive als ein Universum unendlicher Texte, die niemals abgeschlossen sind, sondern immer wieder umgeschrieben, neu arrangiert und montiert, redigiert und ergänzt, verzerrt oder verstümmelt, wiederholt, widerlegt und fortgeschrieben werden."

230
"Partizipation [ist] die raison d’être von YouTube”

234
“Beispiele hierfür sind Formen, die in der anglo-amerikanischen Literatur als »enhanced television« (VAN VLIET 2001), als »overflow television« (BROOKER 2001) oder als »engagement television« (ASKWITH 2007) beschrieben worden sind.” -> Transmedia storytelling with traditional medium (TV) in mind -> not “native” transmedia storytelling.

234f
“Es ist vor allem die Frage, ob damit zugleich auch grundsätzliche neue Formen kommunikativer Beziehungen dominant werden, die an die Stelle der Beziehung der Unterhaltung treten werden. Derzeit scheint mehr darauf hinzudeuten, dass Unterhaltung sich auch im Web 2.0 neben anderen kommunikativen Praktiken einen platz erobern wird und damit auch neue Formen der Partizipation prägen wird. Ob und wie das den Charakter der Unterhaltung wie den der Partizipation verändern wird, bleibt abzuwarten.”

235
“Ende der >Epoche der Unterhaltung<"
-> possible -> in the sense that entertainment will change so much that we can’t call it entertainment (in our sense of the word) anymore

Wonders if the PGA’s definition is a good thing.

Sees “transmedia” as the new buzzword after “ARG”.

She’s against the rule of 3 platforms, which she misunderstood: it’s three narrative threads as part of one story world, as Jeff Gomez explains.

This was probably the first opinion piece about the topic right after Nikki Finke broke the news.