no shit
05.11.2010
Ruggill, JE ~ Convergence – Always Already, Already
category: PhD sources
tags: , , , , , ,

Ruggill, Judd Ethan
2009
In Focus: Moving Between Platforms: Film, Television, Gaming, and Convergence: Convergence: Always Already, Already

Explains that convergence is nothing new.

107
“Convergence of the film and television industries began in the early 1920s before television was even invented, let alone industrialized.”
“[...] by the time commercial television appeared in the 1940s as an outgrowth of radio, Hollywood and broadcasters had been sharing talent, technology, aesthetics, and business practices for decades.”

“The history of television and computer game convergence has a similarly preordained yet strangely irregular terrain, with the game medium materializing in the late 1940s as a byproduct of commercial television research and then mostly lying dormant until the 1970s.”

108
“In contrast to the coming together of film and television, which despite its ebbs and flows was always in process to some extent, television and computer game convergence was more inertial.”

109
“Film and computer game convergence has a genesis similar to television and computer game convergence, beginning with clear promise then lapsing into dormancy.”

110
Since convergence is nothing new, (uncritical) enthusiasm towards new convergences may have to be tempered.

13.10.2010
Ryan, M D ~ Next-Generation Filmmaking
category: PhD sources
tags: , , , ,

Ryan, Mark David
Hearn, Greg
2010
Next-Generation ‘Filmmaking’: New Markets, New Methods and New Business Models

140-143
Description of various online video business models, not summarised in categories (or so) though.

26.09.2010
Dymek, M ~ Industrial Phantasmagoria
category: PhD sources
tags: , , , , , , , ,

Dymek, Mikołaj
2010
Industrial Phantasmagoria: Subcultural Interactive Cinema Meets Mass-Cultural Media of Simulation

PhD thesis by Polish dude in Sweden.
Very well written, very long, took him 8 years.

284
Definition-narrative:
“One will define narrative without difficulty as the representation of an event or of a sequence of events.” Genette, 1980, p. 127?

24.09.2010
Bazin, A ~ Will CinemaScope Save the Film Industry?
category: PhD sources
tags: , , , , , ,

Bazin, André
1953 -> 2002 -> 2003
Will CinemaScope Save the Film Industry? Cinémascope: sauvera-t-il le cinéma?

80
“Everybody knows by now, even the average movie-goer, that Hollywood is trying to come to terms with one of the most severe economic crises in its history through the introduction of both 3-D, whose avant-garde stereoscopy has already been seen on French screens, and CinemaScope, whose big war machine, The Robe (Henry Koster, 1953), has already been shown in New York and is soon going to be exhibited in Europe. in New York and is soon going to be exhibited in Europe. Everybody knows, too, that Hollywood is forced to accept the risks of such an endeavor – which totally upsets the norms not only of production, but also of distribution – in view of the acute competition represented by television. At least everybody thinks he knows these things, for the details of the problem are not that simple. The aim of this article, then, is precisely to try to create some order out of all this.” -> Hollywood is doing the same thing it did 60 years ago!
“While some big companies almost completely ceased production only a few months ago, one can see a minor company like Monogram double its annual schedule for the production of B-movies for normal screens. Clearly, the heyday of Hollywood is over.”
“By investing totally in CinemaScope, Fox is not repeating Warner Brothers’ gamble with talkies. None of the American companies, in spite of a film-consumption crisis that has become worse and worse over the last five years, are yet on the verge of bankruptcy. They can probably all afford to indulge in a long period of Malthusianism without being threatened with extinction. This means, of course, that the technical experiment will be relatively controlled and that Hollywood will probably be able to draw some conclusions as soon as the moviegoing wind starts blowing one way or another.
The situation will probably be more serious for the unemployed technicians and actors.”
“underscoring the fact that Hollywood is still in control. It is important to know this especially for those who naïvely believe in some huge crash, in Hollywood’s sinking into an economic chaos from which Europeans could benefit.”

80f
“On the contrary, its operation will continue to be mounted with caution and firmness, and that operation will be massively supported by the various publicity departments.”

81
“The film revolution will be universal or it won’t take place at all. Whether we like it or not, Hollywood remains the magnetic pole of the film industry, at least as far as technical proficiency is concerned. We can particularly see it today: Cinerama, which is little more than Abel Gance’s triple screen, and CinemaScope, which was invented twenty-five years ago by Professor Chrétien, seem viable all of a sudden because of the interest that America has shown in them now that the moviemaking business is in decline.”
“The immediate cause is the dramatic reduction of the number of moviegoers since the introduction of television. In the last five or six years, the American film industry has lost approximately half of its national audience; this has meant the closing down of five thousand movie theaters (all of France doesn’t have that many), and will mean the bankruptcy in the near future of several thousand others.”
“Furthermore, we know that in various European countries, particularly France, where the number of television sets is still insignificant, a disturbing reduction in the number of moviegoers has been observed in the last few years. Everything, then, seems to indicate that a general, deep, and a priori weariness with the cinema on the part of the American public has found in television a visible means of manifesting itself. The viewer statistics are therefore all the more alarming, and they indicate that the haemorrhage cannot be checked through a mere cauterization – a CinemaScoping, as it were – of the wound made by television to the film industry.”

82
He explains why Hollywood’s defence mechanism had to “be of a spectacular nature.” It was foreseeable that the quality and size of TV screens won’t grow much more (for technical reasons). So if cinema was of high quality, it had something TV didn’t have. History has proven him right! But today things are very different. TV’s size and quality IS becoming competitive. Plus it remains all its other advantages. Can Hollywood’s response of increasing the quality/spectacle really have an impact?
“After two years of continuous running, seats still have to be booked six months in advance [at the Cinerama New York.” UNBELIEVABLE!!!

24.09.2010
Hanson, M ~ The End of Celluloid
category: PhD sources
tags: , , ,

Hanson, Matt
2004
The End of Celluloid

46f
“As religion becomes increasingly marginalized, even obsolete in a rational society based on science and technology, the need for myths and exploration of the spiritual becomes more important. These myths need to be all-encompassing, giving rise to a phenomenon I categorize as “screen bleed.”

47
“Originally a technical term (when non-broadcast safe colors, which are very bright or color-saturated, bleed into other areas of the screen), screen bleed is a useful term to appropriate to describe a modern narrative condition where fictive worlds extend into multiple media and moving image formats. I believe the condition of screen bleed is proliferating due to the immersive 3D worlds we explore as game players and digital media consumers. This is why all-encompassing mythologies are the most resonant with contemporary audiences. After all, if a gaming experience is so involving, so cinematic, why shouldn’t we expand the experience into film or interactive online worlds, where each strand of narrative offers a new dimensional layer? This need for an extensible mise en scène can be seen in the way the most complete, distinct narrative worlds – Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Matrix – propagate in different media. Sci-fi and fantasy worlds represent the best way to do this, as they construct environments and objects that are immediately transferable across media, being so foreign and distinguishable from normality.”
He describes The Matrix and how unique it’s been so far.
“Each part of this world works as a discrete unit, but adding the stories together completes the narrative.”

48
“Allusions or references to events or characters that appear in one form and not another, rather than making the active entertainment feel incomplete, add to a believable and convincing narrative world in motion. After all, how many of us understand totally what is happening around us? We are never absolutely informed. The increasing depth of understanding we do get is crucial to our progressively greater pleasure in experiencing the universe.” -> The more you consume the more it sucks you in the more you enjoy it the more you are hooked the more difficult it is to get out the better for the EA!

87
“It will be fascinating to see the expanded experience of this freeform filmmaking in Glitterati, and follow a real-life instance of screen bleed – where the actor Kip Pardue (who played Victor), stepped out of the frame, and stayed in character for this period of fantasy reportage.”
-> Screen Bleed also includes alternate reality aspects!

116
Devices like the PSP “should create more instances of screen bleed, the fantasy moving image world melding with reality and vice versa.”
-> Alternate reality aspects!

174
“SCREEN BLEED: modern narrative condition of fictive worlds being uncontainable in one format and narrative, and their ability to live in other media and moving image formats. Screen bleed extends a story into an immersive experience which will include multiple entertainment media and delivery platforms.”

19.09.2010
Herrmann-Pillath, C ~ Grundriß der Evolutionsökonomik
category: PhD sources
tags: , , , ,

Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten
2002
Grundriß der Evolutionsökonomik

27
Definition-evolutionary economics:
“Das wirtschaftliche Grundproblem ist die Koordination der Bedürfnisbefriedigung autonom handelnder Individuen in einem Zustand des Unwissens. Dieses Unwissen betrifft auch die Frage der Vorzugswürdigkeit unterschiedlicher Koordinationsmechanismen zur Lösung bestimmter Probleme. Ein funktionsfähiges und viables System von Koordinationsmechanismen ist eine „Ordnung“. Die Evolutionsökonomik befasst sich also mit der Frage, wie Ordnung in menschlichen Gesellschaften entsteht und erhalten bleibt. Ihre wirtschaftspolitischen Schlußfolgerungen verstehen sich dementsprechend prinzipiell als Ordnungspolitik, d.h. im Zustand fundamentalen Unwissens werden keine Konzepte direkter Steuerung entwickelt, sondern Konzepte der Ermöglichung von Selbstorganisation und -koordination.”

29
“Wirtschaftswissenschaft [ist] ohne transdisziplinäre Öffnung gar nicht denkbar.”

262
“Strukturen sind in der Zeit stabile Konfigurationen von Elementen und Aktoren: Sie sind der Reflex zeitlicher Ordnungen in materiell-energetischen Prozessen und von Transaktionen in Netzwerken.”
“Strukturen sind Regelmäßigkeiten in Netzwerken und materiell-energetischen Prozessen, also wiederkehrende Ursache-Wirkungs-Zusammenhänge.”

269
“Institutionen sind Konfigurationen von Netzwerken, die bestimmte Verläufe von Transaktionen gegenüber anderen auszeichnen, und in der Zeit stabil sind.”

313
“Manchmal ist auch die „Technologie“ einer Gesellschaft in ihrer Gesamtheit angesprochen, was wir hier nicht nachvollziehen wollen.”
Definition-Basistechnologie:
“Eine Basistechnologie ist ein Korrelat zwischen einer Klasse von Artefakten und einem allgemeinen Bauprinzip (zum Beispiel alle Verbrennungsmotoren). [...]”

325f

  1. Entstehungsphase
  2. Verbreitungsphase “Es setzt sich ein sogenanntes „dominant design“ durch. (p. 326)”
  3. Stabilisierung und Obsoleszenz

327
Bei der Anwendung des VSB (VSR auf Englisch)-Paradigmas wird “eine Technologie [...] als ein Wissen betrachtet, das durch die relativen Erfolge bei der Lösung bestimmter Probleme selektiert wird. Diese Probleme werden nachfrageseitig definiert und bestimmen die Leistungen, die Technologien erbringen sollen.”
“Die Koordination des Wissens zwischen Anwendung und Produktion von Technologie ist ein VSB-Prozeß, bei dem nachfrageseitig das Wissen um Problemstellungen die Selektionsumgebung für Variationen des technologischen Wissens darstellt. Die Nachfrageseite ist also prinzipiell ein Mechanismus äußerer Selektion. Wir können dann die Basistechnologien als Mechanismen innerer Selektion auffassen. Konkrete Anwendungen ergeben sich dann aus dem Wechselspiel zwischen innerer und äußerer Selektion der Technologie. Technologische Paradigmata entsprechen technologischen Entwicklungspfaden im Möglichkeitsraum aller Technologien.”
“Es ist aber in jedem Fall wichtig zu notieren, daß die Diffusion von Technologien also maßgeblich durch die Entdeckung von Problemen bestimmt auch ist bzw. durch ihre tatsächliche Beanspruchung zur Lösung von Problemen.”

328
“Es kann geschehen, das prinzipiell vorhandenes technologisches Wissen nicht umgesetzt wird, weil entweder der Problemlösungsbedarf nicht gegeben ist oder weil die gegebene gesellschaftliche Struktur nicht geeignet ist, um den Bedarf zu artikulieren.” -> EA is working on getting out of this problem. People have to learn what EA is and how to consumer it.
“Technologien können aber auch neue Probleme erst definieren, also auch nachfrageseitig in dem Sinne Neuheit erzeugen, daß die Leistungen selbst erst entdeckt werden. Das heisst, die „Umwelt“ ist nicht vollständig unabhängig von der Erzeugung von Technologien.” -> EA has to define the problem to which it is the solution.

328f
“Umgekehrt muß ein Produzent einer Technologie auch in der Lage sein, Probleme der Anwender zu erkennen, die diese selbst nicht kennen.
Generell gilt für alle Technologien, daß eine prinzipielle Differenz besteht zwischen dem generischen Wissen der Technologie und dem kontextsensitiven Wissen, das in konkreten und lokalen Anwendungen mit diesem generisches Wissen korrliert sein muß.” That the technology is there does not mean it will be used.

331
“Das Konzept der Basistechnologie bezieht sich auf grundlegende Merkmale der Herstellung und Funktionalität von Technologien. Technologien weisen ein in der Zeit stabiles Grundmuster ihrer Konstruktionen und Problemlösungen auf, wie etwa das Prinzip „Verbrennungsmotor“.”

334

Mikro- und Makrovarietät in der technologischen Entwicklung

338
“Die Geschichte lehrt, daß die Ablehnung neuer Technologien häufig durch die Angst vor der Entwertung der eigenen Fähigkeiten entsteht. Ein Beispiel sind die Ludditen des 19. Jhs.”
Technologie-spezifische Anwender-Wissensbasis => “Diese strukturelle Kopplung zwischen dem Wissen, das dem Artefakt innewohnt, und dem Wissen, das die Anwender entwickeln, kann erhebliche Barrieren für den Eintritt einer neuen Technologie schaffen, weil die Anwender nicht motiviert sind, ihre Wissensbasis zu entwerten und in die Entwicklung einer neuen zu investieren.”

342
“”Ein damit zusammenhängendes, in der neoklassischen Institutionenökonomik vielverwendetes Argument zum Zusammenhang zwischen Technologie und Organisation bezieht sich auf die schon angesprochene Möglichkeit, daß die Technologie komplementäre Investitionen voraussetzt, die in dem Sinne spezifisch sind, daß sie nur für diese Technologie und bestimmte ihrer Anwendungen nutzbar sind. Dies können spezielle Fertigungsmaschinen sein oder auch das schon betrachtete spezifische Humankapital. Solche Investitionen mit sogenannter hoher „asset specifity“ werden nur geleistet, wenn für die Zukunft Erwartungssicherheit dahingehend besteht, daß tatsächlich auch der Einsatz erfolgt.”

345

Innere und äußere Selektion von Technologien und Organisationen

Innere und äußere Selektion von Technologien und Organisationen

347
“gerade in Anfangsphasen von Innovationen besteht die Funktion des Unternehmers darin, technologiespezifische Transaktionen zu institutionalisieren. Dabei gehen Unternehmer typischerweise zunächst von idiosynkratischen, also singulären Beziehungen in Netzwerken aus (etwa bei der Finanzierung, die in besonderem Masse auf Vertrauen beruhen muß).
Gleichzeitig kreiiert der Unternehmer Interpretationen von Technologie. Dies können Rekombinationen vorhandener Technologie sein, also durchaus die eigentliche Erfindertätigkeit. Ökonomisch bedeutsamer ist jedoch die Interpretation von Technologie im Wissen über Nutzungsmöglichkeiten. Der Unternehmer erzeugt entweder dieses Wissen erst beim Nutzer oder er kombiniert vorhandenes Wissen neu. Das verdeutlicht, daß unternehmerisches Handeln in hohem Masse kommunikatives Handeln sein muß, und weniger materiell-energetisch gestaltend.”

386
“die letztendliche Bestimmung von Macht [kann] nur unter Bezug auf konkrete Wirtschaftssysteme geschehen [...]. Macht verändert ihren Charakter im Laufe der Evolution von Wirtschaftssystemen. Zudem sind die Interdependenzen zwischen den verschiedenen Strukturen entscheidend für die Einschätzung von Machtstrukturen: Macht stabilisiert Institutionen, muß aber umgekehrt auch institutionalisiert sein. Diese Zusammenhänge können wir nur im Rahmen des Konzeptes der „Ordnung“ begreifen, das sich auf die Struktur der Strukturen von Macht, Institutionen und Technologie bezieht.”

17.09.2010
Cavallaro, D ~ Anime and the Visual Novel
category: PhD sources
tags: , , ,

Cavallaro, Dani
2010
Anime and the Visual Novel: Narrative Structure, Design and Play at the Crossroads of Animation and Computer Games

There is a recent trend for creating anime series and anime movies based on visual novels.
Visual novels are fairly static games that rely heavily on text and often there is not much player interaction beyond clicking on “next”.
Video games have become so powerful as a storytelling form that they influence other storytelling forms.

8
“In the context of anime culture, the phrase “visual novel” (“bijuaru noberu”) designates a multibranching and interactive ludic experience that enlists the player’s creativity alongside the production studio’s own artistry and thus transcends the boundaries of other types of more controlling videogaming. The visual novel typically articulates its narrative by means of extensive text conversations complemented by lovingly depicted (and mainly stationary) generic backgrounds and dialogue boxes with character sprites determining the speaker superimposed upon them. At certain pivotal moments in the story, more detailed images drawn especially for those scenes and enhanced by more cinematic camera angles and CGI are included. A visual novel’s ending alters according to the player’s choices at key turning points, which provides a motivation to replay the game and opt for alternative decisions each time. Pictorial sumptuousness, vibrant palettes, meticulous devotion to plot depth and character design and development are absolutely vital aspects of the medium.”

10
“In placing the interactor in a finely grained imaginary setting wherein he or she is required to deploy both text-analysis capabilities and puzzle-solving skills, the visual novel forges an innovative way of presenting and receiving the narrative experience.”

13.09.2010
Hartley, J ~ From the Consciousness Industry
category: PhD sources
tags: , , ,

Hartley, John
2009
From the Consciousness Industry to Creative Industries: Consumer-Created Content, Social Network Markets, and the Growth of Knowledge
Pages 231-244 in
Holt, Jennifer
Perren, Alisa
Media Industries: History, Theory, and Method, eds. J. Holt and A. Perren

The article I saved is from the Cultural Science journal, so page numbers have to be cross-checked when quoted.

I quoted it as a reference for cultural science being interested in the growth of knowledge.

07.09.2010
Hartley, J ~ The Uses of Digital Literacy / Story Circle
category: PhD sources
tags: , , ,

Hartley, John
2009
(The chapter I’m quoting was first published in Story Circle, then revised and published in The Uses of Digital Literacy.)
The Uses of Digital Literacy
Story Circle (page numbers in brackets)

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?”

04.08.2010
Reiss, J ~ Think Outside the Box Office
category: PhD sources
tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Reiss, Jon
2010
Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era

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.“