Where's the Money?

The full screen experience

Just a quick post to highlight something I saw this morning..... I read a lot of information about the economics of second screen, streaming distribution......yeah, usually it's a lot of hype and mind numbing information that doesn't really talk about the meat of the matter, where's the money, who's paying and what's the payoff?  So I thought I'd share this link from one of the myriad of people out there (Viaway) looking to distribute and monetize content.  Again, this is more of a "take a look at this" post, than an analysis.  Mostly, I was surprised to see actual numbers for compensation.

I'll summarize [emphasis added by me]:

1. Per minute and subscription royalties:

For professional video content (no cats allowed):  "$0.001 per minute watched.  For example, if 10,000 users watch your 2 hour show, your [sic] earn $1,200."

For professional Audio content: "0.0003 per minute watched. For example, if 10,000 users listen to your 2 hour show, your [sic] earn $360."

2. Pay-per-view royalty (Video on demand)

50% of the rental price of the content.

I don't have a lot of time to talk about this today, however, I think the models do raise interesting questions.  My previous post spoke about the importance of engaging user experience.  When you start talking about per minute or subscription models, it really starts getting interesting.   Now, you're in a marketplace where you're getting paid by the minute watched, in a world where the reality is ever diminishing attention spans for content.  How do you engage viewers long enough to make a profit at $0.0001 per minute per viewer?  Especially if you're content is on a channel which is taking a slice of that?  I'll try to look into this more, I see that that content is offered as a channel in the Roku Channel Store and other places, including via Android and iOS apps.

I honestly have no idea what's happening here, I'd love to hear the overarching vision from someone in-the-know. Fascinating.  Frankly, it is always ominous to me when I see video content listed alongside Pandora, iTune Radio and the other music streaming sites, given what musicians earn from those services.  The subscription options for Viaway are here.

How far are we from a day when you will be able to create your own online channels of content and pay just for the technical infrastructure?  How does this compare to the evolving YouTube advertising type model?  What are the opportunities, or is this just another  treadmill of diminishing income for content creators?  Who will be able to market their content, so it isn't lost in the tsunami of content created every day?  So many questions today.

New Directions

"Will it fit?" and other pertinent questions.

Recently, I have alluded to other, non-film projects upon which I have been working.  One project, Saintify, is nearing completion.  It is an iOS app upon which a small team has been has been working for the past year or so, on the side.  It's been an interesting experience for me, juggling technical, creative and producing duties in a completely new medium and on a low budget.  At times, the gear shifting almost was too much: from good old-fashioned issues like creating focused, quality visual imagery and written content on a budget to trying to figure out whether code existed that could make a screen do something cool without breaking the screens around it (thank you, Stackoverflow.com), to trying to figure out how to create pixel level wireframes representing every screen, and every interaction, in Omnigraffle.

Pixel perfect

Some of this work has been directly pertinent to my other media work. Most importantly, the idea of thinking more fully about user experience has helped focus my brain on media creation moving ahead. Visualizing, and planning, how the audience is going to interact with what you create, from beginning to end, and maximizing that experience, is not a part of the creative process which can be glossed over any longer.  On one level, this isn't entirely new.  Great filmmakers already plot their films out carefully, weeding out scenes, lines, words, that don't enhance the audience's experience of the project.  However, now that process has been put on steroids, as audience expectations of what an entertainment experience should be have become more and more complicated.

The audience wants, expects, to actively participate in the process, even if it is just to complain loudly and publicly.  Whether it's an interactive device, crowd-funding projects by their pet director or guiding the conversation about the project in social media, today's audience is no longer just an audience.  They are participants, partners.  Personally, I think it's great.  Anything that focuses creative minds to think more fully about what they're trying to create, and to whom they are trying to communicate is just fine with me.

Sometimes the questions raised are profoundly creative, like finding simple hacks to create a beautiful new experience, and sometimes they're as simple as "will it display correctly on all 7 devices?"  But they are all important.   For some people, I know this is already old hat.  Thankfully, many of those people are generous and share their knowledge online, or in reasonably priced books.  For many of us, it is going to be a matter of survival to learn how to engage our audiences more thoughtfully and to anticipate needs that they haven't even considered.  And integrate it into great stories.  The era of disruption is far from over.  May we all live in interesting times.

Interactive Journeys

Click on the image to get to the video

While on the subject of music videos, last year saw the release of this interactive video by the band Chairlift (I'd embed the actual video, but I now realize that Google makes it difficult to embed video from anywhere except YouTube now.  I'll be moving the blog to another platform, as soon as I get my new hosting all squared away.  Hey, Blogger is a free platform after all. More on that, on another day).

Anyway, the Chairlift video uses technology created by an Israeli company, Interlude .  They're selling a web-based tool which enables "the creation, design and deployment of interactive videos."  A lot of the content created so far seems to be branded and there's no discussion on their site as to the cost.  It's definitely worth watching where they take the technology.  They do say their player requires "no installation" on iOS or Androd.   I'm not sure what that means, I tried to play their content with a browser (Chrome and Safari) in iOS (iPad) with no success.  It does work well on desktop browsers, however.  There is an iOS app using their technology, Mozart Interactive, which is available in the iTunes store for free.  It's cute, and engaging, however, it doesn't seem to offer anything groundbreaking (technology-wise) for iOS.

I do hope that you watch the Chairlift video.  It is definitely worth a look.  Creatively, the question which I come back to, over and over again, is would I rather go on an unguided, interactive journey or, a well thought out journey created by a master?



Maybe what we need is an interactive video made by Spike Jonze?

Has It Really Been Nearly a Year?

Ouch.  Really, I just haven't had much to say.  I've been working hard, doing freelance camera work, camera shading, the odd colorist gig, and making my own projects.  I've finally made some small steps towards creating more interactive content.  Change can be challenging, and time-consuming but I'll talk a lot more about that soon.

I really feel especially lame for not posting my New Years music/video.  I want to fix that first.  I'll go with a music video from 2012 that really fits the bill: catchy, ridiculous, but still manages to express a truth (which, slyly has as much to do with the demographic time bomb of bored, un and underemployed young men as bad girls).   I will note that it was shot in Ouarzazate,  Morocco and not in the Middle East.   It apparently has changed quite a bit since I visited it many, many years ago, and is now the film capital of Morocco. It has a lovely Kasbah and a very old fortified city nearby, none of which were used by the artist and her talented creative partner, Romain Gavras.   

Well, belated New Years' greetings to everyone:

Lost Film Masterpiece Weekend

Eye acting heaven

Next weekend is looking to be one freaking amazing weekend for film nuts.  Saturday night, at UC Berkeley (Zellerbach Hall), Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc will be screening. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, with the UC Choral Ensembles will be performing Richard Einhorns' Voices of Light to accompany the film.  This is a beautiful, beautiful film which gives me tingles every time I see it.

Suck on this, VistaVision

On Sunday (for me anyway, the film is screening four times: 3/24-3/25 and 3/31-4/1), in sweet, sweet Oakland, at the Paramount Movie Palace, will be a once-in-a-lifetime event:  a 5 1/2 hour screening of a British Film Institute restored print of Abel Gance's Napoleon with live orchestral accompaniment performing the score by Carl Davis.  This is literally a piece that is the product of decades of effort, finding and restoring the film to Gance's original version and composing a score to accompany it.  The final act will be projected with multiple projectors in accordance with Gance's original vision.  This may be the last time this work is screened in film in the United States (a digital restoration is in the works).  People are literally flying in from all over the world for this.  Read about the films fascinating history here.

Cruelty, madness,  beauty and over-acting

If you care about fast disappearing film, these are rare opportunities to see once "lost" masterpieces projected in film with live orchestral accompaniment.  If that's not enough, it will also be the chance to see every art kid's hero, Antonin Artaud, on the big screen in each film.  I'll be there, in the dark, dreaming.

Living, with your neck placed firmly in the noose

Project Updates

 Lucky me

We have finally finished the short project that we created for Projeto Saúde & Alegria, a Brazilian NGO in the Amazon.  It is going to be used to help promote their new ecotourism project, one of their sustainable development initiatives.  It was a real privilege to go down there and actually meet the people in the communities and experience it all firsthand.  We also shot additional footage (interviews with elders, a walk in primary rainforest describing the plants and their uses, etc.) that they will hopefully be able to use in the future for documentary purposes.  This project was edited by Gustavo da Silva, who also edits a TV program Planeta Brasil and is my first producing credit.



I also just found out that the documentary short I recently color graded, The Alley Cats, will screen on April 06, 2012 at the Oakland International Film Festival.  It is small film (in the best sense) that looks at a slice of Oakland, CA, the Alley Cat piano bar (open since 1934) and its family of patrons.  This film was directed by Cary Virtue and edited by the very talented Carlo Kamin.

The Alley Cats

There are several other exciting developments in the near future, including an iOS app, about which I will be sharing details.

End of the Year

 Find The Bliss Within (The Buddha of El Cerrito)

I've been quite busy (happily) this past quarter and have been a little light on postings (one of the few rules I do have about this endeavor is that I promised myself I would not post just to post).  Most recently, I completed work as a colorist on the documentary feature, For I Know My Weakness by John Dentino.  It's an intense, personal documentary which he's been working on for 7 years.  It's always humbling to be the person who has been chosen to help finish such a long, intense journey.

As we approach the end of the year, I want to thank everyone who reads my blog.  I am constantly amazed that there are people out there who take the time to read what I write.  The past couple of months have been heavy on technology and media and less on the art form.  I am hoping to balance that a little bit more in the new year.  Ultimately, none of any of this matters unless there is ultimately something created which moves, challenges, confuses or entertains us.  Thanks to all the amazing people this year who have done that for us all.  Particularly those who will never be famous, but bring us stories because they have to do it, not in a search for fame.

Instead of a holiday video, this year I'm posting a link to a holiday song.

The Spiritual Four Quartet in 1941 at the Fort Valley College Folk Festival. Amazing. I've been unable to locate any pictures of the group.  Check out the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress recordings, I've been working my way through them the past year or so. There's so much amazing American music there, and it belongs to all of us.

Have a great New Year!