PETER KATZ

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Nicco Mele, author of End of Big, How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath.

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Matt Mason, BitTorrent’s VP of marketing, stops by for an interesting chat about how his company is creating new tools to market and monetize content.

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Jason Xu, founder/CEO of Battlefy, introduces me to the exciting world of eSports.

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John Sykes, president of Clear Channel Entertainment, shares how he is expanding the radio business across multiple platforms.

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My guest is Christian Fonnesbech digital director & producer of 35+ online & transmedia projects. We are going to be discussing Cloud Chamber, his new transmedia mystery produced in Denmark. He collaborated with producer Vibeke Windelov (Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark), director of filmed parts Fabian Wullenweber (The Killing TV series), and actors Gethin Anthony (Game of Thrones) and Jesper Christensen (James Bond: Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace).

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My guest is Benji Rogers, CEO/founder of Pledgemusic.com, a platform that bridges the gap between musicians and their fans.

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Aaron Williams, co-founder/CEO of Social Samba, shows me how his startup empowers transmedia storytellers.

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I chat with Maya Zuckerman, transmedia producer and co-founder of Transmedia SF. We reference these two articles: 

A Critical Shortfall: Who Rates the Transmedia? by David Bloom

Transmedia Storytelling Is Bullshit… by Mikes Jones

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Jeff Ulrich, Earwolf podcast network co-founder, talks about the art and buisness of podcasting.

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Frank Rose, author of The Art of Immersion, talks about how the entertainment industry is evolving.

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Tom Pinchuck and I talk comics plus transmedia storytelling.

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Jeff Gomez, President & Chief Executive Officer at Starlight Runner, teaches us how transmedia storytelling enhances the value of film franchises, TV series, and videogames.

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LINKS:

The 10 Commandments Of 21st Century Franchise Production 

Battle Castle TV show 

Story R&D from Peter Katz

Brad Bell aka Cheeks, writer/actor/web personality and Jane Espenson, writer of Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Once Upon a Time… discuss co-creating the online sitcom Husbands.

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Unconference: From Proof of Concept, To Pilot, To Green-Light 
Don Le, Producer
Peter Katz, Producer/Innovator
Esther Lim, Executive Director of Digital Experience, George P. Johnson

Thanks to social media and inexpensive, high-quality camera equipment, filmmakers are increasingly choosing to make short “proof of concept” films to lure studios and backers with the benefit of hard numbers up front rather than shopping scripts around.

http://www.storyworldconference.com/ehome/33551/schedule/?&

Joshua Caldwell (writer/director/producer) talks about his experience as the Director of Digital Media at Dare to Pass, Anthony E. Zuiker’s (creator of CSI) innovative production company.

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Tim Carter, co-founder of Contradiction films, talks about producing a big budget webseries based on one of the most popular videogames of all time.

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Paul Kontonis, digital media guru, shows me why online content will keep improving.

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My guest is Mark Long, CEO of Meteor Entertainment. The story world from Hawken, his new free to play game, will live on multiple platforms: comics, novels, webseries, and films.

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Our guest is Nicolas Gonda, film producer/co-founder of Tugg, a startup that allows movie fans to choose what films screen at their local theaters.

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(I co-wrote this blog with Jessica Richman. It was originally posted on Workbookproject)

Remember the choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) books? Those old childhood standbys are being recycled in the form of audience participation in movies, theatres, and online. Does she or doesn’t she? You get to decide…

In movies, CYOA has taken several forms. In 2006, Lean Forward Media, a company started by two Harvard Business School grads, created The Abominable Snowman, a CYOA-based DVD designed for children. In 2008,SilkTricky created the online movie Survive the Outbreak, a zombie flick that lets you CYOA. (A heist movie – Bank Run – is in the works.) Survive the Outbreak has a total of 21 scenes, with 10 total decision points: six options lead to death, and two lead to survival. (h/tTubefilter.tv) More recently, creators have linked YouTube videos based on user clicks, a kind of DIY CYOA (examples). And just a couple of weeks ago? The web series Spade.

Some obstacles to uptake of this new format are familiar: audience familiarity with the medium, new ways of thinking by designers and filmmakers, technical issues with managing clicks. Moreover, these experiments raise some interesting artistic questions: what is the ideal ratio of decision points to scenes? Where should those decision points be placed? Does it differ for adults vs. children? One terrific feature of new media is that its easy to gather data to learn more about what works best – but it also means that there is still a lot of experimentation is left to do.

From a business perspective, the question, as always, is monetization. SilkTricky solves this problem by simultaneously formatting the online movies as iPhone games (which I couldn’t find in the online store for some reason); Lean Forward Media is selling children’s DVDs to parents (but they haven’t produced a movie since 2006, so I’m not sure how well that’s going). An interview with Lynn Lund of SilkTricky noted that they spent $35k on their movie, not including pre- or post-production, which they did themselves. These movies are not cheap.

But audiences really seem to like them. Web reviews of Survive the Outbreak were quite positive, with many lamenting only that the movie wasn’t longer (and some that the acting was bad – but that’s not exactly new for a zombie flick). That’s another possible problem with these new technique – they must stand on their own as movies and cannot rely on exclusively on a gimmick. So a filmmaker has to make 21 scenes to get to 8 endings, instead of (if we assume a similar ratio) three scenes to get to one. Making more scenes is more expensive, and demand will have to justify that cost.

What hasn’t been done on a wide scale are CYOA movies in movie theatres. CYOA has been used in live theatre productions (for example, the 2007 run of Intimate Exchanges, reviewed in the NYT) and in screenings at SXSW (The Weathered Underground, 2010). The question, though, is whether this technique could be used to bring people back to the theatres from their Netflix and their online gaming. And no one has yet put up the money to resolve that question. If audiences like it (as they seem to so far, at least on their own computer screens), this could lead to greater participation and engagement and perhaps a boost to the theatre-going experience.

There’s a reason why we all remember the CYOA books – they’re lots of fun. The next few years will undoubtedly see more attempts to transfer that sense of power and enjoyment to the big screen.

(It was originally posted on Workbookproject)

The Cool Kids and other popular musicians at SXSW are signed to a new kind of record label-Mountain Dew’s Green Label Sound. In my opinion, this trend will grow in the world of music and move into the world of indie film distribution as well. This phenomenon is happening because of the combined economic challenges of record labels and the decreased reach of branded television advertising. Traditional record labels have been struggling to earn enough money through record sales because of piracy. Therefore, record labels are now insisting on 360 deals, in which musicians give labels a percentage of all their income. Many artists aren’t happy with this arrangement. Simultaneously, the reach of branded television advertisements are decreasing due to TiVo and Netflix. “Interrupting TV shows is ‘not something most people will tolerate,’ says TiVo CEO Tom Rogers. In the 40% of all households that have a DVR ‘the amount of commercial avoidance is huge.’” (Source David Lieberman at Deadline Hollywood.com) Netflix has over 23 million members on their ad free platform (Source Netflix Investor Relations), some of whom are beginning to cut their cable cords. In response, some brands are finding a new way to reach an audience.

Remember the music industry isn’t struggling because people don’t love music. Social networks allow artists to have more reach and powerful connections with their listeners. Green Label Sound signed The Cool Kids to be part of their relationship with fans (consumers). I think that is a good investment when you consider the depth and duration of the relationship the fans have with the rap crew. This combined with (last time I checked) 3,370,297 views for their Black Mage music video on Youtube, 4,850,369 plays and 423,384 listeners on Lastfm,  187,861 Likes on their Facebook page, and they have 12,878 followers on Twitter. At SXSW The Cool Kids performed at the Green Label Sound  Showcase and many top music blogs mentioned their label.

In exchange, the Cool Kids get to keep all of their income from iTunes album sales, except for processing fees (Source Billboard). They are promoted by a marketing budget much larger than most record labels, since Green Label Sound is owned by PepsiCo, a Fortune 500 company that has sold billions of dollars worth of soft drinks vs relying on album sales. “Labels suck,” the Cool Kids’ Chuck Inglish said, “What can they do that Pepsi can’t do? We had a good experience with Green Label Sound — we got more from that single than we got from our previous album. I was tired of the album sitting around and just wanted to get it out.”(Source Billboard)

Here’s where indie film distribution fits in. Sponsors at prestigious film festivals might evolve into distributors: starting to acquire titles that make sense for the brand’s identity, focusing on marketing themselves as patrons of the arts, distributing films to theaters where their target demographic lives e.g. college towns. This strategy increases brand loyalty by adding value to people’s lives.

Content producers will win because all of the typical costs associated with theatrical film distribution will be covered by the brand. So, creators are going to be able to keep more money. Filmmakers will still own the digital rights for their project and the buzz from screenings will increase the projects’ value. “Theatrical will drive awareness of the film,” WME agent Liesl Copland said regarding distribution for Blue Valentine (Source Eugene Hernande at IndieWire).

What are your thoughts on branded distribution?

Years ago I was featured on CNN’s The Screening Room showing how neurology can make horror films scarier. Watch it HERE.

Already Gone will screen at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea. 

Already Gone Army! 

Jude played by Shawn Ashmore.

Scott played by Harry Shum Jr.

Scott Snibbe, founder of Snibbe Interactive and Scott Snibbe Studio, discusses the creation of Biophilia, Bjork’s interactive album. We met Scott at The Creators Project, an art/technology conference organized by Intel and Vice.

Note: I mentioned the Mashable article,” Film as Startups” written by Christine Erickson. It covers the short film Already Gone, which I produced with Don Le and executive producer Joel Mendoza, directed by Ross Ching, and written by Bill Balas.

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