What Filmmakers Can Learn from Android
Penguin June 26th, 2008
From Wired: Google’s Open Source Android OS Will Free the Wireless Web:
[Android] is the re-creation of the Internet.
- Eric Schmidt
The internet is huge, powerful, awesome, useful; it’s been a boon for all content creators: filmmakers, artists, musicians, and writers. Imagine where it would be if we understood this internet thing early on? The internet is still growing, it hasn’t even really come into it’s own yet. But as we try to capitalize on the internet, specifically through PCs, are we missing out on something bigger?
The mobile market is growing, adding 3 million users a year. When you leave your home, you bring 3 things: keys, wallet, cellphone. The iPhone, Blackberry, and other smart phones have made it so you can carry the internet with you. By extension, phones will eventually eclipse PCs in usage. I’m not saying they’ll replace PCs, but there are millions of people in the 3rd world who can’t afford a PC, but have a phone.
David Lynch said that as the screen size reduces, so does the experience. When I watch Youtube or any other online video, I have very little patience for the short or video to hook me. If there’s nothing compelling in the first 30-60 seconds, I move on. Cell phones are even smaller, so the attention span will be even faster. The fact that it’s mobile also changes the way things are utilized.
I love my Nintendo DS. I use it more than my Playstation 2. But the only game that I really play is Tetris. Tetris is a great game because each time I play is localized. There’s no ending, so I can stop playing at any time. I don’t have to worry about a story or where I need to go or do after a week or two of inactivity. I don’t have to worry about saving, so I can play while I wait for people and just close it when they come.
The mobile market will teach us new things about filmmaking. Video will be there, but we may not be able to tell the same sort of stories or tell them in the same way. But we can’t miss this opportunity.
Newspapers are dead. Magazines are dead. DVDs and CDs are dead. All have been replaced by the internet. And when information is free, we need to figure out another way to make money.
Google’s model is to build a killer app, then monetize it later
- Andy Rubin
Our killer app is our content. With so many content producers out there, it’s increasingly harder and harder to differentiate our product (our films) from the noise. It’s not just the stories that we tell, but how we tell them. When I’m browsing videos, I can instantly tell by the editing, titles, shot composition, or even color-correction if the video will be any good. As important as the story is, the presentation of that story has to be just as good, if not better. This requires resources in the form of money and talent. These are either financed, or we get that little break to begin to monetize our content.
How do we monetize content? I wish I knew. The MPAA doesn’t know, that’s why they’re holding on to DVD. The TV studios are starting to understand with things like Hulu, but the ad placeholders are annoying enough to force me back to bit torrent. My gut says the solution is to take it offline.
- Connect with your audience and provide them with an experience they can’t get online. It would be an extension of your film, bringing characters to real life or bringing set pieces for the audience to participate in.
- Make the DVD special, include things that can’t be copied for free.
- Other merchandise that ties into your film. Sometimes it’s t-shirts, sometimes it’s something else.
As indie filmmakers, we need to be pioneers. We need to understand where technology is bringing us and learn from what business and other content creators are doing with it. Yes we’ll make mistakes, but we make plenty already with our films.
-Penguin
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