Month: September 2010

Categories
Business & Marketing Item of Interest

Are we getting our money’s worth?

Are we getting our money’s worth? http://bit.ly/b7E64c

Not really specific to production but an interesting take on how people perceive value. I know I’ve been guilty of similar illogical perceptions. I would drive out of my way, make a second stop and add 10 minutes to the task to avoid a $1.60 ATM fee at the destination. Even if my time was only $20 an hour, that’s $3.33 of time to save $1.60. Since my hourly rate is way up from that, the perceived value of saving the $1.60 terminal fee was ridiculous.

This is also why, I believe, people “hiccup” when they’re asked to pay for TV. Of course the ridiculous amounts being charged are also at play.

But rarely do we consider the “why.” Why do I need this? Why do I think this is so important to have? Why am I buying this thing, right now? Why not later? Why buy it at all? Why do I think this thing will improve or enhance my life? Why do I want friends to see that I have this? Why am I always thinking about this?

The why is an easy question to ask but sometimes a difficult question to get an answer to. But the more you can honestly dig into your “why,” the closer you’ll get to your real motivations. And at the heart of our filters are our motivations—the things that inspire us to act and do and ultimately to buy.

Categories
Item of Interest New Media

The golden age of web video is coming!

The golden age of web video is coming. http://bit.ly/bDL0dp

If TV history is any indication, a “Golden Age” comes next for original Web video. In the ’50s and ’60s, well-written long-form live TV dramas as well as comedy hits like “I Love Lucy” changed the way America consumed media (and helped end movie studios’ media domination). Eventually, content creators will develop long-form programming using interactivity to tell stories in new ways. Maybe we’ll see fewer 3-minute one-joke videos and more 12-minute masterpieces. And of course, no one will complain if a same-day Old Spice ad pops up to cover the costs.

Categories
Distribution Item of Interest

The recession in the music industry – a cause analysis

The recession in the music industry – a cause analysis http://bit.ly/9OtrH1

I love good research. It beats speculation, rumor and opinion every time. (I’m most easily persuaded with fact.) This rather long article examines why the CD business (not the music industry really) has been shrinking.

It’s not “unauthorized downloads” that’s the problem, according to the article:

To sum up, the expanding market from the 1960s to the late 1970s was based on a market segmentation strategy by establishing new music genres and long-play products as a key source of sales. But this led to smaller and less profitable market segments and subsequently to declining sales and revenues in the late 1970s. With the launch of the CD in 1982/83, the major companies focused on superstar acts, and revenues soared again in unprecedented heights in the 1980s and 1990s. One must not oversee that the CD-boom was mainly fueled by the re-release of repertoire still existing on vinyl. The superstar-orientation as well as the CD format ensured that the album became the main source of sales in the industry. The single lost its importance and finally assumed only the roll of a test market.

When these structures were confronted with the track-culture of the Internet, the album market turned once again into a less economically viable single market and caused the slump in sales of the last decade. The figures also show that the single-format, thanks to strong sales of digital downloads, is on the rise and already have matched long play-sales on a pure per unit basis. The labels’ task is now to find again a model in which music in bundled form increases not only the revenues and profits but also the music consumers’ benefits. However, this is more difficult to achieve under the prevailing conditions than the increase of mobile and online music sales based on single-tracks. If, in addition, the insight prevails that file-sharing is in fact not the cause but merely a side-effect of the current transitional phase and that it actualy represents a promotional opportunity for thus far unknown acts, then sales might increase again that thus help overcome the recession in the phonographic industry.

Where the music industry goes, film and TV will follow as bandwidth increases.

Categories
Item of Interest Video Technology

The Terence and Philip Show Episode 9

The Terence and Philip Show Episode 9: The “un-eye-witness” IBC report! http://bit.ly/9B0nfs

With crazy guy Howard Brock! Avid’s DS software release and what it means for the Avid product line; KiPro mini; which leads to a side trip talking about the restored Cinerama Windjammer playing off the KiPro at the Cinerama Dome; Blackmagic Design’s IBC announcements: Resolve shipping; control on iPad, bigger and smaller VideoHubs.  Discussion reaches to the Kona 3G and market forces. Howard points out some of the anomalies of charging over time. More on the Blackmagic Design’s IBC announcements. 3D at IBC and why we don’t like it. Trimming R3D files and the problems of naming. Avid sponsors the IBC Supermeet. Cinedeck version 2.

Categories
Item of Interest

DRM FAIL: Five Broken Copy Protection Schemes

DRM FAIL: Five Broken Copy Protection Schemes http://bit.ly/aZwb7L DRM doesn’t work.

Macrovision, CSS, SCMI, BD+ and now HDCP have all been “cracked” leaving the only people inconvenienced by the DRM to be the paying customers. D’oh.

Categories
HTML5 Item of Interest

The Wilderness Downtown: How it was done

The Wilderness Downtown: How it was Made http://bit.ly/bEybDx

By now you’ve no doubt seen The Wilderness Downtown, which is an amazing mash-up of HTML5 technologies, Google Street View and Canvas animation. The article details how each element was constructed, what technology was used and how it all came together.

Categories
Business & Marketing Item of Interest

Digital Video Expo Free Session

Digital Video Expo – my session’s free on Wednesday http://bit.ly/9zGShE

I’m also teaching three sessions in the conference Thursday and doing the first public demo of our latest software  – for paper cuts without the pain – prEdit demo at the LAFCPUG meeting Wednesday night.

Categories
Interesting Technology Item of Interest

ABC’s Ingenious App Uses Sound to sync with audio

ABC’s Ingenious App Uses Sound to Sync iPad, TV http://bit.ly/c2n5In

ABC’s iPad app for the television show “My Generation” creates a seamless, two-screen, interactive television experience by bridging a cable/satellite connection and an iPad, two digital devices, by measuring decidedly analog sound waves using the iPad’s microphone. The app looks for certain contours in the audio signal that the Neilsen television ratings firm uses to monitor broadcasts, so that it knows when to display a particular poll or other item linking up with a precise moment in the show.

Though television companion apps exist for the iPad, this automatic syncing feature represents a big step forward. And while ABC is only rolling this out for a single program, it’s such a clever, obvious-in-retrospect idea — not to mention far easier than writing digital code to keep the devices synced wirelessly even if the user watches at someone else’s house or later, using on-demand or a DVR — that it could easily become widespread across many shows.

Categories
Distribution Item of Interest Monetizing

Are Apple TV Rentals Too Cheap?

Are Apple TV Rentals Too Cheap? http://bit.ly/c0ETzV Hell no! They’re too expensive already. http://bit.ly/bz7MKn

I’ve written about this before, at the second link above, but now Barry Meyer, Chariman of Warner Bros. Entertainment, is arguing that the 99c rental fee is too low:

The paper quotes Meyer saying that he doesn’t want to “open up a rental business in television at a low price.” His biggest fear seems to be that cheap rentals will hurt the licensing of entire seasons to other broadcasters.

 

Categories
Item of Interest Monetizing

Developer of Minecraft Game sees Piracy as promotion

Two versions of a story  of a game developer working with ‘piracy’ as promotion. http://bit.ly/adO5Bo http://bit.ly/9haBji CwF+RtB

Although Minecraft already has 658429 registered players, due to the fact that it’s widely available on torrent and warez sites, many of these are unauthorized users.

But what’s most impressive is that at the time of writing, 155521 (23.62%) of these have already bought the game of their own free will. In the last 24 hours alone, a 11804 people registered to play, and 4910 of them bought the game. (updated statshere)

Those are good numbers regardless of whether or not everyone pays. Despite the propaganda from the RIAA, MPAA and their ilk, not every download would have been a sale, so converting a good portion that increases sales can’t be a bad thing. I’m pretty sure my HD Survival Handbook has been “pirated” but the legit sales are enough to have covered the time and effort that went into it, so I’m just not worried about something I can’t stop.

The developer also comments (somewhat obscurely I think):

“Piracy will win in the long run. It has to,” says Notch. “The alternative is too scary.”