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The Business of Production The Technology of Production

Broadcasters are focused on efficiency

Broadcast Engineers has an article For broadcasters, the name of the game is efficiency which really comes as no surprise:

Finding new and better ways of improving staff productivity and support new and existing distribution channels is key for broadcasters looking to successfully navigate the ever changing competitive landscape and remain relevant in today’s multichannel universe.

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General

What else can Lumberjack do?

I haven’t previewed the string-out functions of Lumberjack before, but here’s one from a test today, ahead of the HPA Retreat this week where we’ll be showing it with live demos

Lumberjack stringout

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General

The Terence and Philip Show Episode 51: Avid’s Change of CEO

Terence Current and Philip Hodgetts (that’s me) discuss the implications of Avid’s recent change of CEO. And we manage to do it in 15 minutes.

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The Business of Production

Is the ailing VFX industry a warning for the Studio Tentpole strategy?

David Cohen at Variety wrote an in depth story, with the subhead of High-profile bankruptcies point to fragile underpinnings of blockbuster biz, that takes a look at the problems in the Visual Effects industry as a warning for the Studios’ “Tentpole’ strategy.

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Assisted Editing

Preview Lumberjack at the HPA Retreat Demo Room

If you want to be among the first to see a Lumberjack preview demonstration, but don’t want to sign up for the whole retreat? Good news, there’s a one day, demo room only package. This is your chance to influence the future direction of Lumberjack.

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Business & Marketing The Business of Production

Is Cost per Hour the new entertainment metric?

David Justus writes at GigOm argues that Cost per Hour will be a pivotal metric for both producers and consumers, but I’m slightly dubious (despite wanting it to be true.)

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The Business of Production

Why do we subsidize TV and Movie Production? [Updated]

The legacy media businesses are just plain bad businesses: they apparently never make a profit and require constant subsidizing from local and State authorities; they require constant legislative support for their legacy (and obsolete) business models, and yet the public get very, very little from this investment. There’s no share of copyright, there’s no real payback in money spent locally.  It’s time to let these business stand, or fail, on standard business grounds.

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General

The Many Motivations Of Movie Piracy

Why do people download materials they’re not authorized to download? The “industry” says because people want everything for free, but actual research in the  recently released Copy Culture In The US & Germany survey report from the American Assembly one small but especially interesting component is the list of reasons given for downloading TV shows and movies. The American responses were pretty evenly distributed among the various key reasons, and serve as a laundry list of things that piracy does just slightly better, or slightly more permissively, than most legitimate sources.

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The Business of Production

Are we heading for a Golden Age of Television?

With Netflix’s stated goal of becoming:

…HBO faster than HBO can become us.

Is that going to lead to a Golden Age of Television?

TV is replacing movies as elite entertainment, because players like Netflix, HBO, and AMC are in an arms race for lush, high-quality shows

Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic in Netflix, ‘House of Cards,’ and the Golden Age of Television seems to think so. A rare positive thought for our production future.

Categories
Distribution The Business of Production

Musicians Divided on “Cost” of Piracy.

Northwestern Law professor Peter DiCola, has a new study entitled Money from Music: Survey Evidence on Musicians’ Revenue and Lessons About Copyright Incentives. What’s interesting is the divided opinion among musicians on whether or not unauthorized distribution, a.k.a. piracy, helps or hurts their income.