DISSOLVING FILM: could the death of film be in 10 years?
Personal. Human. Myspace?
These are a few things describing film … and the death of them all will probably never happen – but what is at question here is:
Will theaters fall leaving the studios alone to operate their own screens hence reversing the movie-going experience and distribution back to what it used to be?
Myspace and other media circuits allow we the filmmakers to broadcast and share everything … even the videos that would be forgotten in the back of the closet 10 years ago. So with this technology booming, will audiences become jaded, bored, and so demmanding that film actually regresses back to what it was in the early days?
But just as film actually dissolves over time, will the industry its made in as well? Will it shrink down to focus in on big budget spectacles only studios could release? The studio-future tells us no – its actually going the other way. Big budget films are close to being extinct.
What will it be like in 10 years. ipods, phones, and cars equipt with entertainment – will the business of making movies suffer or strive?
MY POINT OF VIEW: (continued from forum)
I don’t think so at all. With all the home-movies and consumer generated material out there, it’s hard to continue gazing at youtube’s poor quality, poor humor, and other poor-i-ties. There’s great stuff on youtube but the bulk is for self pleasure – not mass pleasure such as movies and storytelling. Storytelling is a skill not everyone has and I think that the only death within ten years is actually the trend tto be a filmmaker. Like skateboarding, jyncos, and any other trendy cultural past, it’s a fad. Everyone wants in on it because everyone can be. Like myspace – though that won’t be dying because it’s so personal and the newest form of communication – one after text messaging and email.
I have a theory or maybe a fantasy that studios and production companies will go to the screenwriters to fill positions such as director – because today everyone is a director — but only the screenwriter is learning and practicing how to tell a good story.
it’s the difference between a good joke and a bad one – and that’s the way the cookie crumbles! 
… :p Guess I should keep practicing.
This is a really interesting topic, something I just posted about on my blog as well, but from a different point of view. I cover the innovations in business models in digital entertainment, and I am seriously interested in predicting the outcome of long-form entertainment. It seems there is a lot working against it.
I like your point that storytellers are important, but I wonder if the financial structure that will emerge (it won’t be anything like we have now) will allow for the production values that are necessary to telling those stories effectively?
I am not so sure. Just the other day, I was watching an episode of a sitcom (“Scrubs”) where the routine production values of a typical sitcom became an on-going joke itself. It was kind of clever and very self referential in the way it riffed on poor production values (and ridiculous story telling for that matter), but the UCG crowd is a loooooong way from ever even dreaming of that low level of production.
Yet it may very well be that ultra low production value, 3-7 minute clips may capture significant viewer market and mind share in the long run. In that world, cinemas, TVs, dvd players and more are going to start looking a lot like Victrolas….
Best, Barry