Spent most of last week in Santa Monica at the Digital Hollywood conference. No ground-breaking insights into the future of entertainment, though I did meet some interesting and intelligent people there.
Here’s my summary of the DH09 conference: lots of hand-shaking, hand-wringing, and hand-clasping.
First, the hand-shaking. This is a networking conference, no two ways about it. The hotel lobby was always full of people throughout the day. Not a bad thing, but I’m used to conferences where no one wanted to miss a single panel (my background is anything but entertainment in case you haven’t guessed). General tone: Are you someone who can help me figure out this mess we’re in?
Next, the hand-wringing. More than once, I heard a panelist utter these inspiring words: “…and if anyone in the audience has figured this out, please tell me.” General tone: No, I’m not someone who can help you figure this mess out – we’re in it up to our armpits just like you.
Finally, the hand-clasping. I won’t say there was a lot of desperation at the conference, but it was clear that money is drying up in several corners of entertainment. Getting funding for projects is hard. Getting advertising dollars is hard. Times are tough, and since the hand-wringing is still going on (no one’s “solved” digital content delivery/monetization yet), a lot of content creators and distributors are scared about what the future holds. General tone: Please don’t let me go out of business/into bankruptcy before we all figure this out.
I see no immediate silver bullet for online content, no signs that traditional ad dollars will bounce back, and no indications that online ad dollars will approach previous levels of traditional ad dollars. I don’t see Hollywood reversing the tide of UCG that continues to close the gap with commercial content in terms of production or content quality. I don’t see the big media players taking the necessary game-changing plays to leapfrog their competition into the digital age.
Mostly, I continue to see attempts to box the Internet and digital content into old school models in an attempt to make them fit within traditional models of content generation and distribution. Which is a shame, since the large media companies could be leading the charge in developing new models instead of retrenching and denying the inevitable. Instead, it’s the independents forging ahead (often dragging, coercing or convincing the media conglomerates to follow).
A couple of years ago I hoped the writers’ strike would have a constructive and progressive influence on a destabilized industry. Right.
Now I’m looking to professional, independent filmmakers to set a few examples. And insightful, innovative academics to aggregate and focus amplified attention at them.
If the links I left at FoE don’t get you agitated. Okay, I shot my wad…but tomorrows another day.
I’d say I’m more reluctantly resigned to certain realities about the current state of content creation, distribution, and consumption in commercial media than I am agitated. Not sure what the stages of disenchantment are (Denial, Disbelief, Anger, etc.?), but Disappointment seems like an apt name for my current stage.
I take solace, however, in the amazing creativity and collaboration that’s consumers (audience, fans, etc.) are demonstrating. They are becoming content creators, content collaborators, and content interpreters in ways never before possible. Technology is really helping them bridge the gap between what has traditionally been viewed as basement hobbies and commercial endeavors. The quality of production and storytelling coming from the creative community at large is impressive.
I have tossed my hat in the ring via Brain Candy’s Runes of Gallidon project, and I have found this collaborative co-creation of world building to be immensely fun and rewarding.
We are social creatures. Being creative in a social way seems like such an obvious activity for us, but the current climate of copyright, trademark, and litigation really appear to be stifling much of the cultural sharing, remixing, and retelling that we’ve always done. I’m not sure I’d put innovation and creativity on the endangered list (yet), but after reading just the first chapter in James Boyle’s “The Public Domain” I have to tell you I got really nervous.