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Will crowdfunding usurp the studio biz?

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Will crowdfunding usurp the studio biz?
Where's there's a niche, there's a pitch as auds pay to create content
By: David S. Cohen, Jul. 19, 2012

A while back former Variety topper Peter Bart did a radio interview in which he recalled how different it was to be a studio executive back in the 1970s. "In those days," he said, "you could make a movie because you wanted to see it." That thought must cause a pang among today's studio execs. Indeed, based on my conversations with the driven, highly intelligent people who have succeded in the movie biz, I doubt their Netflix queues and DVR recordings look much like their slates. Yet thanks to crowdfunding and digital distribution, the public seems to be acquiring a power those elites have lost: the ability to fund a project because you want to see it. One example is "Space Command," a series of original online sciencefiction pics. Brainchild of Marc Zicree and Doug Drexler, "Space Command" had a funding goal of $75,000 but raised nearly three times that. Sci-fi fans, passionate about their genre and no strangers to technology, ponied up to get "Space Command" made because they want to see it. The approach extends to smaller niches as well, and to less conventional kinds of material. Another crowd-funded project is "The Sticking Place," an interactive documentary following freestyle wrestler Leah Callahan in her pursuit of a spot on Canada's Olympic team and, now that she's secured a berth, a medal in London.

"The Sticking Place" (thestickingplacefilm.ca) probably cost a fraction of the budget of a human-interest profile on NBC's Olympic coverage. It exists only online and it's entirely non-linear. The interface is a bit like a clever menu for homevideo extras but without a "play movie" command. Visitors to the site find their own path through the footage, which continues to grow as Callahan advances on her journey. The docu's directors, Brittany Baxter and Josephine Anderson, graduated from film school in 2009, noting people seemed to be losing interest in theatrical films and spending more and more of their time online. "We were struggling a little bit to find what our voice was going to be in filmmaking," Baxter said. "So we did a ton of research, we spent about a year looking at other interactive projects and breaking them apart, figuring out how they work and how you can use that medium especially to build a really powerful piece that will be viewed online, by a niche audience, essentially." They got a small grant from the National Film Board of Canada, but part of their manifesto was to crowd-fund their project and "make it free for anyone to see." They set up a 40-day Kickstarter campaign to raise $20,000, and exceeded that goal by the end of the campaign. Since the movie is available for free, no one will get a return on their investment. The average donation to the project was less than $100, so in effect, many people who donated paid only a bit more than they might have to buy tickets. They could pay for the movie to be made because they wanted to see it.

The combination of online distribution, interactivity and crowd-funding represented by "The Sticking Place" might well represent the dawn of a new filmed-entertainment industry, one driven by the passion of filmmakers and audiences rather than corporate agendas and the drive for profit. That has enormous promise for rich, personal, intimate stories told in innovative ways. If that approach were to catch on, though, it could lead to a very different entertainment landscape. The rise of short online videos made to be viewed anywhere, on any device, already threatens to turn theatrical films into a niche business, like opera. Crowd-funded online entertainment might turn into a viable alternative for millions of people who like tentpoles just fine, but not all the time. Funny thing is, I bet a lot of studio executives would like to see those pictures, even if their companies won't make them.

Summary The combination of online distribution, interactivity and crowd-funding represented by "The Sticking Place" might well represent the dawn of a new filmed-entertainment industry, one driven by the passion of filmmakers and audiences rather than corporate agendas and the drive for profit. That has enormous promise for rich, personal, intimate stories told in innovative ways.

Description Thanks to crowdfunding and digital distribution, the public seems to be acquiring a power those elites have lost: the ability to fund a project because you want to see it.

One example is "Space Command," a series of original online science-fiction pics. Brainchild of Marc Zicree and Doug Drexler, "Space Command" had a funding goal of $75,000 but raised nearly three times that. Sci-fi fans, passionate about their genre and no strangers to technology, ponied up to get "Space Command" made because they want to see it.

Tags: Crowdfunding, Crowdsource, Crowdsourced, Crowdsourcing, Games, Knowledge, studio

Posted by Fritz Schaefer

Jul 20, 2012 01:44 am GMT Viewed 754 times

Author: David S. Cohen Source

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