jules.tv

I was surfing the web last night, YES I know that may sound a little sad, but I was “deep deep deep” into finding new websites and entertainment, as I constantly need more and better entertainment.  I came across a site called jules.tv,  Jules is someone with good humor, multi-talented and plenty of ideas. What he offers is some really good advice to people who want to climb the difficult ladder of the TV industry. Jules.tv also has camera reviews and some light entertainment. It looks like he’s from a video production background and has worked for all the major broadcasters, BBC, Channel4 and ITV. This is a beautiful way of  using this platform to crank up his SEO and exposing him around the web as a video producer, director, editor and cameraman. The site is very slick and is packed with links to other videos and advice. Jules.tv  has done a fantastic job and I would love to link up with him, as he seems so so talented.

Enjoy!

A brave new world!

It was in 1948 when suddenly and without warning millions of people stopped going to the movies, the Hollywood studios were in massive trouble. This was a time when America was coming out of its economic depression and the good feel good factor of “the American Dream” was on the rise.  What happened? Well, we don’t really know, but the Federal Trade Commission was investigating Hollywood practices, and it caused all the majors to sell all their theatre houses. The FTC wanted to break up the monopoly that the studios had.

Now this had a catastrophic affect on the actors, directors and playwrights as they couldn’t get any work. Projects were being slashed and theatre was in a massive decline.  So what did happen? What was the effect it had on the industry?  This forced people to look for new ways to address their craft.  We welcome the teaching of The Actors Studio . This was the platform which launched the careers for some of Hollywood’s biggest name in show business today.  A few teachers turned their craft into what is known as truthful acting, portraying real characters in real life. In fact the teachings of Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner changed the shape of the industry as we know it today.

So with this, I reflect on our current situation. The Kangaroo project has just been pulled by the Competition Commission, saying that is was too much of a threat to the emerging market of online video. The advertising revenues of broadcasters are down, and there is talk of consolidation in the market. So where does this leave the Actors and filmakers alike?   

Yes, my friend, it’s time to look at the resources we have and see what opportunities we have for self creativity. We have a massive opportunity in front of us, to produce some real grass roots content. Now is the time for us to build our own “actors studio” and find some of the best talents to start producing real entertainment. Why do I say this? Well, TV viewing figures are up, some of the best Hollywood movies are being produced today and ‘in a stay at home economy’ we, as a nation, want to be entertained. 

So, what is my point? I really believe that we are about to see some exciting new forms of creativity take shape. We have the internet  which will play a massive part and we have the talent, although most of them are not being productive at the moment!

I just though leaving this video for you would help!  It’s not for everyone, but it’s still a classic

Signing off!

Realitypod.tv

Video on the internet – A broadcast medium

Film and TV broadcasters have enjoyed a lot of control over the last century in the way we watch our content… There was no way anybody could produce content and then submit it to the B.B.C. and have it aired within minutes or even years for this matter. Actually, now I think about it, your submission in most cases would have been looked at, at once, if you were lucky! and then screwed up and chucked in the trash can!

Now with the rise of the broadband, this has opened up the channels for content producers to have a platform for one global audience. We love the ease of which you can create, encode and upload content on to the internet for everybody to see. This is great for the bedroom producer or maybe semi pro.. who wants to create an audience.. But we want to see the good stuff!

Here is where a major problem pops up and smacks the industry in the face. This is affecting our audiences and we are having to suffer billions of very poor quality content as a result…. Yep you guessed it “Rights issues”.. This means Hollywood and other major players around the world who produce the quality stuff, are only giving access to programs and films to internet companies that can pay for it and protect it. Most companies can’t protect the content yet, there are very few solutions which are good enough for Hollywood to let get of their content. Hulu.com is a major force and one that has done really well in the US, and we are about to see it come to the UK very shortly. The Kangoroo project that the UK broadcasters have been struggling to get off the ground, failed for these reason, rights! I believe anyway and not competitive clauses that the press fed us! (maybe I’m wrong, but it stands up)

How does a company solve these issues?, if they want their content to be seen over the web in particular territories, for example, Hollywood want French broadcasters to have the rights to show the content in France and not in Germany. So far the major players in the market are Flash & Microsoft. Lets face it, the flash player wins hands down, although Microsoft has a brilliant solution, but it does not look as pretty as flash. The problem with flash so far is that there has been no DRM standard for Flash and trust me Adobe is pushing for a DRM solution. Check out this article Adobe pushes DRM

This is a massive subject and there are two different sides to DRM, 1, which is protecting your video delivery over the internet via streaming or HTTP download. 2, Stopping people use your content without a license. We hear about Warner Brothers and other majors deleting videos off youtube.com. I hope to go into more detail in another blog..

I’m more concerned with the content and the production of it, but in this changing market you can’t help but get swallowed up in Digital delivery of video…

ROCK ON ADOBE FLASH!

Kangaroo’s online video project almost dead

This is not very good news for the UK broadcast market, here is a link to FT.com’s post this morning, I will go into more detail later, but please click on this link and read on …

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f1504f6a-f291-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Ff1504f6a-f291-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fhome%2Fuk

Broadcasters, Films and Creative output!

In the UK media, there has been a  lot of attention on broadcasters, downsizing, ordering pay cuts and consolidation within the market. This tells us that “advertising funded” revenues they have enjoyed over the years are slowly in decline. What concerns me the most is creative output will be a lot less and it will be harder for creative people to get projects off the ground in traditional ways. Therefore expect loads of repeats on TV globally.    We have two main issues that face our industry,  “output and audiences”. It strikes me that broadcasters have to be more street smart in their approach to engage with the audience. They really need to understand the public, by  what they want to watch, when they want to watch and how we watch media.

Secondly funding projects and getting them off the ground, leaves no room for error. The competition for excellent creativity is going to be much more competitve. Whilst this is good news for our audience, Production companies, film & TV directors will have to bring something completely fresh to engage the audiences. We are seeing this now with the likes of Slumdog Millionaire breaking the UK box office record for ticket sales. We have no shortage of talent in the world, but more of a changing world. How we work, what we do and when we do things have completely changed. This gives the big broadcasters and hollywood studios a huge challenge or opportunity to adapt.

As a creative producer and someone who loves to watching news TV and films, together we will have to find explore other avenues to deliver content. Whilst internet viewing figures are on the up, I’m not entirely  convinced that web TV is the only answer, but  a mix of different platforms that will help engage the customer in the long run.. 

However, I think that Internet TV or web TV is still a great investment into the future and something that needs focusing on for it to a become viable medium.

Food for thought….

Signing off 

Realitypod.tv