Archive for the ‘digital content’ Category
Beijing calling
Posted by nick in digital content, documentary, film on July 25th, 2010
I’ve just spent 4 days in Beijing, and it’s given me a fantastic insight into the skyrocketing Chinese media. On a trade mission with UKTI, I met senior teams from TV, mobile, movies and internet companies. The user numbers are staggering. Hundreds of millions are standard metrics for most companies. Tencent, the world’s third largest web portal has 1bn instant messenger users, a market cap of at least 20 billion and a 39% net profit margin. Some companies’ business models are baffling, and the very question brought wry smiles to the lips of many employees. It’s difficult to comprehend how a company listed on two stock exchanges can also be State owned and ultimately controlled, but that’s the Chinese way. Private and public are blurred.
What’s clear is that licences are necessary for everything – making, distributing, broadcasting, acquiring. “Do you have a licence?” was the most common question asked of us, and us of them. For outsiders, direct production with many Chinese companies will be a long haul for this reason; better to be a partner with a Chinese firm with a licence, though it will still take a lot of stamina, patience and innovative thinking. Get it right and the rewards are likely to be massive. Amongst our delegates were games companies seeing fantastic opportunities to distribute their content in China and act as agents for Chinese games internationally.
Chinese TV is celebrating the new found wealth and independence of the middle class, with programmes focusing on lifestyle. Documentary though isn’t diverse, with most of it is stuck in old school Discovery mode, retelling of familiar history or nature stories. When asked about co-production internationally, most channels could only point to one or two a few examples, and they were a few years back. China and the Chinese is the focus, but in a vast country with years of catching up to do on it, why wouldn’t it be? Still there is a great opportunity to introduce Chinese audiences to a much wider range of stories, and some of the commissioners I met, like at Beijing TV with a more forward thinking approach hope to give it to them.
IPTV has been a recent experiment with major expansion in China, but the numbers seem to be disappointing. A much better alternative that we saw from China Broadcasting Corporation – UHF TV delivered via mobile to an astonishingly high quality. For users it’s like having an old fashioned transistor radio, but dialling up video instead of audio, hunting for a signal wherever you are in China. The international potential, especially in the developing world, looked amazing.
It was more evidence that the phone is king, with 3 major companies dominating. We were told, however, that the State sets the rules, and this is a false market – market share never changes, and China Unicom is reaching the ABC1s because that’s what’s been decreed. Those 4 days saw the opening of China’s second Apple store in Shanghai and the launch of the iPad in Asia – though not China yet. iPhones are a huge part of the grey market, but whilst we saw many in the hands of media execs, no-one seemed to be able to tell us how many there are in the country. China Unicom is coming to apps only next year – it’s still a market a long way behind the UK. Mammoth Graphics, displaying their number one Tour De France app felt like they could be onto a winner, if they can ride the wave of apps that’s sure to be the next big consumer development.
Right now linear fiction is booming with a new focus on genre storytelling that is getting young people out and into the new cinemas. Interactivity still seems to mean chat and social media, which of course is exploding. Cross platform content is still in its infancy. Narrative story telling across platforms or value added content isn’t a priority for Chinese companies, and the ideas that Pure Grass films were bringing felt like a revelation to some of the people we met.
I was really impressed with the welcoming and informal approach of most of the companies we met. there was a real hunger for new content and new ways to engage audiences. There is a great creative exchange about to happen, that will have us all rushing to Shanghai and Beijing instead of New York and LA to be our most creative, and make our fortunes on the massive scale China as to offer.
Indian documentary comes of age
Posted by nick in India, digital content, documentary, documentary film funding, film on January 24th, 2010
For the past 7 years, a quiet revolution has been brewing in Kolkata. Indian documentary has been emerging from the shadows, as film makers have gathered to hone their skills and meet the international documentary industry.
DocEdge brings together film makers from all India to develop a project and then pitch it to commissioners from across the world. This year local film makers were joined by colleagues from China, Singapore, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It’s a testament to the project’s success that some of the most senior television executives make the long journey to judge their work. And they are not doing it out of kind-heartedness. Indian directors are now capable of world class film-making, and we all want to be a part of it.
This year was particularly strong. One over-arching theme was the constantly shifting identities in contemporary Asia. For many Indians, their lives are in transition as they seek new opportunities and face new challenges. They are often challenging the barriers forged over generations – caste, class, geography, religion, sexuality. For me it was a stark reminder that what holds so many people back is the judgement of others.
There was also a sense of facing up to recent history and the impact of war, especially in Sri Lanka; the ferocious impact of climate change and the empowerment of Moslem women. But there was also humour, culture, passion and joy in films about music, television and the beauty of the Sari. Many of these films will make an international impact, and will take Indian documentary to the next level. Indian documentary is also a family, and some of the most successful recent film-makers returned to Kolkata to share their stories.
Structurally, however, India still has a long way to go. It was great to see the emergent industry attending DocEdge with the film-makers. Ayesha Kagal of NDTV attended for the first time, and she commissions the documentary strands on two of cable broadcasters channels, NDTV24 and now NDTV Profit, giving a rare national platform to home grown talent. For now, though, films are acquired, and there is no co-production. There is still a lack of real support from the national broadcaster, Doordarshan. To an outsider, the national Government’s funding for documentary seems archaic, inefficient and creatively stale. There is a growing argument for a new funding structure along European lines; to devolved funding to regions with contestable funds with an open call. The Indian Documentary Producers Association will play a part in that, also arguing for tax breaks for film-makers in order for them to build their own businesses. Until that happens, the long held belief by Indians that documentaries are boring, didactic propaganda is hard to challenge.
Indeed building a culture of documentary viewing across the country is one of the most necessary developments. Audiences need to be developed. Fortunately some people are up to the challenge, like Sophy Sivaraman, bringing her extensive skills honed in tv advertising to make documentary cool and desirable. There are also new forms of distribution emerging, with Under Construction, part of the Magic Lantern Foundation, launching DVD’s in fashionable retail outlets, building on the success of 10 years of audience development through film societies and universities. Film festivals from across the country and training initiatives like ESODOC are also a big part of the emerging documentary network. I was excited to meet young entrepreneurs and business graduates who want to do more than just make money, but to add cultural value too.
One emerging idea was the need for an Indian Documentary Foundation, which could bring a whole range of support to film-makers outside of the state system. It could offer training, networking, workshops and most importantly funding in the form of grants and bursaries for individuals and investment into films. By pooling together our collective contacts, we will be building a case to take to Government, corporates, foundations, venture capitalists and to the movie industry – we want to see hot shot Bollywood actors and directors supporting their brothers and sisters in factual films, and building their own status and egos in the process.
DocEdge 10 was a real delight to attend, full of creative, inspiring and wonderful people. From here we need to take our wishes and dreams and make them a reality. Most importantly we all owe a debt of gratitude to Nilotpal Majumdar and his team at DocEdge. Plans are afoot to make the next event bigger and better than ever, and whatever the next few years hold, DocEdge will remain at the heart of the exciting Indian documentary industry. Indeed, perhaps it is already its beating heart.
British Film Distribution
Posted by nick in Film distribution, digital content, film, video on demand on December 29th, 2009
Just found a blog written by Andrew Clay about every British feature film released in the UK in 2009. He tried to see as many as he could in the East Midlands, where he lives. As Andrew points out, 90 Brit flicks were theatrically released this year, or 20% of all films, but even though he was paying attention, it was hard to find out about them – few were significantly promoted, watched, or made money. Be great to map this study against DVD releases, windows, and films for download both legal and illegal – Andrew, can you?
In my view we can extend the reach of these films by closing all the windows and making one piece of marketing for one day and date release – theatric, online, DVD. Has anyone got good stats about when this has happened? How long before we don’t need a theatric to get the press and marketing that films need? I admire the work of Gigantic Digital to make this happen, with films like Must Read After My Death - getting press across the State for a New York only theatric release. More of this please.
getting the best out of people
Posted by nick in conference, digital content on December 7th, 2009
went to a conference organised for the creative industries knowledge transfer network (phew). Admirable aims, to try and map the future for digital content, but hugely unrealistic goals to achieve in an afternoon. This is the future of everything we do – and about 50 people we were tasked with finding issues and answers for content, distribution and business models from a range of perspectives. I’m always happy to try, but the event was staged in a classic command and control manner. We were put into groups, and change was frowned on (I did, and I was), then given ridiculous amounts of time to come up with 3 ideas on this, and 6 ideas on that, whilst the event team barked at us about how little time we had left.
In my experience, this amount of heat is inversely proportional to the amount of light. The un-conference model, where delegates chose what they want to talk about, and with who, is much more productive, and leaves people feeling included, valued, and most importantly, willing to take steps to action when the event has finished. The external wrapper of this event may have been communities and collaboration, but the inside and the outcome felt like old school sweatshopping, a feeling of doing other people’s work for them.