Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterProspectors
Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Cynthia Wisehart
This week, three things happened that intersect. I got an eloquent letter from a reader — a brief, lucid history of our industry and his career from the early '90s to the present. I don't need to tell you how the story goes or what he's up against now.
He's solid technically and he adapts easily; he's built multiple skills on multiple kinds of equipment from shooting to finishing. He's worked in high-end jobs, but he's not stuck in past ideas of content or technology. But for the first time, he's stumped about how to keep earning a living — how to compete and how to market himself. Sound familiar?
The letter was timely because I was working on our cover story about video entrepreneurs. I talked to just a small sampling, but it was eye-opening to the competitive pressures and (potential) opportunities.
Lots and lots of people can make good-quality video for modest money now. It till takes more money and more expertise to make really great video. Not as much money as it used to, but more expertise. So I expected people to be pretty technical.
The people I talked to expect to take a mix of work and clients; they expect the mix to evolve in the direction of their dreams, toward a career in national commercials if that's what they want, or a Sundance film, or now a web TV station. They expect to network-market and invest sweat equity — again, variations on the themes of the past. But here's what seemed new: They expect to be flexible — even insecure, financially — and to gamble on making content they can own and sell.
I remember when world-class artists at the big postproduction facilities agonized over how to own just a little piece of content. (I remember when Chris Wedge went out and did it.) But even for the best artists, it was virtually a pipedream because production was so costly and distribution so limited.
Now, people assume they have a shot in the content marketplace. Here's just one example: Brad Ferrell went to The California Institute of the Arts, taught himself Adobe After Effects, learned to edit in the adult industry, joined the fledgling new media industry in LA, freelanced around, and then moved home to Spring, Texas. He can drive everything from Apple Final Cut to Digidesign Pro Tools to Softimage XSI. He won't work for hire now unless he gets his price — and that's harder with so many competent artists around. He would rather invest in what he's pretty sure will be a successful franchise — an edgy, indie-music-driven animated film with ancillary new media. He literally has more faith in his chances to be discovered as the next big filmmaker than he does in getting a steady stream of decent-paying corporate video gigs. And it's a struggle he'd much rather stomach. To some degree, I heard the same kind of calculations from the people in our story on p. 38. Even those with great day jobs had gone independent, wholly or in part.
The third thing? Sony Pictures announced crackle.com as we went to press. The releases say the site will take HD uploads, have a fleet of salespeople, and offer funding and distribution if you get noticed. Welcome to the worldwide media frontier, where anyone can strike HDV gold. Or not.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.