Some of the blip guys are having an interesting discussion about costs.
I’ve been thinking about costs a lot lately. One of my jobs at blip is to control our technology and bandwidth costs as much as possible. I was reading this when I started to wonder about the relative costs for content creators. By relative I mean something like percentage of total money available. In the old days an independent would have to get another mortgage to make high-quality video content.
I could be way off here, but I think that now more than any other time is the cost skewed toward the independent creator. For big studios, used to big studio thinking, the cost and risk associated with breaking new ground is huge. For the scrappy independent, it’s cheaper than ever.
As competition amongst the mid-tail heats up and the demand for quality goes up, those costs will begin to rise again. Like what happened with video games, with rare exception, you won’t be able to do it in your basement anymore. As the bigger studios who survive begin to adapt, these costs will begin to approach each other. That said, the opportunities for the independents will also rise and begin to meet those of the bigger studios.
That makes a lot of sense, but it’s probably not the end of the story. Let’s stick with the gaming comparison. We’re starting to see the video game industry segregate into two worlds: big games and good games. While there is certainly plenty of crossover between the two, we’re seeing iPhone, Wii and Xbox Marketplace developers create and profit form big-fun, low-cost games. And the industry is starting to learn that big budgets aren’t the only road to success.
And that’s where the world of television is way ahead of the video game industry. TV’s institutional memory is packed with lessons about the realities of gambling on big budget programming. While institutions may choose to ignore the ulitimate impact of these realities, the individuals who are leaving these institutions to strike out on their own will be taking them to heart. And some of those lessons will be taken to extremes.
I think you *will* still be able to do it in your basement. There will continue to be growing opportunities at every level. I think the struggle for the indie producer will always be more about getting content seen than getting it produced. It’s the same thing that’s happening in the music industry.
An audience cures all ills.
Don’t forget that “Independent Production” is not exclusive of “Professional” content creators. I think that what you are going to see a rush of is Independent Production by those who have previously made a living in Old Media distributed exclusively online.
There will be many that do not make the transition because they refuse to adapt to the new business grid of digital media. By the same token, many of those now posting web-series and are without any “creative training” (i.e. Old Media experience, film school training, etc) may drop by the wayside.
It’s my hope that creatives from Old Media make the shift to accepting a different business grid and that those who began in “New Media” can gain valuable insight and training from the cameramen, writers, directors, actors, etc who have worked and acquired much valuable experience in Old Media.
You need both.
As far as Old Media budgets go, much of the money raised for a film does not go into production. This “business plan” is something that many Old Media executives unfortunately try to carry into the New Media space. For example, I one had one of these gentlemen reveal to me that $1.2M had been raised to shoot a Fix-It show. Then, in order to try to convince me that one only needed a few thousand a minute to shoot any “web series”, he exclaimed, “So we shot all 30 episodes for just 300k.” We spoke a little more and then I said, “Hold on a second. What happened to the other 900k?”. He replied, “Oh, you know, ‘Overhead’”.
That’s Old Media accounting.
That doesn’t work in New Media. There are too many players on the field to fuck around like that.
