A Change Of Venue

“Half the people read the papers,
Read them good and well.
Pretty people, nervous people.
People have got to sell.
News you have to sell.”

Newspapers, yes. Magazines and periodicals, absolutely.

Will the much-rumoured and hotly anticipated Apple tablet (or iSlate as some are calling it), be the next killer app? Will this portable, handheld, WiFi-enabled device euthanize the printed word?
Well, yes and no… probably.

When this Paul Bunyunesque iPhone is announced in a few short weeks (of course if it isn’t my reputation as a genius pundit is hooped!) my guess is that it’ll come supplied with several ‘trial subscriptions’ of noteworthy rags: a newspaper or two - possibly including the Wall Street Journal; a magazine or two - possibly including National Geographic Adventure; and an e-book or two - likely a novel by a famous author (Stephen King’s “Under The Dome”, perhaps), and something non-fiction (Thomas Friedman’s latest - “Hot, Flat and Crowded” would be an excellent choice).

Yes, that will happen.

But will this and other such devices — Kindle, Nook and iLiad among others on a growing list — spell Gutenberg’s demise?

No. At least not for awhile.

People still love the tactile sense of flipping and dogearring pages, highlighting passages, making marginal notes, loaning and collecting. Plus, who needs batteries? But consider the collateral advantages of lightweight, portable ‘electronic print’. Consider the following ’secondary level of sell’, so to speak.

You’re sitting on public transportation, crawling along in traffic, but listening to your favourite playlist on your ’slate’. Along with your music, you just happen to open that morning’s electronic — and possibly only — copy of your local newspaper, or one of many other international periodicals available, because you’re connected via 3G (or 4G). A current news item catches your interest. You read the headline and the lead paragraph and you use a flipping motion on the tablet to expand that story full screen. There are pictures, of course, accompanying that story. Nicely done.

But touch a picture in that ‘newspaper’ and it immediately begins to move - it’s a supplemental videotaped report. Now imagine it’s a popular travel or food magazine that you’re reading. Touch a picture of Tuscany’s rolling, Cypress-lined hills and you’re suddenly driving to Siena (not Miller - the Italian city. Pay attention!) and the raspberry gelato that awaits. Touch the gelato sign in the Duomo Square in that video and just as suddenly you see how gelato is made, and you’re e-mailing the recipe to a loved one. Consider the possibilities with any formerly print-only application, and you can see why devices such as these can and will change the way we interact, entertain and do business.

But let’s go one step further.

What are the implications for filmmakers, video artists and creative-types of all stripes? Sure - we can all have websites and blogs and encode our own multimedia offerings, but to what audience? How many people, aside from your Facebook ‘friends’, know about you or even care that you exist? Thought so.

Now, imagine this scenario.

You’ve made a short film — seven and a half minutes — and posted it to your blog, possibly even YouTube. You think it’s pretty good, and so does your Facebook coven. You’ve created a little buzz online — emphasis on the ‘little’ — and you may be invited to screen it at a local film festival. Excellent! You win. Technology rocks.

Or…

Along with that process, or perhaps even instead of it, you place a small advertisement in that same ‘newspaper’ mentioned above, or even several newspapers. And trust me - ad rates will come down as traditional print media immigrates to portable displays. (Notice that I said ‘immigrate’ not ‘migrate’ as some technology news stories would suggest. It’s not simple symantics. The term ‘migrate’ envisions a return, as in, “the geese are migrating south for the winter”. Nope. It’s ‘immigrate’, as in, “Bob, who’s that old guy in the corner wearing a black hoodie and sharpening a scythe…”)

In the first scenario, you’re stymied by the fact that people have to know you exist in the first place in order for them to find you online, and return. ‘Uniques’ are important, but bookmarking is essential. Word of mouth only goes so far in an increasingly crowded online space, and it ain’t going to get any smaller.

In the second scenario, you’ve increased the awareness and visibility of your film (and you personally, and your ‘brand’ if you so choose), by using a little extra ‘production money’ and utilizing an ages-old, traditional media staple - advertising. As Alanis once said, isn’t that ironic…?

How many ways and in how many directions can you extrapolate that creative business model to work for you? How many ‘viral’ opportunities open up because you spent a little cash on a simple ad that, by definition, has global reach? How much buzz now exists because you became your own distributor and control all rights to your film? I’m just sayin’.

Wondering where all this technological advancement is headed…? Where it’s all going to end? Well, first of all it doesn’t end - that’s why it’s called technological advancement. But, people love to talk and predict and prognosticate, and those very same people are just as likely to say on some national television show (remember television?): “If that’s what’s available now, imagine what’s coming down the pike? Imagine what the future holds!”

Well, here’s a little something that’s happening now - not in the future. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for a ‘Holy Shit’ moment, cause this is a mind fuck!

1. Project Natal - A New Way To Play

2. Project Natal - Meet Milo

Consider this technology as part of a dramatic film. Each member of the audience gets to interact with the characters and actually co-star in your film… from the comfort of their own living room… or on public transportation, crawling along in traffic. Have you grasped that yet?

Now, imagine what’s coming down the pike?!

Kirk out.

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