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How the World Wide Web is Changing the Face of Hollywood

“Technology and Entertainment: Hollywood’s Future”: A panel with Max Howard, President, Exodus Film Group; Eric Starr, Sr. Strategic Planner for Advertising, Media Arts Lab – Apple; Roy Salter, Founding Principal, The Salter Group; and Rob Hummel, CEO, Prime Focus Post Production, North America; hosted by Lewis Douglas, Managing Director, Ocean Alliance

Photo courtesy of Flickr user IceNineJon

Max Howard:The price of entry into Hollywood tech has changed; now it’s readily available.

Realized they didn’t have to build their own studios. Dreamworks, Pixar, etc permanently employ their talent, which is very expensive. Bringing content to the screen with a different model.

Eric Starr: If you have a computer and a connection to the internet, you make Hollywood nervous.

Internet connectivity unleashes a world of unlimited, streaming content, which is a big problem for Hollywood. Their long-time model of high financial barriers to entry is no longer applicable. The power has shifted from the hands of hollywood to the hands of you and I, or anyone else who has a computer.

Rob Hummel: In day to day life, actual 3D stereoscopic depth perception ends at about 20 feet. 3D is not really what we see. In real life, you converge and you focus. You wouldn’t see real life the way we see it in Jim Cameron’s work.

We need to find a digital archival technology, to put on the shelf and know it will still be there in 50 or 60 years; right now the migration scenario isn’t sustainable.

Roy Salter: There are a lot of drivers to income in Hollywood investing. The strength that drives positive outcome and investment in Hollywood is their ability to get content out the consumer. They have agreements w. television broadcasters around the world, the ability to get their message out.

Consumers and technologies and the inter-space between them is driving the growth and direction of companies like YouTube, Hulu, etc and the movie industry is trying to figure out how to make money off of them. Trying to position themselves in a way that allows them to take advantage of the structure.