More thoughts on Content

Now my prior post doesn't mean I think content should all be free - but I think it should:
A) cost less.
B) make much of it a "loss-leader" for actual merchandise. Hell, you can't crack a Hanes T-Shirt now can ya?

Our CEO had a comment the other day about tracking the actual number of minutes each user viewed of each clip and using that to determine how we paid our licensees. Talk about a gargantuan task... Now, we looked into it, and the software being used currently doesn't allow us to easily reconcile the number of minutes each user actually watched a movie (and as a percentage of how long that movie is vs. number of minutes watched...). But it probably will soon.

Now, this is an interesting idea. What if we applied this to going to a movie theater? Or a theme park? Or a concert?

I go to see a hundred minute long movie. It costs 10 bucks. That's 10 cents a minute. Say 10 minutes into the movie, I decide "This movie SUCKS, I'm leaving" and the theater debits my card for only a a buck. That's how much of the movie I saw.

Wow would that change the economics and incentives to make good movies right? Right!

But then I think about this for a minute, and I get a bit pissed off. Think about ALL the many things in life you pay for upfront and don't get what you paid for? How many times would you have left a terrible movie if you knew it would only cost you a dollar to leave RIGHT NOW?

But noooo.. instead you sit through the whole thing, hoping, praying, DEMANDING that it gets better. And it never does. And when it's all over, you wish you could find the dumbasses responsible for even conceiving the film and MAKE them PAY.

Anyway - I'm not sure where that leaves me as a filmmaker and executive other than, "holy shit" I hope I can make some good films... oh, but good is subjective.... eh, screw it. You'll pay for it and like it.

Stop the madness. I'm tired. Start a new day, at a new office, with much madness and opportunity afoot tomorrow.