The Future of Producing

This great article over at Markewatch talks about the importance of video as the "Future of the Internet," and the author, Bambi Fransisco (is that *really* her real name?) makes a very prescient point I've talked about in the past:

As platforms to view content explode, and content is made available by anyone, the fragmented audience base will continue to force companies to lower their production costs. This, in turn, will compel the typical 1% to 2% of prolific content producers to venture out on their own, fragmenting the creators of content and causing them to speedily produce content that may or may not have been their best.

At the end of the day, Hollywood changes.

I believe that in some ways, we're almost looking *back* at the old studio days with talent, not because it's the way to control distribution, but because there is room for companies out there to foster collaborative and resource-rich exclusive relationships with talent once again.

With the big mean nasty world of having to have insurance, and payroll and all the stuff that comes with any (small) business, many creatives (producers, directors, writers) don't *want* to run their own companies that have to deal with that stuff.

I think that a new model of providing meaningful infrastructure to new creatives would be a very workable option... somewhere between the old style studios and "housekeeping deals" and the "hurry up and grab as much (usually non-exclusive) film school student and user-generated content as you can" approach a lot of media companies seem to be taking these days.

The challenge is to figure out what constitutes "meaningful infrastructure" and how to finance it without going too crazy, but provide an exciting and fertile ground for the next generation of really good entertainers and storytellers.