Collaborating on content delivery and production

I stumbled upon a article by Kyle Studstill titled the future of content delivery and production published on PSKF. Thinking about future developments of content and the opportunities for new business models keeps me busy. The article focusses on the production and delivery of movies and the way Edward Burns is experimenting with new mediums like iTunes since the release of Purple Violets in 2007.

What cought me in this article was the way Burns experienced the opportunity's ahead.

Below are some key notes from the discussion on the future of content delivery and production, wich I copied from the article of Kyle.


When experimenting with these new models, you can’t immediately expect a home run just because you’re being innovative. The wins will be small hits, from which producers will learn what works and what doesn’t.

Indeed it will take some time and experiments to figure out what works. It looks like Burns is a believer and uses some kind of a mashup approache. The platform provided by the channel iTunes is a first step to figure out how the market on the other end of the channel looks like.

By distributing content on more fragmented channels, you can worry less about press and marketing concerns influencing the creative integrity of the film – you can just produce the content and let it find its own market.

I do not know about this one. Yes when posting a BLOG or a tweet the channel provides a mean to the message to find it's own audience. But when you take the concerns about press and marketing influencing the creative integrity of the film, can you worry less on these issues when distributing content on a more fragmented channel?

Digital distribution is indeed changing the filmmaking landscape, but it’s important to remember that big-budget productions are still going to have a place in traditional channels – it’s always going to be fun to watch a new film with 200 other people in a theatre.

Digital distribution is a mean to reach out to other markets, effecting the traditional market of film theatres. In this context it adds speed and ease to the digital distribution through the video tape and later carriers like DVD.

Platforms that allow for episode-by-episode releases open the opportunity for innovation in the way the story is put together; there’s the potential to allow the audience to impact the way future episodes unfold.

This remark cought my attention. Indeed in my belief using the possibility to collaborate on producing content (movies as well as music or documents) can add enormous vallue to the end product. The digital channel provides the needed reach and speed to make interaction possible. These talkback fases have some interesting effects. The story develops toghether with the audience. Every part as well as the end product is very unpredictable at the start.

By splitting up larger works that would normally exist as one film into smaller episodes, producers can now explore freemium revenue models where the first parts of of production are free, charging for future episodes further down the line.

Besides of the more creative approache of the former item this one is the money machine which could safe the movie industrie. Binding together the techniek to interact and collaborate and a creative revenue model is a start to earn money early in the production process. Even financing a production from the very start with a open model is one of the possibilities. The production of the film will make it to it's collaborative end product in a way the audience likes or won't make it at all.