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Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

ycombinator.com

331–340 of 697 posts

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With this "RFS" who's pitching who? I'm working on the prototype to prove the concept. But there is no GUI, I am strictly a command-line user. What are the "other ways" you allude to?

you're strictly a "command line user" and you are reinventing the visual art and entertainment world?

It's a platform not an application. Nothing needs to be reinvented. We simply reuse what's already been invented and tested. But we do it in a "new" and useful way.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#332

I'm sorry but this kind of thread from the initial post on down to the echo chamber of opinions smacks more of Jonestown than Silicon Valley. I personally find it disturbing. The vast majority of this country enjoys some part of what comes out of Hollywood - whether they pay for it or not. I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority of HNers do as well. Is there some reason suddenly why a tyranny of the minority should…

I don't get your point. What tyranny of the minority? "Killing", in the context of the post, means "finding ways that people prefer". If new businesses (startups or not) compete and win the market from Hollywood, it's because the majority prefers them, no?

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#333

I think if you really want to fight Hollywood it would be best to boycott them at the movie theaters and try to support their competitors (Does Netflix count as a competitor?) as much as possible. That means not going to see Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises". Wait for the DVD/Blu-ray release and don't purchase it. Rent it, or borrow it from someone who has purchased it. Spend as little money as possible on Hollywood. R…

But sadly, that would be used as an argument of why they need to pass new laws to protect them. And anyway, they would simply make the physical discs disappear earlier, so there's no borrowing anymore, replaced by something like Ultraviolet.

But they're already arguing exactly that, using garbage statistics. So what would we be losing?

Keeping your economic adversary content and well-funded kinda doesn't seem like a great strategy to me.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#334
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the animated movies; some of which I think are absolutely great, would not have happened.

Does Pixar count as Hollywood? I guess it does -- but it feels somehow separate.

Pixar is part of Disney now, which is about as Hollywood as you can get.

Will that impact the quality of their titles? Well, their last film was Cars 2... not exactly a high water mark for them by any measure.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#335

Disclaimer: I work in film. This discussion is very strange. Hollywood films are extremely expensive and difficult to make, do you think the studios would spend all that money and effort if they could get the same return of investment knocking out budget films shot in someone's living room with a DSLR? I'm quite sure film won't remain at the top of tree for mass market entertainment forever, but it's going to be repl…

That's assuming the studios have a perfect process that can't be further optimized. It might be that they need to spend lots of money for a good return of investment because they have problems in certain areas that prevent them from obtaining those same returns with cheaper movies.

I'm talking out of my ass since I don't know much about the industry, but it seems foolish to assume that the peak of innovation has been achieved.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#337

Here is MY idea. Anyone can post a movie to the web service (website access/roku access). Hollywood, or freelancer gets to publish on the platform free. Anyone can stream a movie completely free, but every 10-15 minutes the price to see the last 10 minutes of the movie cost 1 dollar more. (ratio variable) You can pay a dollar after the first 10 minutes and watch the whole movie for just a dollar, or you watch all of…

[deleted]

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, give me a way to have my cake and eat it too. Give me a medium that adjusts the interactivity demands of the entertainment according to the recline of my chair or the open width of my eyelids. Metaphorically speaking (or not).

When playing games like Dues Ex or Half Life, I've often wanted the ability to scale the difficulty on the fly from hardcore to easy to passive without penalty. I'm guilty of watching "Let's Play" editions of games on YouTube for that reason.

Come to think of it, I have a friend with some tech based around the ability to communicate and stream video of and within various games. Maybe this is the kind of thing that would allow you to transition easily from playing watching your friends play (before you drift off to sleep).

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#339
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would look like free software looks as compared to Microsoft: edgy, unpolished, more engaging with the audience as a collaborator and not just an consumer, in more niches, non-monolithic, with a more visible connection to the author's humanity. :help uganda :wq

Free Software is not Just Vi or Emacs. It evolves into Android, Firefox, Chrome, Eclipse, jQuery, etc. You may get to see work before it is fully ready... But finished products in Free software can also be user friendly and mainstream. And for niches it serves, Free software does a far better job than than the Lowest common denominator that suits the masses.

The parent question was if it was created by hobbyists - Android and Chrome are by Google, FireFox is funded into hundreds of millions of dollars by Google. Eclipse was founded by IBM and funded by its members, including gold sponsors Amazon, Intel, IBM and Cisco, Novell. JQuery is sponsored by Mozilla Corp.

Not really hobbyists, any of them.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#340
Musicians and film production companies need to start acting more like tech startups. Bootstrap, find an audience (traction), raise funding to pay for production costs (friends, family, fools, or kickstarter.com), distribute in iTunes or elsewhere, make money from digital downloads.

You could create a tech startup to sell user generated digital content and give back 100% of revenues to the artists. Got a great idea for a film? Find investors, gather the talent, shoot it, and sell it online. Forget about Hollywood.

Hacking new ways to distribute user generated digital content is only one part of the solution. iTunes and Youtube already exist for garage bands and film school students to bypass the entertainment industry to sell their work. And most of it is terrible.

Technology companies could take an active role in financing the production of quality digital content. Invest $20k into 10-12 artists to seed an album or film leaving enough upside for the company to get back a return.

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