Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood. • Hacker News Board

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#351

Post by coreyrecvlohe » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:04 AM UTC

losvedir wrote: post #348

sambeau wrote: post #214

Here's my suggestion: Trailer Pitch This is a simple design for a site and business where filmakers can crowdsource investment. It uses a simple mechanism to sell tickets and shares in advance based on the popularity of premade movie trailers. It uses a mechanism based on ideas tried by Pinboard, Kickstarter, YouTube, Vimeo, Betfair and Louis CK. One: filmakers make compelling trailers for films they would like to be…

> Seven: As well as tickets, shares are sold. These, start out cheap but will also rise in price as they are sold. Thus a keen smart eye might be able to make real money if they spot a winner early and invest. Investing always incurs a percentage fee. Shares are real shares in the real profit of the film and its merchandising. Shareholders get access to the film-making process and limited creative input during the de…

This was actually something the MPAA successfully lobbied to kill. http://www.ifc.com/fix/2010/07/futures

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#352

Post by mcartyem » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:09 AM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #283

I'm not sure the suggested approach is right. Trying to replace the medium is overkill, because it's actually just the companies that need to be removed. The companies are able to exist because the $-to-quality ratio is currently very high. It has always been decreasing, but the way to kill the companies quickly is to lower all of the barriers to entry toward $0 sooner. I think it's easier for startups to lower produ…

Which are the biggest production costs that could be lowered?

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#353

Post by Helianthus » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:10 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #182

Helianthus wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) is a naive description. Ecosystem implies some sort of balance, where in fact it is a cutthroat competition for the favors handed out by 2). Because 2) holds the keys, 2) controls the message. In other words, I would _gladly_ kill #1. #1 is dysfunctional: some sort of willing imprisonment for artists for the sole benefit of #2.

> Ecosystem implies some sort of balance, where in fact it is a cutthroat competition [...] You don't know much about biology, do you?

mmm well of course there can be balance in competition, and there can be extinction events. my comment should be read to imply detrimental runaway effects in Hollywood's ecosystem.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#354

Post by Natsu » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:12 AM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #315

AJ007 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hollywood has guilds, unions, and politics (referring to the internal.) Fall out of favor or break the rules and your out. This environment is the antithesis of creativity. Consider an alternative market: books. Today anyone anywhere can write and sell a book to just about anyone thanks to the Kindle and other electronic book platforms. Borders went belly up and Barnes and Noble might follow. It suddenly appears that…

If $100m+ movies continue to exist, Hollywood will continue to exist, because the majority goes to see those types of movies. To kill Hollywood, all costs around the creation & distribution of movies need to decrease tremendously to the point where they wouldn't even know how to spend $100m+ creating a movie.

$100m+ movies won't exist if they can't recoup the money (according to real accounting, not Hollywood accounting). And that might happen if peoples' attention (and therefore, entertainment dollars) are spread out among more people by making more people able to entertain each other and profit from it, making it hard for any small group of people to hog the whole pie, as it were.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#355

Post by keecham » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:15 AM UTC

Disappointed that an RFS is just a thinly disguised rant. I love HN, YC, and PG, but this tit-for-tat attempt at retaliation is childish and unworthy of the great minds that populate this forum.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#356

Post by loceng » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:20 AM UTC

sriramk wrote: post #95

Movies aren't the latest evolution in entertainment, they're the latest evolution in storytelling , something which is as old as humanity itself. Hollwyood is the descendant of ancient man telling stories of adventure around a fire at night. So the more accurate question - what is a better way to tell stories?

Perhaps can be argued better storytelling can take place in person, whether via education or live performances - however storytelling in person is an artform, much like proper education is.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#357

Post by mcartyem » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:31 AM UTC

sambeau wrote: post #214

Here's my suggestion: Trailer Pitch This is a simple design for a site and business where filmakers can crowdsource investment. It uses a simple mechanism to sell tickets and shares in advance based on the popularity of premade movie trailers. It uses a mechanism based on ideas tried by Pinboard, Kickstarter, YouTube, Vimeo, Betfair and Louis CK. One: filmakers make compelling trailers for films they would like to be…

How will you get users?

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#358

Post by RichardBennett » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:34 AM UTC

Reading the post and the comments, I really miss Steve Jobs.

Look, guys, Hollywood is not your enemy, you're not going to kill it, and it doesn't need killing. Hollywood's use of technical and business model innovation has advanced faster than most other industries over the past five to ten years.

Similarly, Congress and the carriers aren't your enemies and they're not going away either, although you certainly didn't win any friends in Washington with the tactics you used to stop SOPA and Protect IP for the time being.

Perspective is important here: Congress has been working on copyright and on-line piracy since the Napster days, and this one just one small episode in a struggle to rationalize creator's rights with new technologies of distribution. This fight emphasized the universal human right to speech, but there's also an article (27b) in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights respecting copyright. So it's not a simple black-and-white, good guys and bad guys issue.

Congress also has a long memory, and you can't steer the ship of state blacking out Reddit or cloaking Wikipedia (in a way cleverly designed to preserve page rank) every time there's a debate on the Hill that makes you uncomfortable. And be aware that Congress deals with tech industry issues several times a year, every year, no matter what.

Tech (I won't say Silicon Valley because the San Francisco Web 2.0 social media sharing cabal is on a completely different tack than the Valley in its heyday) needs to refine its marketing skills, develop better relations with Hollywood, Congress, and infrastructure providers, and to think about what it does well and what it's never going to do well.

Gaming and information processing are more up your alley than narrative, character development, and story arc. Get real.

Lots of people around the world have spent a lot of mind time on developing better forms of interactive entertainment, infotainment, augmented reality, education, and more. Even people in Washington who work in the policy space can fill you in on the details. See the latest Congressional Internet Caucus State of the Net conference that took place when you were staring at blank screens this week: http://youtu.be/4VF-EIXQCzE

But it's a good start, get beyond the anger and think about where you want to be in five years.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#359

Post by pg » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:34 AM UTC

tlb wrote: post #270

potatolicious wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think video games are a full substitute for TV or movies. They are completely different experiences - one is purely passive, and the other is active and participatory. There are lots of game fans that would claim that this distinction is what makes games superior , but for a lot of people I think that's what turns them off . The passivity is a virtue in many places.

So, find a way to make video games more passive. People like to watch other people play video games. Maybe live streaming of hardcore gamers playing.

Good idea! (http://twitch.tv)

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#360

Post by mtgentry » Sat, Jan 21, 2012, 5:35 AM UTC

jamesgatz wrote: post #289

rdl wrote: post #207

Sometime over the past year I went from thinking YouTube content was insignificant compared to Hollywood, to the point where I'd happily give up all broadcast/cable/DVD/Netflix content for YouTube type user generated content. I suspect this will be more widespread in a year or two more.

I like youtube quite a bit, but if someone told me I could either: a) have unlimited youtube forever or b) re-experience my first viewing of a favorite film (say, No Country for Old Men), I would always choose b. This is likely my own personal bias, but great youtube is great entertainment. Great cinema is magic.

This. I'm hard pressed to think of online content that is as transcendent as a great film.