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Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

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Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#661

Post by scotty79 »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #404
scotty79 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same argument can be put in favor of any obsolete industry. "We need this industry/office because otherwise those people will have nothing to do and no means of providing for their families." Why don't they get some currently useful job instead of wasting society's resources? Even giving them all unemployment benefits might be cheaper than keeping up costly dying industry.

But they aren't wasting resources. They're producing media that's consumed by millions and millions of people. pg's argument is you should try to kill them off even though they haven't proven their obsolescence. My argument is they haven't proven their obsolescence because there are good people in the studios (as well as bad people). So you shouldn't make everyone working in hollywood a blanket target. I have no prob…

My personal opinion is that they produce media at much too high cost. It is possible only because they have way too much money on their hands.

Technology drastically lowers the cost of making movies. Instead making a movie for tens of millions of dollars now they let it be made by some else for less than million of dollars 10 years later.

Big budgets also cause lack of creativity in Hollywood. If tens of millions of dollars are at stake you try to minimize the risk. So you have to pick least risky script, least risky cast and so on and so on.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#662

Post by Kavan »

I quite like Hollywood. Some of the best entertainment has and will come from their studios. It is the old guard that don't get that Piracy has had very little impact on their industry and would be a waste of tax payers money to legislate against it: (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/21/does-online-..., http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/internet-reg...)

I don't think we need to do too much here as I think the suits will get rid of themselves by repeatedly showing how inept they are by not understanding the digital world. But if you do want to put pressure on the old boys I would suggest:

1. Don't buy Popcorn and Cola at the cinema. The ridiculous margins on these goods are the 'cream' that makes the movie houses their money. Literally your popcorn and coke'sie cash is what lines the studio's pockets and allows Brangelina to live lavishly. Hollywood == Popcorn + Coke sales

2. Support awesome UGC like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7...

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#663

Post by nookiemonster »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #388
pg wrote: post #9

Incidentally, Paul Buchheit deserves all the credit for this idea. The YC partners were having lunch yesterday and he suggested posting this RFS. Whereupon we all turned to Jessica, who is usually the one who talks us out of doing crazy things. I was kind of surprised she didn't try to talk us out of it.

You’re an ass. Pardon the bluntness of that statement but I’m home right now because this pissed me off so much. So my tone is less measured. Have you even contemplated all the things the industry you’re trying to “kill” does? Make note of something: Hollywood is one of the most unionized workforces in the United States. This isn’t a story of rich studio heads taking advantage of people. Actors, Writers, Stage Hands,…

I work for a carrier. People simultaneously depend on our services and actively hope for our demise. So I hope you understand the context when I say you need to thicken your skin.

The motivation for an attack is irrelevant. Threats are things that need to be planned for appropriately in a business plan. Pretending the entertainment industry is not as ridiculously overpowered relative to the revenue it generates only works with the hyperbole you have injected. Well done, but I am not falling for it.

I doubt your friends are as naive as you. So if it is any solace, you should find great comfort in the fact that the industry is sophisticated enough to survive for a few more paltry tablescraps for the next 20 years or so.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#665

Post by baha_man »

pg wrote: post #202
sjtgraham wrote: post #52

The soccer analogy is interesting because when a player is fouled in the penalty area, the player is strongly incentivised to take a dive. A foul on a player with a clear goalscoring opportunity in the penalty area is a mandatory red card for the fouling player, and a penalty kick for the attacking team. This gives the attacking team a clear advantage by having one more player than the opposition, for the remainder o…

Yes, but in practice a forward won't take a dive unless he's lost control of the ball.

This just isn't true. In today's game it's very common for a player with the ball, in the area, to go down after the slightest contact from an opposing player, rather than stay on their feet and shoot.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#666

Post by mcartyem »

ctwk wrote: post #612
_delirium wrote: post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By creating a new form of entertainment, one can take over a portion of Hollywood's revenue pie That's what the videogame industry has done, isn't it? Their total revenue is now actually larger than Hollywood's. It's not clear it's greatly harmed Hollywood, though; it's possible people are just choosing to spend more total money on entertainment, rather than videogame spending displacing film spending. It's possibl…

The video game industry is indeed bigger than Hollywood but that doesn't mean that it cannot become any bigger to harm Hollywood. As long as the content is engaging and fun for viewers, it will eventually eat into Hollywood's revenue pie. I believe that currently, in order to "kill" Hollywood, the first step is to shrink the role of the middlemen by enabling content creators to distribute and market their content eff…

How do you know users will want to buy products they see in movies?

How can you make content producers make content interactive?

How can I one get in touch with you?

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#667

Post by nate_meurer »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #402
temphn wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Rupert Murdoch's intentions are not good. And how ludicrous to make studio bosses into people concerned about the little guy.

Do you think Steve Jobs also had bad intentions? If not why did he regularly meet with Murdoch on social occasions? Why did they have a friendly relationship? I could see Jobs biting his tongue to get business done but you don't have to discuss political issues on a social level if you think they're evil

Making Steve Jobs out to be a comparative saint won't help your argument here. Jobs very much sought to deprive consumers of control over his platforms and products. He did this wherever he thought it would benefit Apple. He and Murdoch were very much alike in that sense.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#668

Post by mcartyem »

kenamarit wrote: post #579

I'm glad there are other film/tv people on the board sharing their perspective. Before I started writing code for a living, I used to work in post production in NYC on reality tv shows and also in the past on films, docs, and also at more artistic-minded places like Sundance (which is a great place but very much tied to Hollywood, btw, if it wasn't already obvious). A lot of my friends (and myself) are hustling to ge…

Films want users, not legitimacy.

I'll watch anything a recommendation engine tells me looks like another film I know.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#669

Post by DanHulton »

foxit wrote: post #644
foxit wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post nails it. You're talking about disrupting two things, neither of which are entertainment: distribution of finished goods (external), and the system within that's been in place since the fall of the studio system in the '60s (internal). Neither of these things have that much to do with entertainment. Technology has made being a filmmaker far, far cheaper than it used to be even in the heyday of indie film in…

I have two general ideas. Steal them. I don't have time to implement. 1) Find innovative ways to reduce production costs. Production is expensive. Unimaginably so. This can be things like: a) Redesign physical set equipment. Ex: Set lights are expensive; a single light can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Design a new light that takes advantage of modern LEDs or something, or that can be deconstructed to serve mult…

On the set lights/LED issue - designing a new light that uses LEDs would probably INCREASE the cost, not decrease it, since LED lights are currently more expensive to produce than the alternatives.

That said, if instead you had a company that provided the rental of these lights at a lower cost that normally paid to purchase them outright, perhaps you could offer lower cost lighting with modern, less-breakable technology.

Of course, LED lights are a different type of light from incandescent, etc. anyway, so it's possible that they'd be totally unusable anyway.

Still, a really interesting thought.

Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

#670

Post by rdl »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #456
Natsu wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're looking to tear down something without suggesting something else to take its place. That's why he's asking for people to give him ideas to fund. > There's no point to add more hate to the world. On that I can agree, but I would note that I believe that pg is acting out of self preservation rather than hate. > I know record executives. I know executives at movie studios. And guess what, they're good guys. Wel…

> Well, then they should be running honest businesses that won't be disrupted by some startup trying to give artists a good deal, rather than the raw deals they so frequently get, and they will therefore have nothing to fear. But see that's the difference between "kill the industry" and "lets beat these guys". Kill the industry empowers people to do other things like pirate media because "this is war". But if people…

This is selective historical memory; society was in many ways less civil in the past. We had vice presidents and cabinet secretaries shooting each other with actual guns, newspapermen starting wars, etc.
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