This RFS makes a lot of assumptions, some through analogies, that are all predicated on some level of rational thought. And ultimately, I think that's where this is flawed. Hollywood may be dying -- I don't really know. But the fact they're going after pirates or filesharers or whatever could just be a principled stand for them. I've certainly wasted time and money trying to rectify things that are wrong in my eyes, even if it's not exactly rational or in the best interests of the bottom line. But, to me, it's a matter of principle. And I think for some of these distribution folks, they very much believe it's a principled stand for them as well shrug
Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
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Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#12If you can get the artists on your side, you can kill hollywood.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#13This strikes me as a bit naïve. Hollywood can be seen as two different things:
1) An ecosystem of artists creating music, movies and TV shows.
2) A group of companies distributing and commercializing the output of the ecosystem.
It's hard to say where one ends and the other one begins. YC, you may want to kill #2 but not #1.
Or do you expect to fund "startups" that create TV shows, movies, or music? If so, start looking for the younger Louis CKs of the world.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#14I know this is completely off-topic, but pg: reading that football analogy from an American makes me love you.
On topic, is there not space for (if there was enough funding put into it) a new studio, one that understands the internet and modern culture? I'm not sure it's the content that's wrong, it's the business models around it.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#15"The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise." This seems hypocritical considering YC's funding of companies like Cloudant that go on to work with companies (Monsanto) actively engaged in the worst kind of subversive geopolitical work.…
1) Please don't preface your comment with a statement about people downmoding you. All that does is make me think, "well, the following opinion will probably be poorly thought out flamebait". It's also against the site guidelines.
2) There's a large gap between funding a company which sells something to a company which has a political point of view you disagree with, and actively sponsoring bad legislation. In fact, I can't see how those two things can even be compared. So, your first statement "I will probably be downvoted" is true. Implicitly you're claiming the downvoting will be unfair, but your claim doesn't make much sense, so that's probably the reason it'll happen.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#16Here is an idea for the taking: bypass big-studio production, theaters, cable & physical media sales/rental, and go direct to streaming video rentals, e.g. to Amazon or Netflix, or set up your own streaming infrastructure. This business model is disruptive by capping allowed production budgets and greatly reducing distribution expenses.
Produce content digitally. Have subscribers pay a recurring fee to genre-oriented channels like TV but implemented as streaming rentals only. IP is protected similar to existing streaming content.
Avoid content production competition from Netflix or Amazon by genre focus, e.g. just military sci fi, or youth romance.
Non-broadcast, video on demand can be also targeted at adult audiences - imagine something like the original content HBO produces but with direct-to-consumer streaming video bypassing cable.
Exit by selling startup to Amazon, Netflix, Google (YouTube), etc.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#17I hope whatever kills hollywood also kills distribution by regions. In the third world we are people too.
It's obvious that many new forms of entertainment will use the web as a medium which, barring dictatorships, is worldwide, so you don't have to worry about it, insofar as you have enough bandwidth.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#18"The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise." This seems hypocritical considering YC's funding of companies like Cloudant that go on to work with companies (Monsanto) actively engaged in the worst kind of subversive geopolitical work.…
That's the sort of disingenuous remark a politician would make. It's hypocritical of us to want to fund companies doing good things because one of the 383 companies we've funded has one customer you don't like? We don't have any control over who companies we fund do business with.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#19At least to me, the most important part of trying to make a current media killer is remembering that storytelling is still a fundamental part of society, and not all forms of entertainment (including a subset of video games) do not scratch that itch. To truly replace Hollywood I think you need to come up with new ways of filling that need. Since books obviously don't quite do it (need for visual/audio component for s…
I think you're confusing the medium with the distribution method.
If you accept that modern-day Hollywood is in trouble, it does not necessarily follow that a solution needs to replace video as a multimedia narrative medium. While that very well might happen, the root of the problem is the distribution channel, not the content.
Re: Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.
#20It's the studio and record label system that needs killing. The creative, skilled people who make entertainment and art need to be able to thrive.