Owen Gleiberman penned an “upper decker” of a review/slam of Scorsese’s The Irishman and Netflix’s release strategy this week in Variety when he wrote “Netflix, You Have a Problem: ‘The Irishman’ Is Too Good,” arguing that the film demanded a longer theatrical release before it hits streaming.
His entire argument can be summed up by his last paragraph:
“Netflix has, in fact, made such a good movie that a vast audience of people — a world of people — are going to want to see it in movie theaters. And if the film’s relatively limited theatrical release starts to feel like a compromise with that desire, it could give a great many people pause: members of the Academy, and filmmakers who are promised the moon if they make their next movie with Netflix. Sure, they’ll get to make the film they want, and that isn’t nothing. But the release of “The Irishman” is destined to shine a light on the underlying metaphysical question: Is home viewing really the moon? The 20th century is officially behind us, but it may not be going out of style nearly as quickly as the executives at Netflix would like it to.”
Are we really still debating this theaters v. streaming question? I feel like I’m stuck in the old (boring) festival debates over whether audiences would ever warm to digital filmmaking. We know how that argument ended.
Jason Hirschorn in ReDef was quick to respond, with this classic take:
“ I like Variety and I read Owen, but I'm having a little fun here, but sort of serious, this article made me want to become a mime…Some of these lines seem like they came from THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRE OWNERS (NATO). The world is flat and media habits are not changing. Not. Netflix plays a different game…See this movie. See it in a theater. See it at home. Where may depend on your age. It's still a good movie. Business and exhibition preferences are changing and will accelerate. There's no stopping that any more than fighting the eventualities of what happens to you in mob life. You get killed, go to jail or get old and die alone.”
Look, let me say it one more time – I love movie theaters and watching films on a big screen. But not everyone does, and not everyone who does has the time, and many of those who do want to see it in the theater, have kids or work and other challenges that keep them from the theater – not least of which challenges Owen acknowledges – “all those trailers, with the $10 Cokes and the idiots on their cell phones.”
NATO and Regal and AMC see this as an existential battle, but once again, it’s not. Think of the millions if not billions being lost by not embracing reality and playing along. Rule one – everyone who has bet against Netflix has lost. Rule two – consumers/audiences are past this shit already. So rule three is NOT “hey, we can kill Netflix by going against the will of the people to see films asap, and just stone them (both) to death.” Rule three is adapt. Why not embrace the fact that the film will be on Netflix in 30 days (or two weeks, or one day) and charge extra to see it in a theater for a limited time? Why not wait and show it after it’s been on Netflix and say – now see it in a theater for one night only, in every AMC in America, with an after screening digital Q&A with the digitally young De Niro?
Every single masterpiece of cinema – except Star Wars, which I watched 11 times in a row in a theater as a kid, but that was the only option then – I saw first on VHS, and then watched it on film when I had the chance. Every single Academy voter, industry insider and reviewer is also watching it on Vimeo or a screener, unless they made it to the NYFF Opening Night (and some undoubtedly did both) – so why not let the public do the same? And come up with a business model that embraces the new reality. Otherwise, we have to smell the stink of Owen’s concealed NATO placement more often, while everyone waits for the theaters to wake up to what we all know is true.
We have more existential threats to theater going than Netflix – they are called – TikTok, Instagram, gaming, attention span, content overabundance, lack of curation, difficulty of discovery, a lack of representative voices (diversity) and a looming recession. Netflix wants people to see great films. You are actually on the same side.
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Film
Arthouse Distributor, KinoLorber, launches KinoNow - with tons of their titles for video on demand viewing. it's a crowded market, but being transactional (as opposed to SVOD or AVOD) for these titles is smart. And it's a great library.
Who Is Telling Whose Story, To Whom, and Why?: The IDA runs a long-read, from filmmaker Lisa Valencia-Svensson’s keynote address at Hot Docs this past spring. It’s also a must read for anyone making films, and thinking about who gets to tell whose story, and how.
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Branded Content
BrandStorytelling is heading into its 5th year, with its key event at Sundance in 2020. I attend annually and it’s one of the best conferences out there - not just for branded content. You have to qualify to attend, and they’ve opened up their portail for people to request attendance. Interested in and working in this space? Give them a holler.
CMO Survey: Should brands get political? One-fourth of marketing execs say yes | Duke's Fuqua School of Business reveals - giving more evidence to the need for brands to take politics- and social issues - more seriously in their branded content as well.
Samuel L. Jackson is Alexa’s First Celebrity Voice, But it Will Cost You a Dollar - The first app for Alexa that I might use - if I trusted Amazon, that is…
Tourism Branded Content done right - Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Tourism Board made some good comedic shorts to get people to visit - As the article explains: “The campaign features Singaporean comedian Rishi Budhrani visiting three cities – Bland in Australia, Dull in Scotland and Boring in the United States of America. After sampling the best amusement options these places have on offer, Budhrani them flies his hosts in each city back to Singapore.” They’re pretty good. Check them out at the link.
How to do branded content right? The BCMA has a piece (essentially branded content itself) about how Nucco Brain helped Innovate:UK rebuild their content strategy and YouTube channel. In spite of being an ad for their services, it has some great observations about the state of branded content in the entertainment ecosystem and pointers on how to do things correctly.
Instagram is identifying branded content more clearly now - giving branded content tags to IGTV. Transparency helps.
The Colonel has a dating game on Steam - go date the Colonel and buy some chicken. This is the kind of stuff that makes me question branded content.
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WHAT I’m READING: VR/AR/Miscellany:
The NYPL has created books on Instagram - long reads - and it’s working - Fast Company reports on how hundreds of thousands of people are reading entire novels on Instagram - thanks to a super cool interface and some smart marketing. From FC: “Since launching in August 2018, more than 300,000 people have read the NYPL’s Insta Novels, and the NYPL’s Instagram account has gained 130,000 followers.” Now this is innovation. Seriously - this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen online from the cultural sector in quite some time. Go read them - just look in the highlights of the @nypl account on Instagram, and enjoy.
Bjork’s Co-Creative Director talks about her VR music video - For The Guardian. Artist James Merry nails it, when he says: For me, it’s a perfect medium for pop. I don’t wanna be in VR for the length of a film. I don’t wanna be in there for even half an hour, necessarily. I think a music video is perfect for VR. You dip in to this little self-contained world and have an experience with really emotional music and then you dip out again.
Scientists are using machine learning to create art - Scientific American reports on how combining two types of machine learning is leading to some interesting art (and logic and reason), and improvements keep coming. Look out artists. Our future robot overlords might like viewing robotic art.
How do we build a future digital economy with more dignity, that pays you for the use of your data? Jaron Lanier has all the answers in this 3 part short video series from the NYT.
Verizon buys the remains of Jaunt VR: Verizon is making some big plays in VR and also in AR - launching new branded content apps for AR as well. My take: this is where interesting concepts go to die. They’ll use the tech, but I maintain that a phone company will never get media right (and yes, that holds for AT&T, too).
How does the Apple Arcade eco-system work? Apple Insider has the report, with info from developers, gamers and others. Sounds like they are solving the monetization problems more elegantly than ads or in-app purchases. We’ll see if it works, as getting people to pay for games has been tough.
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