NETFLIX worlds biggest media company as APPLE launches rival

2018 update: Netflix puts content above costs but is the policy sustainable?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/may/25/netflix-puts-content-above-costs-but-is-policy-sustainable?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

I've written a few times that Apple's entry into the subscription TV streaming market is inevitable ... and here it comes, with an annual $1bn budget for 10+ new series and some incredibly high profile industry names signed up
Apple has Netflix and Amazon in sight as it hires British TV executive

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/25/apple-has-netflix-and-amazon-in-sight-as-it-hires-uks-top-tv-executive?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

More niche than Netflix: nine specialist streaming services you should try https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/shortcuts/2017/oct/23/more-niche-than-netflix-nine-specialist-streaming-services-you-should-try?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

NETFLIX ARE DISRUPTERS challenging stale Hollywood hegemony?

To paraphrase Tony the Tiger, purveyor of dodgily sugary breakfast fare, they're GGGGRRRREEAT! Netflix that is, according to an Oscar-tipped director who couldn't get her movie picked up by any of the studios for distribution but found Netflix willing to overpay (her words!) $12.5m for the rights.

This is a great quote which gets to the heart of the notion of the disruption (a business term denoting the impact on traditional business practices of the ongoing processes of digitisation):

“Netflix are representative of what Hollywood used to be,” she continues. “[Hollywood] used to take risks, it used to be about discovery and now it’s about profit, it’s about foreign sales value, so I think Netflix are disrupters and maybe they will shake up the system and get the studios back to making original interesting things. Back to discovering new actors and not just hiring the same three actors over and over again.”

Meet the new hotshots of American film-making https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/22/meet-the-new-hotshots-of-american-film-making-director-dee-rees-mudbound-eliza-hittman?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

BOX OFFICE just half of actual film revenue?

From an interesting read on the vultures flying over the bloated corpse of toxic brand The Weinstein Company, a worthless brand with a highly valuable back catalogue (including remake/franchise rights) and upcoming slate of likely hits such as Paddington 2, comes this observation on the breakdown of film revenues;

Analysts estimate that the lifetime value of a film can be as much as double what it makes at the box office. For example, The King’s Speech made just over $400m globally in cinemas but has probably amassed about $1bn once its post-multiplex takings are included. About 25% of the $1bn is from the ever-shrinking DVD market, maybe 15% to 20% from pay-TV broadcasters for premiere rights and 10% (and growing) from services such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple, according to Ampere Analysis.

Rich pickings: how Hollywood rivals will profit from Weinstein's downfall https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/20/hollywood-rivals-circle-weinstein-film-studios-cinema-gems?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

DIGITISATION Apocalypse Now cinematographer goes digital

Of his experience with Allen, Storaro said, “We decided to enter the digital world together, and I have to say that from the beginning we found ourselves very comfortable.”

In fact, digital had added benefits for the director, in that he could monitor the film in a way previously not possible. (Storaro quipped, “In Apocalypse Now we were waiting for two weeks to see dailies. They were were weeklies, not dailies.”) Today, he shoots with a high dynamic range monitor on set and uses ACES color techto make sure that his directors are seeing an accurate picture.

Storaro insists that he didn’t change his approach or his lighting setup for digital work. “Of course,” he notes, “I selected a camera that was close to my personality, with the level of performance in quality and color shade and close to the one that I loved for almost 20 years,” which was the Arriflex 535B.

http://nofilmschool.com/2017/10/why-oscar-winning-dp-vittorio-storaro-thinks-film-vs-digital-debate-bullshit

SELF-DISTRIBUTION Blomkamp's mini-studio output on YouTube

Sigourney Weaver and sci-fi shorts: inside Neill Blomkamp’s secret film studio https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/02/oats-studios-secret-film-lab-sidestepping-hollywood?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger