To be honest, we’re not really big on the emerging generation of movie platforms. There’s no doubt that the market for film delivery and distribution is changing rapidly, with the studios caught between outright fear at the pace of change heralded by this ‘t’internet’ business, and salivating at the thought of vastly profitable new business streams opening up for them just as the DVD market looks set to flatline.
It’s quite telling that the majority of the conversation is taking place in the business press, like this article in Business Week (which, if we’re honest, we didn’t read all the way through because it started to feel a bit like one of those extended maths exam questions).
For LWLies, nothing will ever compare to the pure rush of the cinema experience, no matter how big the plasmas, or Blu the rays. But maybe we’re just romantics.
But to the point… All this is just a way of introducing a new initiative from Icewhole.com, which, however you feel about watching movies on your mobile phone, is definitely something we can get behind.
For those who don’t know, Icewhole is an online forum for budding filmmakers and musicians, offering all the benefits of a knowledgeable community and a huge archive of members’ short films or other projects. Now they’ve hooked up with Orange to make all this stuff available for mobile phone users at the measly cost of £1 a download. In a stroke, they’ve opened up a potentially huge new market for aspiring filmmakers, and that kind of exposure has to be a good thing for everybody.
Check it all out at www.icewhole.com
I don’t mean to piss on the parade (okay, maybe a bit), but I don’t think £1 a pop is a particularly great deal.
If they’d stuck the price at around 79p - the cost of an iTunes mp3, and still too expensive - I reckon they’d get a lot more in the way of traffic.
It took a while before people even started buying legit stuff from iTunes - and that’s stuff people actually know and want. Who’s going to spunk a quid on a short they know nowt about?
I know that sounds pissy, but there’s already a massive forum for getting your short online, and its called Youtube. If you don’t like that, then go for a proper film festival, you snob.
Remember what Lynch said…
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0
Written by Fwank on March 26th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Yah, okay. But the icewhole site is free; you just have to pay to download the films to your phone. Nothing wrong with setting up an artier alternative to youtube….
Now if you could get youporn videos on your phone for a pound, that would be worth a poke in the wallet.
I’m with matt, anyway. All this next-gen stuff is sh*te. If I make a film, i’m gonna put it on a really really big Zoetrope. Eat that, suckas.
Written by Mick Gambon on March 26th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Really interesting take. We’re not moneyologists, but presumably iTunes sells at that price for the very reason you state: it’s stuff people know that they want, so Apple can expect to sell millions.
Icewhole and Orange are trying to encourage people to take a gamble on supporting new talent, so maybe they can’t afford to price it quite as aggressively.
As for the YouTube comment… Um, yeah. True. Maybe someone else can field that. What I would say, is that not everybody thinks that YouTube has credibility as a place to see genuinely creative filmmaking, and that’s what Icewhole is supporting: real talent rather than enthusiastic amateurs. Or are those dividing lines now getting washed away? Maybe.
Written by Matt on March 26th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I think the real point about this is that not only are Icewhole.com and Orange trying to provide something new, and giving royalties back to film makers - something I don’t believe iTunes do, but also they give away £1,500 every month to UK film makers.
The films are looked at and judged by people like Richard Attenborough, Derek Jacobi, Academy Award Winners, Producers, Directors, Casting Directors, Talent Agents etc. Surely this is a great opportunity for talent to be seen by people in the industry every month?
Written by Ross on June 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am