*Gimmicks that move the world*: 3D movies

According to the Wired E-Magazine ['Movie Industry Doubles Down on 3-D' article, 14 April 2008], the proliferation of home theaters, movies-on-demand and portable video players cause the reason why moviegoers have fewer reasons to actually "go" to a movie.

Filmmakers and studios alike have pledged their allegiance to 3-D too bring back and boost high level of revenues. Disney and Pixar announced this week that it will release all of its films in 3-D, starting with Bolt, which is slated for a November release. Dreamworks Animation says that by 2009 all of its movies will be released in 3-D. James Cameron is working on big-budget 3-D sci-fi flick called Avatar, and George Lucas is working on remastering all the Star Wars movies in 3-D.

For studios, the financial allure of 3-D is twofold: The technology can't easily be replicated in home theaters (yet); and moviegoers are still willing to pay a premium for 3-D films. The big question is whether the technology is a game changer or just a short-lived gimmick to drive ticket sales, like Smell-O-Vision -- or, for that matter, the 3-D technology of the 1950s.

"This is a serious visualization technology that's just begun to be used for entertainment," says Elizabeth Brooks, chief marketing officer of 3-D system maker RealD, which has about 97 percent of the 3-D market. "It's been used by NASA and by scientists who need to render things perfectly. It's my job to sing the company's praises, but if the technology weren't good, [filmmakers] wouldn't be planning to make as many 3-D films as they're making."

Unlike 3-D films of the 1950s, the new wave of 3-D pictures don't blur and they don't cause headaches. In basic terms, a 3-D film is shot in two frames -- one for the right eye and once for the left eye. The projector buffers the left and right streams and projects them in alternation at 144 frames per second, using a "triple flash" technique that shows each frame three times in order to smooth out the picture. The RealD 3-D system also requires theaters to install a special silver screen to maintain the polarization of the image.

So the main trick for Film Studios in making 3D masterpieces is that 3-D is poised to improve theater attendance and box-office grosses. The average ticket price for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds," a 74-minute 3-D concert flick, was reportedly $15. By contrast, the average 2-D movie ticket price is about $7, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. Hannah Montana grossed about $65 million domestically, and on its opening weekend, it grossed about $31 million, handily out-selling the 2-D Jessica Alba vehicle, The Eye, which sold about $12 million worth of tickets.

In order to install a 3-D system, theaters must have digital projectors. And at the moment, there are only 4,600 digital projectors in the United States, according to the National Association of Theater Owners. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to upgrade to digital projectors, and $20,000 to $50,000 more to install a 3-D system. It's a rich investment, and theater owners may not see much of a return on it: Studios, on average, make 55 percent of ticket sales, leaving just 45 percent for the theater owner.

Though there are always ways to negotiate...As an example, under a recent agreement, third-party upgrader Access Integrated Technologies signed deals with four studios -- Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal -- to convert up to 10,000 screens, for an estimated cost of $700 million.

Once studios get theaters to make the switch to digital, the shift to 3-D will be easier -- but it may not immediately improve the economics for studios. While the box-office gross and attendance is higher for 3-D movies, it costs more to make 3-D movies.

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The bottom line is, 3D that is considered to be a catchy gimmick for now, will soon turn into a standard offer which will bring all the efforts back to the zero point...on a new level though, but still a zero point with a potential for new gimmicks...

Probably we will have 3D movies merging with gaming options, providing users with that incredible, outstanding generated experience... and of course this change will solve so many Ad-distribution related challenges and build that desired unified platform for Ad-agencies and Content Providers.

But for now it's just a fairytale in a head of a Master who puts word by word on a paper, so the story would come true one day...

Most Powerful Women by Forbes

Forbes Magazine has published the 2008 list of "100 Most Powerful Women in the World."

According to the Forbes article, the women on this prestigious list do not have to be rich, but they do have to wield influence. In total, the women ranked on this list control $26 trillion worldwide.

The Influence is measured by Forbes as a composite of public profile — calculated using press mentions — and financial heft. The economic component of the ranking considers job title and past career accomplishments, as well as the amount of money a woman controls. Basing on these factors, German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped the list for the third year in a row.


World's Most Powerful women video

The full list of 100 Most Powerful Women can be seen at www.forbes.com/women.

Though, what of the most interest is the list of 15 Most Powerful Women in Media Industry.

15 Most Powerful Media Women Forbes 2008

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

I will be telling about most of them and share what makes/have made them so Powerful in my next posts. Please, stay tuned.

New Media and Enterntainment: 2008

Every market has its own rules... After studying multiple reports, anylizing press-releases and different business articles on the burning issues of Media Industry, I would state that the Creative Economy today is build on 4 main pillars:

1. Mobility, convenience, and personalization
2. Getting Faster. Higher. Stronger.
3. The Money Question
4. and The security of the New Digital Life.

For more details on each 'Media pillar', please see below:

The rapid growth of Media market causes a high level of competition and a need for an OUTSTANDING creativity as well as highly creative talents to drive the industry and each of the Creative Clusters in particular. There is a huge need for more Walt Disneys, who are not afraid to live their Dreams and make this world a much better and more creative place...

Do you think that you could be the New Him?!

Creative Economy?!

The so called "Creative economy" is an evolving concept based on the potential of "creative assets" to generate socio-economic growth and development, in a globalized world increasingly dominated by images, sounds, texts and symbols.

At the heart of the creative economy lie the creative industries. Loosely defined, the creative industries are at the crossroads of arts, culture, business and technology and use intellectual capital as their primary input. Today´s creative industries range from folk art, festivals, music, books, newspapers, paintings, sculptures and performing arts to more technology-intensive subsectors such as the film industry, TV and radio broadcasting, digital animation and video games, and more service-oriented fields such as architectural and advertising services.

The phrase creative industries (or sometimes creative economy) refers [according to Wikipedia] to a set of interlocking industry sectors, and are often cited as being a growing part of the global economy. The creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products; such as music, books, film, and games, or providing business-to-business creative services such as advertising, public relations and direct marketing.

The UK Government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has produced a widely-quoted definition of the creative industries as:

“those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” (DCMS 2001, p. 04) - (for a definition see also Cultural Institutions Studies).

The current DCMS definition recognises eleven creative sectors:

*Advertising
*Architecture
*Arts and antique markets (see also Restoration)
*Crafts
*Design (see also communication design)
*Designer Fashion
*Film, video and photography
*Software, computer games and electronic publishing
*Music and the visual and performing arts
*Publishing
*Television and radio

According to Creative Clusters Ltd., the Value of Creative Products consists of two aspects. Physically, they are usually simple: a reel of film, a CD, a computer disk, a sheet of printed paper. But their value lies in their content, in their meaning, or what they represent. The content could be a film, a story, a photograph, a game or a pop song, and it might be entertaining or persuasive or informative or attractive. It is this information that has value, not the physical object that carries it. Even with a designer T-shirt or a piece of jewellery, it’s the style, the design that counts, not the cloth or the metal.

Raw information, data, is plentiful in the information economy. What is valuable, and what it takes great skill to make, is knowledge: meaning, content, style, ideas, plans, stories, concepts, designs, fashions - chunks of meaning that people can understand, use, value or love. These 'chunks of meaning' are what the creative industries make. In a very literal sense, the creative industries, and the artist-entrepreneurs at the heart of them, are the manufacturers of the information economy.

To find out more about the Creative Economy, please refer to The Creative Economy Report 2008.

The Creative Economy Report 2008 - The challenge of assessing the creative economy towards informed policy-making is the first comprehensive study to present the United Nations perspective on this emerging topic. This policy-oriented analysis is intended to facilitate a better understanding of the key issues underlying the emerging creative economy at national and international levels. It brings together contributions from five United Nations organizations, namely UNCTAD, UNDP UNESCO, WIPO and the International Trade Centre (ITC), in a joint endeavour to enhance policy coherence and international action in this area.

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Taking into consideration all the excitement due to a growing number of opportunities in the sphere of Creative Economy, the aim of this blog is to provide a summary of the current trends, achievements and challenges, as well as present the driving force (projects, ideas, people) of the industry.

If you would like to comment or share your perspective, please do. I am looking forward to have interactive discussions that broaden the horizon and build a better understanding of the Industry and its value.

Creatively yours,

E.