Inventing the Movies

Some of the things I love about summer are weekend trips to the Berkshires, taking time off for a vacation, and all that means more time available to read books. On my summer reading stack this year was an advance copy of Inventing the Movies, a new book by Scott Kirsner that takes you on fascinating romp through the movie industry’s hundred-year love/hate relationship with technology and innovators. The book is an entertaining read with fascinating historical research and fresh insights from interviews with a long list of contemporary luminaries including director Peter Jackson, computer graphics pioneer Ed Catmull, and entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

With a keen attention to multiple perspectives, Kirsner presents the view of industry executives who are reluctant to innovate, and contrasts their views with the innovators who have advanced the many technologies like projection, color, sound, non-linear editing, digital projection, internet distribution, etc. that have transformed the industry over a century of change and revived it over and over again for many generations of audiences. Inventing the Movies is a lively book of interest to innovators in any field, as well as people who love movies and want to take a look at the business and technological machinations behind the many screens in their life: cinema, television, home theater, personal computers, portable media devices, and video-enabled phones.

Last week I did an interview with Scott Kirsner about the book, how the project got started, and what he plans to do next. The interview is currently being edited will be posted on this blog sometime before September rolls around.

The book is now available from Amazon.com. The book is also available as an e-book from LuLu. Scott Kirsners blog post on the book is here.

Making Media Now (slides from Opening Remarks)

Here are my slides from the Opening Remarks I made at the Making Media Now: Filmmaking in Transition conference held yesterday at Boston University. A special thanks to Jennifer Kaplan, Bonnie Waltch, and all the people and sponsors who made this lively and engaging event possible.

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Boston Media Makers Meeting, April 1, 2007

Today I attended another wonderful meeting of Boston Media Makers held at Sweet Finnish in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, the first Sunday of every month. We go around the room and everyone talks about what they are doing, triggering interesting discussion, questions, answers, suggestions, and ideas. It’s an unmeeting much like an uncoference. Another thing that makes these meetings special is the mix of pros and amateurs, everyone is learning new things, everyone helping each other out, sharing pointers, tips, techniques, talking about their new projects, a really good vibe.

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The Future of Web Video

With all the excitement over Google’s purchase of YouTube and videomakers making money putting Mentos into Diet Coke bottles, you’d think that the viral video phenomena is where all the action is. But for independent filmmakers who are looking to get some financial return on their work, there are some serious distribution and revenue opportunities emerging on the web, but it’s not YouTube. Alternative sites like Brightcove, blip.tv, IndieFlix, and CustomFlix offer a range of services to filmmakers who would like to take reaching an audience and distribution into their own hands. Scott Kirsner’s new book, The Future of Web Video: Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers provides the most comprehensive guide to web video to date from materials gathered in 2005 and 2006. The books is available as an e-Book or printed book. Since sites in this space and the services they offer are changing so rapidly, it’s a good thing that Scott has made his chart, Getting Paid: Sites that Help Video Producers Make Money available online for free.

Four key business books for understanding our changing times

There are four books that stand out as particularly relevant to understanding the challenges businesses face going into 2001. It’s time we put our aspirational predictions of the future aside and take a look at what’s really happening in the environment around us. The books are The Social Life of Information, Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, The Innovator’s Dilemma, and The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual. Here are my comments on each.
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