Tag movie

YouTube’s Your Film Festival Promises $500,000 Reward And To Work With Ridley Scott

Cropped image from this file. Ridley Scott in ...

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Do you have a story to tell?  Well, if you do and don’t mind to have it films under 15 minutes, you might be a perfect candidate for entering YouTube’s Your Film Festival.  The short film will be watched and voted by millions of people.  The winner will go on to win $500,000 and work with Ridley Scott to produce a new film using the storyline of the short film.  The new film might be released on the big screen.  You have until March 31st to create your short film under 15 minutes and enter the contest.  This June, the voting will begin for the best short film under 15 minutes, and YouTube promises the world will be watching.  If you have the inner creative talent which begs to explode onto the world stage, I guess this is one of those chances you should not pass up.  So, take up the challenge and it might be fun!

Long Live Physical Media, I Hope!

I once believed that we’re done with physical media, but now I’ve a different view on this.  Yesterday, I paid for a rental movie on iTunes store and to my horror I was paying for the second part of the movie.  The movie was Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2.  So, OK, it was careless of me, because I should have rented Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1 first.  Frantically, I searched on iTunes Store for Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I could not find the darn movie anywhere on iTunes Store, and so I searched for it on Amazon Instant Video.  It turned out Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1 wasn’t licensed to be streamed on most online streaming and downloading services.  Oh, I too had checked out Netflix, and this very movie could only be rented as in DVD or Blu-ray.  Finally, I had to give up and went to Blockbuster.

Go figure, I had not been back to Blockbuster for more than three years or so, and there I was checking out a Blu-ray for Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1.  This is why I think physical media is still so important, because streaming and downloading services might have plenty of problems in acquiring licenses for various popular movies.  Without physical media, I might have to watch Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2 before I could watch Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1, and that would be just suck.  Badly!

I also think that the more stuffs moving online and abandoning the physical media, media companies will have more control over customers than ever before in certain circumstances.  Perhaps, they can censor stuffs way faster and easier?  Instead of burning books like millennia ago, they now could just snap their fingers to have someone instantly erases all digital copies in seconds.  I think we be better off if physical media will be around for unforeseeable future.

Let us take a look at a hypothetical situation in regarding to what if physical media is no longer available.  Let say ISP raised prices for Internet connections and customers could not find physical media, therefore customers had to pay higher prices for Internet connections than usual just to be able to watch their favorite movies.  We had only talk about a scenario which pertains to physical media for movies, what chaos would ensue if physical media that pertains to much more important stuffs could not be made readily available?  You there, yes you, I’m talking to you Cloud service!

Netflix Will Be King Still After Jumping The Gun For The Future By Splitting Itself Into Two

Yahoo’s article “Why Netflix Is Smarter Than Its Customers” does have a good point.  It clearly points out that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been so hasty to subtly force his customers to abandon the mail movie service and jump onto the bandwagon of instant movie streaming service.  I would be a perfect example, because I’d abandoned the mail movie service which Netflix has now spinned it into Qwikster.  At the same time, Reed Hastings knows that he will be able to continue milking the old cow, but this time for more money.  How?  Netflix used to bundle up the mail movie service with instant movie streaming service as one package for lesser monthly subscription price, but now by forcing his customers to abandon the mail movie service and embracing the future where instant movie streaming will be proliferated — yet he now can charge his customers 60% more or however more for the same quality as before and knowing that eventually the mail movie service will inevitable fade out like cassette tapes.

Some customers definitely won’t appreciate of being forced to pay more or to abandon the now and embracing the future easily.  Reed Hastings definitely has jumped the gun, but if he is right, Netflix will be just fine in the long term even though its stock price is plummeting while we speak.  I don’t think Netflix will be defeated by its competitors easily, because Netflix service is better than most.  For an instance, Amazon doesn’t have enough movie titles as Netflix even though it offers better deal.  Apple’s iTune model for its movies aren’t as nice as Netflix’s one, because less people are willing to pay for each movie title to be streamed.  Netflix’s one flat price per month for all you can eat instant movie streaming deal is definitely a best business model in all so far in regard to streaming movie market.  Google’s movie model is similar to Apple’s one, and so there isn’t yet a competitor that can easily overtake Netflix.

If Reed Hastings is correct all along, Netflix will bring in a lot more money than ever before eventually, and with extra cash Netflix will be able to overtake Cable and Satellite.  How?  Netflix will have more cash to bid for exclusive movie titles and TV shows.  A good example would be “House of Cards.”  With a lot of if being said, here is one more.  If Reed Hastings’ jump the gun has hurt Netflix real hard, customers may not easily be won back.  This might hurt Netflix for real in regard to its bottom line.  With that being said, I have a feeling that Netflix will be alright for a long time to come, unless something that will be better than Netflix can outmaneuver Netflix in innovations.

Source:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Netflix-Is-Smarter-Than-usnews-584478147.html?x=0

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