MOVIES: Pirates vs Sharks

The Tribeca Talks Industry panel titled “Click to View: The Future of New Media” grappled with the competing interests of all those who plug into the internet—users, artists, old school media companies and the new media folks.

When it comes to internet-related media, the biggest issue for industry types is piracy. And the corresponding corporate question: How can we “monetize” what seems to be free?

“There is an avalanche of stolen content online,” said Rick Cotton, executive vice president and general counsel for NBC Universal. “The technology has trained a generation of people that there’s nothing wrong with it.”

Jason Hirschhorn (president of Sling Media) summed it up well: “Years ago, scarcity bred value, but now it breeds piracy. So I think the challenge is for the networks—how to give a legitimate way to access it.” And make a profit.

For the studios and networks the question becomes: What can we offer that is unique and valuable? Ideally, they’ll be getting one step ahead of the new technology. Because as Cotton pointed out “the time when organizations collapse is when the rate of change outside the organization outstrips the rate of change inside.”

On this panel, nobody seemed to really speak to how this could be achieved, but were adamant it had to happen.

Gaurav Dhillon, a new media start-up entrepreneur suggested that a new model for access to content might be called “freemium”—a combination free content and a subscription.  

Beloved actress (and former model) Isabella Rosellini gave an artist’s perception, speaking about her experience making a series of short films, designed for viewing on mobile phones, called Green Porno.

She spoke about “the conversation” that can be created around films when they’re passed around by sharing on the web, and the way that people can give direct feedback to the artists themselves. A little intimidated that people might use comments and forums to spout nastiness they’d never dare say in person, she said, “I mean, critics were bad enough!”

Her films were made in association with the Sundance Channel, and she mentioned some sort of collaboration with Robert Redford. Oh, and it’s about insect sex. It’s worth checking out.

As for the others on the panel, they seemed to want it both ways—to benefit from potential of viral success on the internet (and the promise of more “buzz”), but also to see people somehow paying (or being “monetized”) to see their downloads.