I'm also always a little suspicious about American financed investment in the film industry. Like the gaming industry there tends to be a chasing of tax incentives rather than growth investment at times.
Everywhere that starts up tax incentives for film and television production inevitably ends up churning out things like Sharknado. It is interesting that you bring up the gaming industry, as that - as far as a cursory glance tells me, anyway - hasn't seemed to have had the same over-production of garbage shelf-fillers, but I'm hardly in a position to properly check at the moment.
Maybe the memory of all those boom-and-bust events in the past are keeping things in check.
Just because something's been announced, it doesn't mean it's imminent or ever likely to happen.
Quoted for truth.
However, you don't go announcing something which has already cost a ton of cash without having some idea of the way forward. We don't, at present, have anywhere near the amount of information on these studios to be able to say anything definitively, which is why a degree of healthy caution is for the best.
Physical media has peaked, we're in the middle of a fight over streaming services, with companies booking out studio space to produce content, and new film/tv studios built to fill that shortage.
You can laugh at this all you want, but it speaks to that thought perfectly - Grandpa in my Pocket, the CBBC show which ran a few years back, was filmed in an old industrial space of some kind according to the creative personnel involved. It (still) looks far better than that suggests, and even something as large as the Dawn of the Dead remake in the US used non-standard "studios," making the proposals even more odd....
I think the bigger worry is what happens if one company 'wins' or there is a major crash/bubble bursts and we're left with lots of sheds that no-one wants to (or can afford to) use.
And we might end up here. Disney, Apple and BritBox (yeuch - that's a horrible name) are late to the party. While everyone else is getting their coats and calling their rides, these clowns are just wandering in. There are more stragglers, but those three are the big names, with - certainly in the case of the former two - deep pockets and big egos.
Netflix may be the most important player, as it has already proven itself involved in original content production across the globe - The Kid Who Would Be King isn't without serious problems, but it is fairly entertaining all the same, although iBoy is ridiculous, awful b-movie fodder - so we might be okay if the right people are in place.
We should keep in mind the cautionary tale of Polphail, and where planning on something expected to arrive in the near future can lead.
We have a period of consolidation to look forward to, and it’s going to be nasty and happen very quickly.
I had the Godfather theme in my head as I read that for some reason...
Streaming is by and large unsustainable at every point, meaning you need some other income stream to keep it viable.
It has always been clear that there are behind-the-scenes things going on with streaming film - maybe it is because the BBC has so expertly crafted their own insular little bubble, free of all advertising, but the plethora of recognizable logos and brand names speaks to something else in streaming: the ad dollar is hard at work shaping entertainment.
I may be wrong, and I'll hold my hands up to that if someone wants to bring out a statement saying they haven't accepted any cash for placement, but the feeling I get is that there is money going in from *cough* unconventional means. Not saying anyone is doing anything wrong, but...
Spotify doesn’t make anything and is surely screwed in the medium term. I suspect Netflix faces a rocky future too.
Isn't Netflix, by now, "too big to fail" as the news media loves to put it? I can see people pouring money into it merely in order to keep the name viable, as there is soooo much potential there - not that it is really living up to that potential, but it is certainly impressive in places.
And Spotify... Damn. I learn something every day.
Everyone is probably already aware of this, but... It isn't the backers who are going to get burned if things turn to shit. Investors will be kept happy, and any jobs created are going to make the companies look good no matter what - the creators, the people killing themselves to make cool, entertaining stuff which they pour their souls into, are going to be the ones to get screwed over if / when things sour.
