Reading Assignment 6

The majority of what Tapscott writes about in part one of Grown Up Digital is really flattering. The way he portrays the net generation makes me feel like I can go out tomorrow and influence the way the world operates, it really painted our generation in a light that made it seem as if we all held this power. Now if this is significantly true or not is still up in the air, however it did make me realize how big of a scope the way that our generation, through the net, is changing the world at large. Focusing on one of my passions and something that Tapscott spent a few pages on was the film industry.

Because the majority of what I have read focuses on 2007 and 2008 respectfully, many of Tapscott's portrayals of the film industry are not as relevant as they once were. Due to the speed at which the net is growing this is not very surprising. Much of what the first part of Grown Up Digital focuses on is the collaborative power of the net generation. It is our nature to be "prosumers", both consuming and producing our content constantly. Tapscott ties this into the film industry when he discusses sites such as OurStage.com in which thousands of creative minds join to create a community focused on film and music. He further goes on to say how films will turn towards shorter more independent oriented modes of creation, and that new forms of production will become mainstream. One example of this might be a film pieced together over long periods of time, made like those japanese phone novelas.
The net has certainly affected the film industry today, from marketing aims to release strategies the industry in in a transitional mode. Take for instance one of YouTube's most recent ventures with this last Sundance festival. Youtube, in a ballsy move in my opinion, offered to rent out to it's viewers several of Sundance's more popular and recent films. While a cool idea, this venture was kind of a bust, garnering only 300 rentals over a course of I believe two weeks. While this venture was not very successful it points out the experimental mood many of these distribution companies are in. The physical format of film is also in a very odd place at the moment, while rentals are at an all time high, many companies are looking to the net and digital formats for separate ways of renting movies (or even releasing them).

As for advertising film, the net has proven to be an invaluable friend as well as foe. People know weeks and even months before the release of a movie whether it has chops or not. Take for example Paranormal Activity, one of the most profittable movies in existence. This movie was created in 2007 and was only released wide in 2009 due to great word of mouth on the net. The distribution of the film was nothing short of brilliant. Being able to request the movie in your theater instead of being released on select screens was a big deal and it all took place on the net. Word of mouth for a movie is a big deal, it establishes staying power. Due to the immediacy of all information on the net, word of mouth is an even bigger deal now than ever before, and this is a very good thing to well-crafted films as well as a coffin nail to your average crappy movie.