How to make the Long Tail content phenomenon work for you...

Richard Titus is a new media legend. His Los Angeles digital company Schematic and film production company Plinyminor have been associated with some of the most exciting projects in the world today (see Netvideo's interview with Schematic's Dale Herigstad). Titus says the thinking he has done for his global speaking commitments over the last couple of years about the Long Tail content phenomenon has impelled him to focus more squarely on the creation of genre, low-cost, high-value content with a long shelf life.

Plinyminor is the result. Titus has two films in production, a TV show and three more films he will finish by the end of March 2006. Most of his product is sci-fi or action. He tries to have the projects break even out of pre-sales (a combination of soft money and the initial licensing fees) so that all profit from the "long tail" phenomenon becomes profit "ever more".

In this interview, Titus talks about how he believes the advent of IPTV will affect the stories film makers tell. He says long form TV and film is his prime focus today, but long term, because he owns the copyright, there is room to experiment widely. That will be via mobisodes and via cross-property links.

He says he is starting a project now which is both a game and a movie simultaneously. "Game development for a large platform title like that is 3-5 years and film development is usually 18months to three years. So we start the game first with the idea we will launch the game and film simultaneously for maximum impact," he says. He says today's producers know the "silo" of the world they work in, but they don't think outside of that enough. Ensuring that properties come to fruition in the right time frame is an increasingly important part of that, he explains.

Titus also expresses his view that broadband unbundling is a good thing and explains why. He says the forced unbundling in America helped telcos realise it was a great profit centre; the recent FCC decision against unbundling Titus believes will be overturned.

Finally Titus discusses the creative opportunities that have lit up as film makers turn to game engines to power their film environment, taking advantage of a new form of animation called machinima.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• media
• entertainment
• technology
• longtail