USEDCARSALESMAN

Survivor: Movie Theatres (With a Little Help From Digital Projectors)

(This post is 21 hours late according to my "Every 4 days" Time-line! Usedcarsalesman will adopt a "news-type" schedule so that he will always have something ready every 4 days regardless of outside intrusions.)

Usedcarsalesman read a post the other day made by Cory Doctorow (a post which was apparently pulled from a blog called MarginalRevolution.com) in BoingBoing.net called "What's Killing Hollywood? (And, Its Not Piracy!)"

Usedcarsalesman believes it was posted there on July 13, 2005. In the post were listed a lot of reasons for the on-going "murder" of Hollywood's theatrical releases: high-quality TV programming making people avoid theaters, High Definition plasma-screened televisions becoming more affordable and keeping people at home, movie-executives who are understandably risk averse and box office expectations that are higher than in the past (so the variety of theatrical releases is suffering).

The BoingBoing post suggested to Usedcarsalesman that, pretty soon, when the viewing public seeks visual entertainment we are all going to avoid movie theaters and basically just stay home and turn on the HD plasma screen. Well, it "suggested" this to him, yes, but "convinced" him, no.

Why? Let's face the following facts: going out to a movie theater has the "going out" and "social" elements going for it. "Let's go out to the movies," "let's go see the latest Speilberg flick," "it's going to be a full house," are all thoughts that most people have entertained. Often people -- Usedcarsalesman, too -- settle on going to a movie because it's a relatively easy co-ed social event to organize and because there's little socially to do with your friends in the evenings (besides getting bombed at a party, that is :).

Sure, movies aren't the only thing you go out and do that have a social element. You also have live-theater and music, religious services, professional sporting events, sports-participation, charity participation, conventions (at least a ton in So. Cal.), and amusement/theme parks, too. But going to a movie theater is admittedly still one of the few economical and entertaining things that you can do in a large room with other individuals.

Maybe movie theaters and attendees also offer -- at least to "Joes" like Usedcarsalesman -- a hard to quantify value such as an answer to how "strangers" will respond to visual stimuli.  Usedcarsalesman guesses you could say he gains inadvertant "political insight" from within movie theaters.  And, movie theaters offer other "political" benefits, too, not just for Usedcarsalesman. What viewer isn't subconsciously heartened by the warmth of reacting to entertainment in the same manner as people they do not know?

Usedcarsalesman thinks that movie theater chains and single theater operations, rather than closing up shop, may build on the inherent "social" aspect of movie theaters by installing new Digital Projectors. To start, Digital projectors may enable theater operators to download a new feature straight from the film distributor, greatly streamlining theater operations, eliminating film, film storage, film maintenance, and shipping costs/delays.  But the largely unheralded, potential "social" benefit of digital projectors is that they will make it economical for theater operators to provide a more diverse array of entertainment to a paying public. 

With mostly digital projectors in theaters, you may see niche market films which formerly would have been prohibitively expensive to distribute as a film print, live network-video-game championships (games are often more profitable than Hollywood films at this point and need a stadium type venue to allow a mass audience to cheer the top players), and even the next generation of 3-D films that are viewable without special glasses (Trust Usedcarsalesman, far more enjoyable in a big theater than on a relatively puny 70 inch plasma HDTV).

Frankly, Usedcarsalesman thinks that the new digital projectors may enable theater operators to hedge the financial risk of showing standard Hollywood fare by drawing audiences with the aforementioned variety of novel entertainment alternatives. They might save and strengthen traditional movie theater enterprises which may lead to a new post in BoingBoing.net titled, "What's Saving Movie Theaters?"

Google Video

Usedcarsaleman will have to admit that the following has occurred over the last 20 years: big changes in the business of distributing a "self-created" film/video product.

Usedcarsalesman will take you from his personal "Point A," 20 years ago, to his "Point B," in the present day, to give you an idea of the big change.

• Point A: The first video I ever made was for an 8th grade social studies project. Usedcarsalesman and his father spent much of the spring/Easter holiday in 1985 using a consumer Sony Beta-cam to shoot video of photos in various science and future-oriented books. Now, Usedcarsalesman will admit, that he did have a little bit of an advantage getting this done due to the fact that my dad worked in the film and television field professionally; anyway, my video project was called -Future Cities- and I basically narrated the story as the video moved from one still photo to the next, describing various concepts of what life was going to be like in the future here on the planet and perhaps off, as in space colonies and so forth. Well, when we completed the project, Usedcarsalesman took the finished tape to the school's library so that the librarian could play it on a video player that was wired by cable to a television in the class room. It received an "A"-grade and that was the end of it: the total "distribution" of -Future Cities,- a very professional looking production involving a lot of work, was to one television in one classroom (which is admittedly all that Usedcarsalesman intended). Now perhaps one other center of video content distribution might have considered airing -Future Cities,- the local cable company in Arlington, Va. If Usedcarsalesman had mailed them a tape, he is sure they might have considered playing it in the late hours of the morning. But that, at most, was the extent of his video distribution capabilities at the time as an early teen, at least in my family :)
• Point B: It's 2005 and a very different world for people, young to old, amateur to professional, who wish to make self-created video/film productions. Obviously, we have seen millions upon millions of people begin to use the Internet and, in the last few years, to use more advanced services like broadband and P2P file-sharing networks. But recently, services such as Google Video have emerged that, at least for now, allow any person to essentially upload and store a large, hours-long video file on a Google server for free. Once there, the video file becomes available for millions of potential viewers to download and it's not amidst "a hive of scum and villainy" as it would be with most P2P networks :). Furthermore, Google is even setting up Google Video so that producers can charge viewers of the video in an electronic, "pay-per-view" fashion.

Now, if you took Usedcarsalesmn as a kid in 1985 and sent him forward in time to 2005, he'd certainly be looking at making a video production to show to more people than just the few occupants of a single classroom, that's for sure. As a matter of fact, he's not sure where his limits would be. One can also say the same about the limits of others producing self-created video today thank to Google Video.

-The Passion- Involved With Entertainment Production Financing

The Passion of The Christ, Mel Gibson's 2004 film, grossed 610 Million in international box-office returns. And this was prior to its March 200 re-release!

         

Passion wasn't backed by the major Hollywood studios or nominated for any Oscars. But audiences in the US and internationally went to see the film by the tens of millions and will likely buy the heck out of the DVD's. Furthermore, The Passion will probably be syndicated on television forever, thus yielding Gibson's production company a ludicrous return on its investment.  To some extent The Passion may serve as evidence that sometimes the supply of entertainment from Hollywood and the entertainment demands of the viewing public are not necessarily well synchronized.

       

Usedcarsalesman can imagine some of the following trends resulting from The Passion's out-sized success:   

• It might serve to stimulate investment from a growing class of Hollywood "Outsiders" in entertainment projects that have otherwise been figuratively "shot down" by Hollywood "Insiders."
• Rejected Hollywood film-makers might look to sources outside of Hollywood to finance pictures with rather size-able budgets, pictures that may not have earned a "green-light" from studio executives. Makers of smaller, more unconventional projects may do the same. 
• You you may even have area-specific projects (a film set in the Southern U.S. financed by people in the Southern U.S.). When securing financing for a film from outside Hollywood, fund-raisers will point to -The Passion- and say "hey, look, we want to see this proposed film ourselves and we have good market research to show that there are probably millions of people just like us, therefore lets get some money and put this production together and get it distributed."
• It does not seem unreasonable to believe that film financiers could use a web site on the Internet to float a project idea to the public and recruit legions of small and large investors in the production. The benefits of doing so might include greatly distributing the risk of financing a film and promoting a film project well in advance of release (If you have invested 10k in a film, naturally you are going to tell 100 friends and family members and business people about your investment; as such, the film could open with a built-in market).
• As this type of entertainment investment becomes a reality for a greater number of people, new organizations will emerge to monitor this method of film financing. For example, just as you have analytical firms -- Forrester Research and others like it -- that monitor stocks for the investing public.  You might see a new breed of entertainment analyst who monitors potential film/TV ideas and then perform due diligence regarding the parties floating the idea and regarding the security of the investment. 
• Usedcarsalesman would also say that when new outside investors -- again, emboldened by the success of The Passion -- participate in the financing of films, you are going to see people put their money behind the projects that most reflect their own interests. Since the entertainment product (film, television) often reflects the predilections of its financiers, you are going to see a range of productions will likely encompass a broad, A-Z political spectrum.

So, it is somewhat ironic that the business success of The Passion of The Christ may not necessary unleash more religiously-themed productions.  Instead its success may show viable, new ways to advance the creative "passions" of the typically more secular people who make film and television productions.

Technology Could Drive Growth In The Business of Talent Agencies

Talent Agencies such as The William Morris Agency (WMA), have represented "talent" -- professional actors, screen-play writers, directors, musicians -- since the end of the 19th century. 

      

This business of representing talent continues today, even with the advent of the World Wide Web and other advances in telecommunications. And for doing work such as submitting their clients for auditions, putting together entertainment projects involving multiple talents they represent ("packaging") and negotiating their clients' employment contracts,  Agencies intrepidly continue to earn 10% of their respective clients' gross earnings from a particular booking. 

             

10% sounds like decent money, especially if you are an agency with a client roster with the size and depth of the one maintained by The William Morris Agency.  These guys represent literally 2000 talents, many of who are "big-name," Film and TV actors earning several hundred thousand to 30 million+ a job.  When he does the math, Usedcarsalesman sees that an agency like William Morris with its world-wide presence is probably doing 500 million to maybe a billion + a year just in their talent representation business alone.

                

WMA's earnings are not bad, but they are not that great.  Keep in mind that we live in a day and age in which single individuals  -- hedge fund managers, investment bankers -- are earning billion dollar bonuses for one year's work.  There are dozens of unglamorous, gray-suit, U.S.law firms with multi-national presences that do as much business in a year. The 500 million to a billion in business a world class talent agency -- William Morris, Creative Artists Agency, Endeavor -- does a year is just not large potatoes anymore.   Usedcarsalesman, however, says that the good news for the major talent agencies is that they may soon may be on the receiving end of a windfall.

            

In the early 21st century, a new technology has emerged that enables a greater number of individuals to work as "on-camera" talent and a greater number of businesses to employ on-camera talent directly to advance their interests; the specific technology is nothing more than high-quality web cams coupled with Macs or PCs, broadband Internet connections and streaming video.  Usedcarsalesman sees this technology enabling millions of gutsy salespeople, teachers, seminar-givers, religious persons, exercise instructors and other professionals -- a new category of "talent" born of this technology -- to "present" on-line to audiences.  The best of these new talents could earn 6,7, 8+ figure incomes reaching millions of people world-wide. 

         

Smartly-run Talent Agencies may get in -- or buy-in through mergers and acquisitions -- to this new "game" of representing the best of this huge field of high-earning, new talent versus its "employers;" the "employers" could be big businesses selling products by video on-line, newer web-based information clearing-houses, or institutions, universities, and religious organizations that may present to large numbers of people on-line by video and generate revenue based on the effectiveness of the presentation.  In doing so, Talent agencies such as The William Morris Agency could multiply in size, even evolving from large, privately-held firms to large, publicly traded companies.   

      

Usedcarsalesman also sees a couple of collateral effects potentially caused by this development: 

• Since this new class of on-camera talent will be located all over the globe, major U.S. talent agencies (once isolated in entertainment centers like LA, NYC, Memphis, Miami, London, or Paris) may expand to cities not thought of as entertainment centers.  You could soon have an office of William Morris in Cheyenne, Wyoming or Baghdad, Iraq!
• If web-cam sales professionals, for example, are represented by talent agencies, then you could see something happen that was once unthinkable: the unionization of video sales professionals in a manner similar to SAG actors or professional athletes!

In conclusion, Usedcarsalesman predicts potentially massive change and growth in the talent representation business born of global advances in telecommunications technology.  It is a change that talent agencies such as The William Morris Agency may simply not anticipate, but could gain greatly from.

Yahoo Could Do Big Things For Hollywood (continued)

Ok.  Usedcarsalesman says that Yahoo -- given its on-line audience, cash reserves and broadband holdings -- is in a good position to set up shop in Santa Monica and begin to successfully lay siege to the film and television markets that consume the "Hollywood" product. And he says that Yahoo will likely produce content and then distribute it through broadband on the web versus by film or television or DVD. 

    

But you still might ultimately end up wondering the following:  "why will Yahoo and broadband help Hollywood do more business?" Usedcarsalesman has a few answers: 

• Hollywood may do more business simply because Usedcarsalesman speculates that the global market for entertainment is willing to support a lot greater variety of programming and gaming than is currently provided;  Usedcarsalesman personally knows that he would support a greater variety and it seems that subscription-based music downloading is headed in this massive-variety direction already. Using broadband, Yahoo and others like it will simply begin to bring this "variety" to the public and "show business" -- the business of Hollywood -- will correspondingly expand.
• Usedcarsalesman says that since there are a lot of different types of users of this broadband distribution channel, there may be a corresponding variety of entertainment "demands." One could reasonably conclude that there are going to be a lot greater variety of programming available to support these "demands" and a distribution channel to provide it to them.  Producing more programming for a paying audience ultimately means more business for Hollywood, since studios and other organizations will most assuredly follow Yahoo's expansionist path.
• The broadband distribution channel can support these demands.  Unlike with satellite television, cable, broadcast or movie theaters, limits on a user's content-choice don't really exist with broadband.  The broad-band web-user makes the programming decisions, not service providers, cable companies, etc. This means the distribution channel -- the DSL/cable connection -- to the user is only occupied with what its "user" demands.  The nature of this distribution channel means that it can pull content from a nearly limitless number of computer servers hosting a correspondingly limitless variety of videos or network games. Effectively, broadband puts Hollywood to work.

This is great for the actors, writers, directors, cinematographers and production people who make the film and television. Right now, for example, only about 5% of members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) earn more than $50,000 a year from acting (with SAG, the 95/5 Rule is in effect, not the 80/20 Rule)and only a few hundred members earn the major portion of the 7 or 8 figure paychecks that the public hears about in the news. SAG is an organization with about 120,000 members, which means that only about 6,000 of its members earn 50k during any given year. The others are usually unemployed, severely underemployed, or otherwise paying rent by waiting tables.

    

Usedcarsalesman speculate that Yahoo's moves could initiate a change in Hollywood that would allow at least 20% of SAG members (hopefully 100%), up from the current 5%, to earn at least a middle-class income from acting work. He thinks the same would hold true for writers, directors or other Hollywood talent that are typically underemployed.

Note:  If Usedcarsalesman was looking for an analogy to describe Broadband/Yahoo's potential affect on Hollywood, he'd probably consider the fuel efficiency of a Toyota Prius Automobile. Just as the batteries, electric motor and regenerative braking of the Prius help it to get 2, 3, or 4x the mileage from a tank of gas versus an average car, Broadband/Yahoo will help Hollywood get 2, 3, or 4x as much business and as many employment opportunities from the current Hollywood system.

Yahoo Could Do Big Things For Hollywood

Usedcarsalesman read recently that Yahoo -- the Internet search engine company -- signed a lease for Santa Monica office-space that can accommodate up to 1000 employees. Further investigation of this matter yielded published rumors that Yahoo is looking to get into the business of video content distribution to broadband Internet users. 

            

If this true, Usedcarsalesman says, well, "Yahoo!" He thinks it's about (blankety-blank) time that a web company finally sized up broadband Internet video for what it is for its users:  low resolution, small-screen-only, cable TV, but with the potential to provide users with an almost unlimited content variety.  He thinks Hollywood needs a web company like Yahoo to show the show-business world how to use broadband to do more business, a lot more. 
                      
Yahoo isn't the first "representative" of the tech industry with a presence in Hollywood.

Paul Allen -- one of the founders of Microsoft -- uses his Vulcan Ventures company to control half the shares of Dreamworks (the Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen-founded studio).  There is also the ubiquitous presence of Apple hardware/software in every entertainment industry-related office in LA County. And companies like Pixar Animation -- another Steve Jobs company like Apple -- have greatly enhanced the quality of animated films produced in Hollywood . So, Hollywood is not totally foreign to some of the tech magnates in Northern California, Redmond Wa. or elsewhere.

            

But Yahoo looks like it is in good shape to use new technology -- Broadband for home use --to increase the number of Hollywood productions being made (much as television began to do 50 years ago).  Here's why:

• First off, Yahoo has decent resources for an Internet company founded during the 1990s: it has been fielding a growing, targeted Internet advertising business, with profits roughly doubling annually over the last 4 years; it also had about 1.5 billion in cash on hand at the end of last year (not the 38 billion Microsoft has, but not bad).
• Second, it has a large audience: Yahoo apparently handles 28% of Internet searches (forgive the 1990s expression, but "that's a lot of eyeballs," hundreds of millions of pairs, in fact);
• Third, broadband Internet has grabbed hold of the consumer market: roughly half of all home Internet users employ a broadband DSL/Cable Internet connection that can handle the download of large video files rapidly.
• Fourth, Yahoo is already in the broadband business: it acquired DSL provider SBC several years ago (Usedcarsalesman uses SBC/Yahoo DSL service).
• Fifth, Yahoo apparently sees broadband Internet the way Usedcarsalesman sees it: as a business to distribute specific video content to specific audiences worldwide.

Usedcarsalesman believes that Yahoo's general broadband strategy -- if embraced by Hollywood content producers across the board -- could double or triple (or more) the annual revenue of the entertainment industry.  So, like the title says, Yahoo could do big things for Hollywood.

The Logistics of Video Game Production Triumph Over the Logistics of Live-Action Film Production?

Usedcarsalesman had a rough concept of the logistical difficulties involved in making a major motion picture before for moved out to Los Angeles.  But his understanding of the challenges involved was refined once he was able to work on a few L.A. movie sets and gain some first-hand experience. 

         

Working as a Union Extra, Usedcarsalesman was astounded when he witnessed the production efforts needed to organize actors, crew, supplies, locations, equipment; and he was looking at just a scene shot locally in LA. When he later stopped to consider the films and TV shows with scenes that needed to be shot in remote locations (Hollywood currently, for example, has about 4 films that are being shot in Antarctica, of all places), he then recognized that productions coul become staggeringly complicated and expensive for a variety of different reasons.

Versus film and TV production, Video game production is -- logistically -- a likely a more pleasant story. Yes, it is true game designers do venture out of their "campuses" to find visual and audio influences for their projects. But when push comes to shove, imagery in a video game is not shot by crews operating film cameras and directing actors in some exotic locale, such as Sub-Saharan Africa (where you may need satellite telephones and refrigerated-food flown in from Europe). Rather, the imagery in a video games -- whether Madden 2005 or Half Life -- is generated on PCs, usually located in an office complex somewhere in California.  Sure game designers may spend a lot of nights coding, but it is done in a controlled environment.

         

To some extent, Usedcarsalesman would imagine making a highly profitable animated films, such as Finding Nemo or The Lion King, involves the same office-park logistics as making a video game (Edit July, 2007:  lately, successful films like Sin City and 300 with seemingly exotic locations have also largely been made in more logistically manageable environments like studio lots and office-parks; this could be a rising trend). 

With all of the aforementioned in mind, Usedcarsalesman asks you this:  If you were a business person looking at making a live-action film needing a variety of locations vs. making video games in an office-park and you were guaranteed to gross the same for either, which would you choose to produce? The expensive, complicated, spread-all-over-the-place live action films or the tightly controlled, locally-designed video games? Usedcarsalesman would probably go with the video games, himself.

Reality Shows: Could They Inadvertently Alter the Hollywood System?

Usedcarsalesman has seen a lot of entertainment-related reality shows lately, such as 90 Days in Hollywood and Unscripted (by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh) . Since he's living in Studio City, Ca. ad is basically surrounded by the entertainment industry on a daily basis, he can attest that said shows are pretty true-to-life. And that is a little disconcerting for him. 

You see, Usedcarsalesman traveled all the way to Los Angeles, Ca. from the Washington, D.C. metro area a couple of years ago to work on the talent-side of the entertainment industry. And until the advent of the aforementioned reality shows, he thought that you could only really know the entertainment industry by living and working in the entertainment industry. 

      

Now, however, you can see what Hollywood casting sessions, auditions, and classes are really like and what actors go through in Hollywood.  And you can do it from the comfort of your own home in Charlottesville, Va. or Bridgeport, Mass.  This has left Usedcarsalesman -- already in L.A. -- feeling like he missed an a cost-effective opportunity to "look-before-leaping" (that is, witness life in the entertainment business before actually moving to Hollywood).

                  

Lately he's been belly-aching, approaching these reality shows like the General Turgidson character approached the Russians visiting to the war room in Dr. Strangelove: "Mr. President, they'll see everything, they'll see the big board!".  However, in this case it's: "why is Hollywood doing Usedcarsalesman such a disservice and letting potential newcomers get this information that he didn't get untl he moved to L.A.?  After all, actors are supposed to come to Hollywood and learn about professional casting sessions and auditions the hard way!" 

             

Usedcarsalesman got over it pretty quickly.  But with all of the aforementioned in mind he still thinks you might want to ponder the following questions:

• With Hollywood a relatively open-book now, will greater or fewer actors undertake the pilgrimage to "Mecca" in SoCal (Hollywood)?
• Knowing how Hollywood operates, will these people even bother to leave home in the first place or will they copy the practices and behaviors they see in the entertainment-themed reality-shows and make/act in their own films?

Who knows? With all of the inside information about the entertainment industry out there now, why would an artist go to Hollywood when he could act in or direct films on his home turf, not look like too much of an amateurs thanks to exposure to entertainment-based reality television, and then submit his home-made films on-line to Hollywood decision-makers for marketing and distribution?

Enhancing the Success of Hollywood Studios in the Early 21st Century

Here's a fact: Usedcarsalesman isn't a software engineer, he can't code a networked video game and he can barely piece together the HTML for a web site.

            

Even so, personal computers are not totally foreign to him. Usedcarsalesman first used a CompuServe Bulletin Board Service on a neighborhood friend's computer in 1986, first used email at college in 1992 when Bill Clinton's campaign staff were the only people "in-the-know" enough to do so, and he was using word processors since practically the beginning of Ronald Reagan's first term. 

             

However, Usedcarsalesman has never found personal computers anything other than "complementary" to his life. They were certainly not the focus of his life and nor were they something Usedcarsalesman ever wished to program.  Usedcarsalesman happily left that work to the few, tens-of-thousands of trained persons who had the necessary knowledge and inclination. So, Personal computers? Not really Usedcarsalesman's thing.

            

Unlike personal computers, video cameras are a different story for Usedcarsalesman. They are something he has worked with in the past and thinks about regularly.   In fact, Usedcarsalesman currently thinks he can put together a high-quality movie using a $3000 "Pro-sumer" High-Definition camera, Mac video-editing software, a self-written script, and local unemployed Union Hollywood actors (using the Screen Actor's Guild's Low-Budget Contracts).  He also thinks that said video production will have the appearance of being a $5-10 million production (even $50 million if you get performances from the actors on par with the 30 million dollar salaries paid to some big-name union talent). Yet, this movie will only cost, maybe $10,000 to $20,000 to produce.
             
Hollywood could read Usedcarsalesman and say:  "This Usedcarsalesman guy is right.  You can use these new cameras and editing tools and on a $10,000 budget produce a 2-hour film that looks like it cost 5 million to make."  And then: "Hell though, if it only costs $10,000 to do something that looks that good, then everybody from Kenya to Kansas is going to be doing it.  Hollywood could lose its place as the center of the film and TV business! We need to find another entertainment business to control, one that has more barriers-to-entry.  Either that or we need to find a way to profitably "play" this pro-sumer video technology that threatens our current business.   

             

Usedcarsalesman would agree and suggests the following:

1. Partner more with the network video game makers such as Electronic Arts, Activision, etc. This will take part of Hollywood in a exciting, money-making direction that capitalizes on the young and pre-middle-age crowd. And it will allow Hollywood to come to dominate in a new entertainment field as their dominance in others may falter (like Usedcarsalesman said before, he can't program a video game; no threats from him there).
2. Take more cheap risks on these new, cheap film/tv productions. Spend a matter of a few thousand here and a few thousand there to finance the type of inexpensive "movie" Usedcarsalesman described above, one made using the new High-quality, "Pro-sumer" HD tools and the surplus of SAG actors. Sure 19 out of 20 of these productions will fail, but the one that hit will likely cover the losses (and Usedcarsalesman suspects that the ratio of successes to failures will initially be more like 1 out of 4 since this is an emerging field that will take the public by surprise).  Manage these productions to completion, slap your studio's name on them to give them legitimacy, and find a way -- while avoiding anti-trust entanglements -- to distribute these productions using on-line-ordered DVDs, through companies like NetFlix or Amazon.com, or by way of high-quality Internet downloads, cable or satellite Pay-Per-View, or Digital Distribution in traditional movie-theaters. Note: Usedcarsalesman could even see this course of action providing Hollywood Studios with an economical means to provide content that is more pleasing to audiences in politically "Red" states.

Usedcarsalesman obviously doesn't want Hollywood to discontinue traditional, big-budget film and television productions.  They are like the pyramids of Egypt -- something that are probably always going to be around. But Usedcarsalesman would submit that by diversifying more in to the two areas mentioned, Hollywood may again display its historically winning, strategic wisdom.

Hollywood on Video Games

Usedcarsalesman has lived in Hollywood, Ca. for the last year or so and, yes, he's working in entertainment production.

            

During that time, he's happened to have noticed signs of a small trend in Tinseltown: folks like actors (for voice, motion and use-of-likeness), writers, and directors are starting to lend their talents to the production of network video games.  Usedcarsalesman sees this as a smart move for them.

       

At first, though, he was a little skeptical since he wasn't sure that the network gaming could have any main-stream appeal as entertainment. And what he had seen so far hadn't appeared to main-stream.

         

For example, over the last year, Usedcarsalesman had encountered guys in the basement of an internet cafe on Sunset Blvd. wearing headsets and playing network games.  To him, it was amusing to hear these weighty 20-30+ year old dudes authoritatively command their on-line teammates in a game called Counterstrike.  These guys certainly seemed involved in what they were doing, but Usedcarsalesman had other things to do and really didn't give them much thought or pay their games any attention.

                     

However, in later, idle moments on the LA freeways, Usedcarsalesman had a chance to recall the sound of the interaction between the players of this CounterStrike game.  Their short blurts by headset to one another sounding like Colin Powell outlining a military gameplan, their occasional frantic yells, their tone always sounding as if their profanity-laden talk was more than justified by an extreme "game-situation" they were facing.

            

Frankly, it sounded like these guys were actually in some kind of Hollywood military movie!? And Usedcarsalesman research indicated that the U.S. military had long used just his type of networked simulation -- essentially a networked game -- to train pilots and tank drivers for combat.

       

Not in the military and in a fit of boredom (probably not helped at the time by the fact that the girl he was seeing moved back to Austria), Usedcarsalesman went to Fry's and dropped the cash for well-reviewed PC game called Unreal Tournament 2004 that allowed for the team-type play brought to his attention at the Blvd. Cafe.  Usedcarsalesman loaded the game and ran it on his P4 desktop with a 9800 video card and a half-way decent DSL connection (1.8 MBPS).  He then became familiar with the gameplay, bought a head-set and joined in a team-game, on-line with other UT 2004 players. 

          

His conclusion?  Yeah, maybe these games do have mainstream potential.  Video game technology -- thanks to the web, high speed residential internet connections, increasingly powerful PCs, ad PC "video cards" that practically had desk-top power in their own right --  had now apparently evolved in to something approaching real-time films or TV shows that had actors (avatars) controlled by players around the world. 

            

Since Hollywood was tradtionally about the film and TV business and the appearance and play of these video games was approaching a real-time form of interractive film and Tv, Usedcarsalesman could see why show-biz-types were looking at these networked games as serious business!

                                                                              -

After his exclamation you may be thinking:  "Gee, welcome to the world of modern video gaming, Usedcarsalesman...Video games have actually evolved quite a bit since Pong, haven't they?"

          

Usedcarsalesman would respond:  Yes, yes, he knows, but don't think he's a video game virgin.  He started fairly early in the home-gaming scene himself, receiving an Intellivision for Xmas '81 so he could play the first MLB-licensed baseball video game (even had voice simulation: "You're out!!).  And he paid attention as home-video-gaming evolved from th Atari 2600 and Intellivision in the late 70s and early 80s to basic PC, Commodore, TRS-80, Atari 400/800 games and ColecoVision, Atari 5200 and Nintendo NES domination in the mid-80s, and to the Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64 and the ascendency of FPS PC-games (with some attempts at network play over 16-56kbps modems) in the web roll-out of the 1990s.  No doubt about it, he remembers how video gaming used to be.

            

But in addition to playing and seeing local industry types get involved, Usedcarsalesman has recently seen additional hints of where video games -- modern networked video games -- appears to be headed in the future entertainment landscape.  For example, The University of Southern California (with the top film and television program in the U.S.) has started a "minor" program for students seeking to produce and program network games. Maybe the future George Lucas -- himself, a USC film and TV undergrad -- of the network gaming industry will emerge from USC thanks to this program. 

            

Usedcarsaleman now thinks that network video games are to the beginning of the 21st century and Hollywood what the first movies were in the 20th century. He expects to see major growth in the number of network game players over the next 40 years, if film/tv viewership history is any indication. And he expects to see all big-name, Hollywood talent and production-types start to get involved in the business of network video games, especially more story-driven, "mass-appeal" games that resemble a Hollywood film or TV show.