Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 14, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
‘The film industry is currently undergoing its greatest upheaval since the invention of the feature-length film. Only those who accept and help shape the changes can benefit from them. The others will be left behind,’ says Don Tapscott, one of the thought leaders of the digital economy, describing the current situation. As Tapscott explained at the Berlinale Keynotes of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg http://www.medienboard.de, the forms of film production, distribution and marketing will change dramatically under the influence of the internet and the rise of the net generation. The 90-minute film currently common in cinemas will be largely displaced as the dominant format by three-minute contributions of the kind customary on video portals. These will then be watched not only on laptops but increasingly also on the smaller screens of mobile devices such as mobile phones or handhelds, Tapscott is certain.
‘Games are conquering screens, studios are going shopping in the games industry and the inernet is the new leading medium,’ explains Petra Müller, Managing Director of the Medienboard, in conversation with pressetext. Since 2006 at the latest, Web 2.0 and games have been the driving forces behind the transformation of media. ‘These two media allow users the greatest degree of interaction and are now part of most people’s everyday lives,’ Müller believes. Because of this development, cinemas face the great danger of losing their previous position in the ranking of media used. ‘Cinema must learn from other areas here, concentrate on particular niches and generally develop further as a form of experience,’ Müller summarises.
In Tapscott’s view, the future belongs above all to animated films. Some of these could be created directly in virtual worlds such as Second Life or with freely available 3D graphics programs. Such developments are already becoming apparent today and are an expression of a general rethinking of the traditional concept of intellectual-property rights in the film sector. Tapscott consequently sees cinema-ticket sales as a source of revenue that is more likely to be on the decline. To make any money at all, film will develop towards a kind of billboard for marketing ancillary rights, the Canadian thought leader is convinced.
Following last year’s premiere, thought leaders from the film and media industry discussed future issues for the film industry at the second Berlinale Keynotes. ‘We would like the festival, with the Berlin Keynotes, to open up further to representatives of other media and for the event to establish itself as a forum for innovative questions and cross-industry exchange,’ explains Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.
