Last month, we discussed the rapid rise and
equally rapid demise of the PC CD-ROM as a
significant delivery medium for entertainment.
New genres of entertainment -- edutainment,
interactive movies, music and narrative
hybrids -- developed and opened new doors for
professional screenwriters. Those willing to
go where no writers had gone before rose to
the occasion and pushed the envelope in this
burgeoning field, contributing substantially
to commercially appealing and award-winning
projects.
But with the emergence of new entertainment
distribution systems like game consoles, the
Web, and WebTV-type set-top devices, the
playing field has once again altered
substantially. While PC CD-ROMS are still
around, their sales are dwarfed by
Playstation/Nintendo 64 titles. And let's not
even talk about the number of Internet users.
Bottom line? Eradicate PC CD-ROMs tomorrow,
and the New Media world isn't likely to change
much. Eradicate game consoles or the Internet,
and the business changes completely.
This month, we look at what lessons might be
drawn from screenwriters' experience in this
CD-ROM rollercoaster ride, and how this
hard-won knowledge can be applied to the roiling
Entertainment landscape of the next ten years.
(Keep in mind that, as we write this,
NBC has just spun off an Internet company
called NBCi,
AT&T has just bought MediaOne, and
AOL has gone into partnership with satellite
system DirecTV.)
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Lesson 1:
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Whatever writers
do, they should heed Grandma's advice and not
put all of their eggs in one basket. In New
Media, that means don't bet on one delivery
system to become dominant and stay dominant.
Recent history suggests that the churn in
delivery systems will continue to accelerate.
Just take a look at the progression: broadcast
television transformed the business; videotape
and cable transmission transformed the
business a second time; video-on-demand, the
Internet and media convergence are going to do
it again. Exactly how
is anybody's guess, but the business is going
to look very different in the next millennium.
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Lesson 2:
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New Media
companies have not automatically gone to WGA
writers for the development and execution of
entertainment content. Historically, if a new
TV network or studio came onto the scene (UPN
or Miramax, for example), the content
producers, who are MBA signatories, turned to
professional screenwriters. But this mechanism
has not been established for the
AOLs,
Eidos Interactives, and
Sony Online Entertainments
(see our recent column on
online gameshows). So what?
Ask this same question after AOL
buys CBS and Microsoft buys NBC (both have
been rumored acquisitions within the past few
months, and the fact that the rumors were
taken seriously should tell you something).
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Lesson 3:
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As always,
writers who want to chart New Media waters
need to convince New Media companies that they
have the necessary tools for developing and
executing next-generation entertainment
content. Try calling the big Internet content
companies that have just hit the market with
record-setting IPOs and see if they'll even
tell you what they pay writers. Can anyone say
"rude"? Let's face it, playwrights
who came to Hollywood in the '20s and '30s had
to develop new skill sets, and comedy
screenwriters went to work retooling their
dialog and slapstick gifts for the emergent
form of the TV sitcom. Does it really make
sense to think that screenwriters no longer
have to evolve?
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Revision 3.1:
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While Hollywood
languishes in the regurgitation of the past,
game developers are operating in a Golden Age
of Creativity. Increasingly, Hollywood draws
from these titles for movies after a franchise
has flowered.
Final Fantasy,
Tomb Raider and
Duke Nukem
are just a few in development or nearing
release dates. It's vital that screenwriters
participate in this emerging entertainment
form, but they're going to have to fight for a
place at the table, because...
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There is no
obvious pipeline to New Media companies. Which
leads us to...
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Lesson 4:
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The current
infrastructure that Hollywood understands and
thrives in happily -- agents, producers,
creative execs -- has been of little or no
value in the interactive world. Ultimately,
this is both a plus and a minus.
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To use a gaming
metaphor: since there aren't any guards at the
gates (because the gates haven't been built
yet!), you no longer have to waste energy
getting past them. But now you have a new
problem: what you're
really
trying to do is find the palace, which is
constantly shifting around and morphing shape.
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In other words,
writers cannot rely on middlemen like agents
and managers to connect them with producers.
The money's not big enough for middlemen to
pay attention to currently; in addition, few
agents or managers can generate an entirely
new set of contacts and relationships as fast
as the playing field is changing. So, writers
are going to have to ply their own wares -- a
daunting challenge to the secluded yet secure
screenwriter.
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Let us
reminisce. Oh, if only we had the good old
days... when there were just a handful of
studios and three networks. Now, back to
reality. In New Media today, there are
hundreds of companies developing entertainment
and quasi-entertainment content. And they
don't all lunch at The Ivy...
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Lesson 5:
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Finally, as a
previous column has explored
(
April 1998: Charting a New Frontier),
some writers are taking matters into their
own hands and starting their own New Media
shops. Not a bad idea if you've got the chops.
The writer-as-entrepreneur has begun to
emerge. Some young writers are performing work
for New Media companies in exchange for
"sweat equity" or stock options. For
twenty-somethings in Silicon Valley,
Multimedia Gulch and Silicon Alley -- who have
known only a rising stock market -- this is
far better compensation than working for
contract wages and P&H (pension and health
benefits).
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Thus, the new
world of New Media challenges the writer-for-
hire economic model, just as the evolving
nature of television economics (with its elite
writer-producers) does. Will the
Writers Guild
respond quickly enough to these changes to
continue to remain of benefit to
screenwriters? Or will it slip gradually into
irrelevance?
Hey, nobody said the new millennium was going
to be easy, you know?
For fledgling writers looking to break into
Entertainment, the news is good: new
opportunities are out there, and the rules
aren't established yet. For professional
screenwriters looking ahead to the next 10 and
15 years of their careers, the challenge is
staying nimble enough to adapt to the New
World Order...
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