"Myspace" The Movie and "The Long tail"

The NYTimes has an interesting article, Hollywood Clicks on the Work of Web Auteurs.

As the title implies, Hollywood is trying to find leverage on the net. One recent "web auteur" hit was, "Myspace, The Movie".

Even more interesting is how New Line Cinema incorporated some ideas in one of their new releases from fans on the net.

"Yet Web users have already shown that they can bend a movie to their tastes. The most obvious instance has been New Line Cinema’s coming film “Snakes on a Plane,” which was the subject of endless Internet interest, mostly spoofing the title and its self-evident premise. New Line decided to play to this
audience by incorporating some of its ideas, requiring a week of reshoots and a change in ratings from PG-13 to R.

“We really got to service the fans,” said “Snakes” director David Ellis. “Decisions
are usually made by guys 50, 60 years old. They only know during test screenings. If you can get it out early, you can deliver what they want.”"

The article mentions that, "...what makes the Web attractive is that there are no gatekeepers — managers, agents, studio executives, or film-festival programmers — to get past."

This is simply not true. Practically all of the aggregator or social network type of sites have rating systems and stats available. Anyone can vote! Now there are new gate keepers, intermediaries, that lead to the long tail.

"The Long Tail and the Structure of the Media Industry", by John Hagel, Edgeperspective.

Mr. Hagel reviews, Chris Anderson’s book The Long Tail. "While more and more media businesses have become blockbuster-driven over the past century, three forces are working to increase the economic and cultural importance of the “long tail” – the growing
abundance of products that individually sell in small numbers but that, in aggregate, account for substantial consumption.  These three forces are:

• Democratizing of the tools of production

• Democratizing distribution
• Connecting supply and demand

Bottom line, the dynamics of the long tail (combined with other factors) will lead to a profound restructuring of the media industry. In contrast with many others who believe that the long tail will lead to fragmentation, I see the potential for concentration and consolidation of focused infrastructure management and customer relationship businesses. I also see an opportunity to build much more powerful brands in the media business. While there are early leaders in this effort, we are still very much in the early innings with lots of opportunities for new players to emerge and create significant economic value. Current leaders risk significant value destruction if they don't rapidly adapt to the changing rules of the game."