Hello, MovieBox
As you may well know recently NYU kids have gotten a lot of press. There was that kid that lived in the library and then got free housing, the rich kid who sold pot and other things she found in her medicine cabinet, there were the kids that run around washington square park pretending that they’re Pac-Man for no apparent reason, and let us not forget NYU’s most famous future NYU kids who are currently every creepy old man’s dames-du-jour. Well I go to NYU and I want some free press too, dammit. Of course not being a jailbait starlet, an anthropomorphic 80’s video game character, a drug dealer, or homeless (I am a film student, though, so I am working on homelessness) I would seem to have a limited appeal to the world at large. That may all be true, but I have a tremendous imagination and an idea to share with you that will stir the blood of movie fans, anti-RIAA/MPAA types, gadget heads, and my imaginary nemesis Dr. Gigglestein alike. You want in?
Geoff Ross says, “Hello ladies."
The Problem
Anyone who has ever touched a computer knows this universal truth: it is already obsolete. The wheels of technological progress steam ahead at a rate that simply boggles the mind and empties the wallet. What is fast today will be glacial in speed tomorrow. Internet connections will get faster, hard drives will get bigger, and porn will become so advanced it will arrive before you even know you need it (kinds of like spam, but...umm...futuristic). The music industry already has the bruises from such advances (MP3s anyone?) and is very slowly learning to the change in face of new consumer behavior.
The film industry, however, is sitting on its laurels. Sure, sure they’ll launch a lawsuit at someone every now and then, but that isn’t what I’m talking about. The film industry is doing nothing to meet the coming change in how their consumers want their content: digitally. Much like the music industry before them the film industry views the casual file-sharer as the enemy. What the film industry is ignoring is that despite the fact that these average would-be movie-goers are indeed stealing content they still have an insatiable appetite for the content the film industry, in fact, produces. The studios, the producers, and even the artists themselves have failed to capitalize on this very fact. So the real question is what solution for the future of content distribution would make the lives of the MPAA’s bed buddies easier and still please consumers at large?
That is the question your good buddy Geoff Ross is here to answer...and it doesn’t involve suing your customers.
The Solution
Suing your customers. Oh, wait, no that’s not it.
When you go to see a motion picture you just go to your local GigaCinemaPlex, give them $7 (or $10.25 if you live in New York like me), get some popcorn or deep-fried cheese-covered chocolate, watch the movie, and go home. How many times have you seen or heard an ad for a movie that mildly piqued your interest, but you didn’t want to bother with the hassle of going to the movie theater let alone the hassle of cleaning up after two hours of chewing on deep-fried cheese-covered chocolate?
With a successful digital distribution system at your fingertips you may just change your mind. For less than what you pay to see a movie in a theater today you could see that same film in the comfort of your own home. Plus you could keep the film and watch it any time you want.
“How, Geoff, how?!?!?”
I submit for your approval: The MovieBox!
Note: This image is for illustrative purposes only. Don’t hurt me Steve Jobs!
The Consumer Experience
As you can see above I just photoshopped an iTunes Music Store screenshot for my non-existent MovieBox product. Considering the fact that said interface was recently patented unless the MovieBox developer happens to be Apple Computer, Inc. the actual MovieBox would look nothing like the above.
Disclaimer aside, MovieBox would have the simplicity of a search engine with the intelligence of Tivo or Amazon.com’s recommendation system.
Do you remember that movie about the guy who plays a videogame and then goes into space and saves the universe? Well MovieBox does. In mere minutes you can be watching The Last Starfighter in all of its 80s sci-fi glory.
Afraid the showing of The Day After Tomorrow will sell out? No worries, my friend. The second 20th Century Fox releases the movie you can be watching it in your living room.
Want to take your movie with you? Just put it onto your MovieBox Portable or burn yourself a DVD.
You only like Martin Scorsese films? You can search MovieBox by title, genre, writer, director, actor, etc. Let it learn your likes and dislikes and it will tell you when the next Scorsese picture is available.
MovieBox can even tell you what the critics think utilizing a system much like Metacritic (If not Metacritic itself) to present a film’s rating as an easily understood number with the option of seeing the reviews for yourself. MovieBox has a user rating system based on a star rating that you give to movies. In addition to an overall rating you have the option of giving more detailed star ratings such as that for acting or story. This information is stored and used to recommend various films for you. Also MovieBox keeps track of any viewing patterns you may have (favorite genres, favorite directors, etc?) and recommends movies accordingly.
A MovieBox system could easily be adapted to the world of television. As great as Tivo may be it isn’t without its flaws. What if you wanted to watch an episode of your favorite show...from 1977. Unless it gets rebroadcast you are basically out of luck. However the theoretical MovieBox would have the entire ABC television library on file and available at all times. So now you can watch Three’s Company all day every day.
MovieBox offers several payment options. Not only can you buy individual movies, but you can also subscribe to a particular studio that you like, or to MovieBox as a whole and have free reign on your film selections. The choice is yours!
"Well that sounds cool, but how in God’s name would the thing work?"
Good question, Theoretical Reader. I’ve got answers for you...more than you’d probably like.
The Software
The MovieBox software is illustrated as a Mac OS X product largely because that is my operating system of choice, but there is no reason why it couldn’t work on Windows or various Linux clients...in fact it should work on as many operating systems as the development budget allows simply because the larger the audience the better the revenue.
The actual movie files are imagined to be an open standard MPEG-4 file with an audio component such as AAC. The software would also have a virtual surround sound component for users with stereo speakers. Like Dolby’s Virtual speakers or SRS labs’ Circle Surround technology.
File transfers will be done over a distributed network such as the kind Akamai offers. In addition such file transfers would have a Bit Torrent-like component. That way movies that are in particular high demand would be even faster downloads.
Each movie file is registered to a particular user. That way you can watch your movie as many times as you like and burn DVDs of it, but are still prevented from giving it away for free and are much more easily tracked if you try to pirate your goods on the streets of New York.
The Hardware
Obviously not everyone is going to want to watch movies on their computer screens...especially when they have that shiny new entertainment system in the living room. The MovieBox Portable is designed to answer this problem and more.
About the size of a portable video game system the MovieBox Portable would have an OLED screen some 6 inches wide and 3.375 inches tall, a large hard drive, a headphone jack, a dock connector, a virtual surround sound switch, and a Firewire 800 port to connect to your fancypants new computer of the future.
Its dock is what connects to your home entertainment system. It too has a firewire port, but in addition to that it will also have the FireWireless thing that was announced recently, your standard RCA-style composite video ports, component video ports, s-video out, Optical-out for your dolby digital sound, and hopefully only one port for HDTVs...assuming they ever agree on a standard. All you have to do is put your MovieBox Portable into the dock and Bam! movie time for the family.
The Studios
Currently film studios spend millions of dollars making thousands of film prints to be sent to theaters coast-to-coast and everywhere in between. With MovieBox an individual studio could get one of their unpaid interns (me) to securely upload their movie to the MovieBox servers and suddenly everyone on planet Earth with MovieBox on their machine could watch your latest magnum opus. Lets take a peek at such a distribution system with a theoretical movie studio known as The Geoff Ross Movietorium.
The Geoff Ross Movietorium’s disgruntled intern presses ‘send’ --> Movie along with it’s accompanying press material arrives at the MovieBox servers --> a disgruntled Movie Box intern makes sure the files are in order --> Movie is released --> millions of adoring fans!
Ah, the sweet taste of success!
The money for said films is determined by several different methods. If the user was a full MovieBox subscriber the studio gets a cut of that subscriber money proportional to that individual film’s popularity amongst full MovieBox subscribers. If the user was a subscriber to said studio the individual movie gets a cut of that subscriber money proportional to the popularity of other films in said studio. If the subscriber bought the film individually then the money goes right to the account for said movie. Of course each of the methods contains a fee to MovieBox.
The Movie Theaters
Let’s say that you just happen to be Johnny McTheaterowner. This whole MovieBox business sounds like it may hurt your business. Don’t fret, my oddly named friend, I’ve thought about you too.
Not everyone is going to want to watch their first-run movies on their computer or even in their living room. These people enjoy the theater-going experience. Well MovieBox has an answer for them too. You, Johnny McTheaterowner, just need a digital projector, a hard drive, and a connection to the exhibitor’s version of MovieBox. The studio sends you the movie digitally and you start selling tickets for your screenings.
The Geoff Ross Movietorium’s disgruntled intern presses ‘send’ --> Movie arrives at the MovieBox servers and is automatically sent to the theaters selected for release --> movie arrives at Johnny McTheaterowner’s Filmtasia Cinema 9 --> millions of adoring fans!
Yes!
The Filmmakers
You thought I forgot about you? No way, Buttercup! Since I consider myself a filmmaker I have a plan for you too. You get your very own filmmakers edition of MovieBox. In addition to the normal MovieBox features the filmmaker version allows you to self-publish your movies. You pay a publishing fee every year per movie and MovieBox hosts it. On every sale MovieBox takes a cut and you get the rest.
Geoff Ross the disgruntled filmmaker presses ‘send’ --> Movie along with its accompanying press materials arrives at the Movie Box servers --> Movie is released --> Geoff tells his mom about it --> Geoff makes one sale --> Geoff decides to do a better job advertising his movie --> Geoff makes millions of sales! --> ADORING FANS!!!
The hurdles and conclusions
Like all ambitious plans mine has quite a few problems to overcome. It would cost millions of dollars in software/hardware development and network infrastructure to get my proposed system running...an event that could take years. For success to be guaranteed it is imperative to get the major film (and hopefully television) studios on board...a group which is notoriously tech-weary. A reasonable per movie and various subscription costs would need to be figured out. The exact revenue distribution between MovieBox, the studios, the movie theaters, and the filmmakers themselves would need to be hashed out...of course that’s what accountants are for.
But the question isn’t if such a system could be made rather when will such a system be made.
The market for a product like MovieBox (if not MovieBox itself) is too ripe to be ignored. Studio’s get an easier distribution chain and a more accurate read on who is actually seeing their movies, movie-goers get any movie they want any time they want, and artists get a chance to reach a larger audience for their strange film about monkey nurses in World War 1 which would otherwise fade into obscurity. Everybody wins! Except for film labs...they don’t win.
So if you happen to be a venture capital firm, a billion dollar company, or a billion dollar person looking for the next big thing I have already done the first step for you. If you make a MovieBox-like product drop me a line because I’d definitely like to hear about. Better yet drop me a line if you want to hire me to work on a MovieBox-like effort. Lord knows I could use the money seeing as I am currently unemployed (aka film student) and slowly working my way towards homelessness.
Then again I could always move into the library.
[shameless self-promotion]
p.s. If any of you out there a film festival directors I have some shorts I’d like you to see. Among them is Singularity which recently screened at Arlene’s Picture Show here in New York city and is scheduled to screen on June 7th at the Vienna Independent Shorts festival in Vienna, Austria. Drop me a line.
[/end shameless self-promotion]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
