There’s been more chatter about The Death Of The Book, than there has been about even The Death Of Film, yet the book has proven to be pretty damn resilant as it morphs into new forms. We can only hope that film follows suit. The LA Times had a nice overview on the opportunities that digital offers over print, and vice versa. It can’t help prod you a bit to answer what can be analogous in the film space to some of the innovative solutions both sides of the publishing world that the film biz can mimic and expand upon.
Publishing also shares many of the vulnerabilities that film does, and one quite a bit more so. As piracy decimated the music biz (with quite a bit of help from an arrogant corporate attitude), electronic publishing is threatened by a similar threat. Bob Stein, founder of the Criterion Collection, sees a possible salvation in “social reading”. In much the same way that I’ve discussed the need to harness film’s power as a community organizing tool in order to return some value to the theatrical experience. Similarly, “social viewing” offers an opportunity to take a solitary online experience into something far more social, and thus, ultimately unique, and perhaps lucrative.
There’s certainly a lot more to be read, said, and shared on the subject.
