Ah, the windfall of public speaking. My two stop tour of Sydney & Auckland generated a lot of material. I did a handful of interviews with some very knowledgeable journalists/filmmakers. They have been coming to print and pixel. I spoke to Fiona Milburn from Transmedia NZ for the big idea on several subjects. You can read the whole article here. Amongst the questions I was asked about collaboration:
The key to collaboration is: the acknowledgement of what you don’t know; respect for the experience and contributions of others; and a general level of openness and discovery. I don’t think that changes. It is still at the core of everything. However, what is exciting is the move away from geo-location based collaboration. You no longer need to gather in the same spot.
Traditional collaboration was certainly very fruitful, but we now have tools that allow for different ways of working. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the first time I was aware of work done in a decentralised manner. Due to differing time zones, the film had teams of people working on VFX 24/7 around the globe. And, the visual effects coordination involved somebody working with these globally diverse, individual teams of contractors. Now this form of collaboration is accessible to all of us.
One of the difficulties with these new forms of creating and consuming is that, until they’ve seen it done, many people don’t know how to do it. Thus, when somebody “gets it,” they feel like a pioneer. And, they’re easy to recognise. The history of pioneers tells us that they’re the ones with arrows and swords in their back.
Currently, the folks who’ve done well in film are those who’ve lived through the period of capital intensive creation. It’s a different era now, but our experts, the people who have delivered the current proof of principle, are used to working in that format. It’s the new creators who will be the new leaders and thinkers. They are going to be pioneers and, unfortunately, some of them will be sacrificed.
There’s a lot more in the article on story world building, transmedia, and finding a new way forward. Read it: http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/news/blogs/transit/121245-a-new-way-forward-for-cinema
