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Producers Guild of America: What Every Film, TV and New Media Producer Needs to Know about the Mobile Industry

A guy walks into a bar. It’s the old start to an older joke, but in this case the guy is comedian Jackie Gleason and his character Joe the Bartender. The camera was the POV of the person entering the bar, bellying up to it and listening to Joe the Bartender’s comic monologue. John D. Heinsen, co-chair of the Producers Guild of America’s Mobile Committee, would like to remind everyone that those very early TV screens weren’t much bigger than the size of today’s mobile screens. “Jackie Gleason invented the mobile shot,” said Heinsen–and he’s only partially kidding. “That’s what we need to find today:  that new talent, the new Jackie Gleason who will invent this experience of original content for the mobile platform.”

That was the impetus behind the PGA Mobile Committee’s event Mobile 101: What Every Film, TV and New Media Producer Needs to Know about Mobile. Co-chairs Heinsen and Derek Hildebrandt put together a session that included access to mobile industry terminology as well as a panel of mobile leaders who explained how to create, distribute and make money with mobile.

“One of the problems with the mobile space is that it’s so immature,” said Heinsen. “What we’re trying to do is encourage producers to become pro-active in the space and see how this new exciting medium will provide a new tool of reach for you and your productions.”

“It’s a world of new media and emerging platforms,” he continued. “The mobile space represents a new platform of content delivery and reach, powerful in a global scale.” Heinsen described the “global stage” of walled gardens, pointing out that “one of the things about the mobile space that’s interesting is that carriers are in a unique place.” “The carriers control everything,” he said. “You don’t produce and put it out there in the air space. The carriers dictate prices, percentages, what the content is itself.  The mobile space in 3G is like the laptop computer in 1995 when you clicked on a link and it buffered for hours.  It’s a narrow-band device. WiMax 4G will be when content will be able to flow–and there’ll be a need for that content.”

“We’re in a time of true convergence,” Heinsen continued. “That’s what’s exciting about the mobile space: storytellers and marketers will be free to convey their message across platforms. It’s a great opportunity for mobile. It’s a new medium, it’s not TV for your phone. Even though most of the content is repurposed material, it will change.”

It’s important to understand that mobile is a new medium.  “The early TV shows of The Lone Ranger are radio scripts,” Heinsen said. “Storytelling hadn’t adapted yet. Sid Caesar’s Show of Shows was an adaptation of vaudeville. In 10 years, you get to The Beverly Hillbillies and the medium found itself.”

The U.S. mobile space is big and getting bigger, with 254 million mobile subscribers, 57  percent of them data users (144 million). That represents an increase of subscribers of 28 percent between first quarter of 2007 and first quarter of 2008. Monthly unique users of the mobile internet has increased 73 percent from May 2006 to May 2008. (from 23.4 million to 40.4 million).

The mobile space, said Heinsen, has four primary roles in mass media:

Mobile as a marketing platform: Think about Moviefone. “There’ll be a digital extension so you can see the trailers on your phone, buy your tickets on your phone. People in our age/demographic find it intrusive, but the millennials don’t.”

Mobile as distribution platform: “This will become very important in terms of distributing the material we have. There are kiosks in South Korea where you can get a card for any movie you want.”

Mobile as  production platform: SMS Sugar Man is a South African film shot entirely on mobile phone. “Phones today have more memory, better batteries.  You can shoot, distribute and monetize your content.”

Mobile as a gaming-interactive platform: Heinsen reported that the first thing he did for mobile was an interactive comedy, with 20 minutes of content allowing the user to navigate the storyline in different directions. ” At the time, I was thinking that every time you clicked through the navigation, you’d have a built-in revenue stream.”

“What’s key about the mobile space is that it’ll be the new collaborations which will make the milestones,” he said. “Everyone is saying primetime TV is cycling itself out and so is the 30-second spot. They’re worlds based in fear. I always say, Where’s your ¾ inch deck? That represents the guy in the corner office used to $5 million commercial shoots for 30 second commercials. These are the challenges we have.”

New media is a unique collaboration of three things: traditional media; branded advertising and technology. “When things are immature in the mobile space, know your audience and keep the message simple,” said Heinsen, referring back to Gleason’s Joe the Bartender. “I encourage producers to educate yourself about this space so that when you’re selling your project, you become pro-active. Mobile space is very immature. There isn’t a lot of monetizing. A lot of what’s in the space now is bragging rights. The cost per minute is the way to measure it. There is no standard yet for anything. What’s exciting is if you take the time to educate yourself and be proactive, to get the content and reach, the space will mature that much quicker. That’s the mandate of our Guild committee.”

“It’s about having quality content,” he added. “And it’ll take the work of the producers to make this happen.”

Tags: 4G, emerging platforms, Jackie Gleason, making money on mobile, Mobile 101, mobile committee, mobile content, mobile distribution, mobile gaming, mobile industry, mobile marketing, mobile platform, mobile production, mobile subscribers, Monetizing Mobile, new media producer, PGA, Producers Guild of America, WiMax

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Content, Home Feature, Monetizing Mobile.