According to The American College Dictionary, a
"studio" is a room or place in
which some form of art is pursued. "Virtual" means
having virtue or inherent power to produce effects. In the field of optics a virtual image is an image that is created by the convergence of light in an imaginary medium.
Bringing all these elements together, a working definition might be:
A Virtual Movie Studio is a convergence
of cyber-space and mental-space ("psyber-space") for the purpose
of creating movies that have the ability to produce virtuous
effects in space and throughout time.
6/8ths of a movie's manufacturing deals with paper-pushing and moving matter around (i.e., distribution). When movies are simply distributed over the Internet, or
through the mail as lightweight DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs), the only part of
making a movie that will be physical (and location-intensive),
will be principal photography and pickups. Thus 7/8ths of the
production of a movie will then be, in essence, the manipulation
of intellectual properties and the efficient handling of spatial
and temporal logistics -- all stuff the computer, and its
playground - the Internet - excel in.
Today's movie studios predominantly perform the functions of contractors, specialized banks/equity lenders and shipping/collection agencies -- they finance and market movies.
One of the reasons relatively the costs of production are so high is because of the confusion connected with developing, packaging, financing and distributing a motion picture. Movies are intrinsically difficult to make but by using the Internet and the power of computers to. . .
- Handle the logistics of screenplay development and
review
- Package desires and temporal logistics
- Breakdown and budgeting alternatives
- Match financial resources to appropriate projects,
and
- Deliver files containing the finished images
. . . a virtual movie studio can. . .
- Locate talent resources more quickly and efficiently
- Determine marketable packages from infinite combinations more
quickly
- Project multiple, viable budgets and pro forma financials
- Arrange financing more quickly and in step with desired risk to
reward ratios
- Create and manipulate image, partially and totally
- Distribute image
- Guarantee quick, accurate, secure and simultaneous
payment
. . . thus make movies less difficult and risky to produce. The reason for this is because the handling of paper is reduced and the processing and transferring of information is made quicker, simpler and more cost-effective.
People who need to take the life of a tree before they can read, therefore understand, therefore like a screenplay are perfect examples of how a virtual studio need not operate. 90 to 120 page, tree-based screenplays cost $5 to $10 to photocopy and another $2 to $5 to snail-mail. A virtual movie studio has all its literary properties (as well as contracts, budgets and every conceivable need and want of, not only film makers and talents, but of movie-goers, in the digital domain and non-tree-based). Thus a screenplay is simply FTPed (or e-mailed as an attached file) in the favorite word processing format of the reader. The reader reads it on his or her screen or, if absolutely necessary, prints it out on his or her laser jet printer (before lunch is over) so his or her computer-illiterate, tree-based colleagues, if any, can read it too.
An idea people are considering more and more is this: do I really even want to deal with someone that is not computer-literate to at least this degree because in about another three years - they may be out of the picture anyway unless they change.
Also out of the picture may be the Age of Net Participation and with it - most of the vagaries of computation that cause conflict and unfair repayment schedules - especially to Talent, Writers and Development Financiers (the first ones in the deal, yet the last ones to profit from the finished picture). If fewer development financiers, those gutsy, intelligent risk-taking angels, got paid at the end of the cash-flow chain, there would be more of them. Thus weird things like: writers' lives would flourish a little more and we would not have almost every movie on the planet earth coming out of the same 1,700 "proven track-record" minds that are mostly in a soup.
To the degree too many artists, and in particular writers - are all in the same geographic location or mindset - in the same soup - much of the synergy of creation may be usurped by the frustration of survival in an overly competitive, if not suppressive, environment, such as Hollywood. This = the same-old, same-old movies, sequels, repeat-team works (such as a million more train crashes), and everybody thinking the same electromagnetically-intertwined thoughts.
No wonder fresh new movies of the future will come from wide-open spaces -- or perhaps a virtual movie studio!
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