The Future of George Lucas

The Variety has a nice article on George Lucas and his altered strategy for making content. George Lucas donated $175 million to the School of Cinematic Arts at USC. While giving away more money than anyone reading this blog (myself included) will ever make he let loose his strategy for approaching the current media landscape.

"I think the secret to the future is quantity," Lucas said.

"For that same $200 million, I can make 50-60 two-hour movies. That's 120 hours as opposed to two hours. In the future market, that's where it's going to land, because it's going to be all pay-per-view and downloadable. You've got to really have a brand. You've got to have a site that has enough material on it to attract people."

Quantity IS the future. From Chris Anderson's LONGTAIL theory (netflix, amazon) to the influx of episodic content on television (lost, 24) consumers are choosing to continue the conversation with brands. Lucas believes people are flocking away from movies saying

"I don't think anything's going to be a habit anymore. I think people are going to be drawn to a certain medium in their leisure time and they're going to do it because there is a desire to do it at that particular moment in time. Everything is going to be a matter of choice. I think that's going to be a huge revolution in the industry."

In otherwords engagement is becoming niche and channels need to provide meaniful conversttions. That means speaking to consumers as they speak, in a (running) dialogue which is much easier to understand than bulletins years apart. Its also interesting to note Lucas's commitment to episodic content in that everything will be pay-per-view. Content will be zipped from the producer directly to the consumer. Brands are their own conduits. Mega studios/producers could only exist on a production scale not in terms of distribution. Take a read, its really interesting to read what this Hollywood-heavyweight has to say about his own industry and his commitment to alternative production channels.

The Force
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