Backyard Filmmakers Are Hollywood's Greatest Fear: Glenn Reynolds

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KEYWORDS

• filmmaking
• digital
• Glenn Reynolds

Hollywood is in a panic over digital entertainment on the Internet. With a host of lawsuits and regulatory actions--from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the Grokster case--movie studios are doing everything they can to shut down file sharing. They say they're fighting piracy. But Hollywood has more to fear than pirates: you.

I think the entertainment industry is scared to death of amateur content, and wants to make life difficult for amateurs and alternative distribution networks. That's because technology poses a threat that the studios don't know how to handle.

Producing a film or a record once took rooms of expensive equipment and armies of technicians. Getting the finished product to the public required billions of dollars in infrastructure--theaters, stores, radio and TV stations. Now you can make a movie or an album at home, cheaply. I know--I've done both. As for distribution? Just hit Enter.

My wife is a filmmaker. Her latest film, which cost about $25,000 to produce, would have cost close to $1 million two decades ago. She shot it with inexpensive digital cameras, edited it with Apple's Final Cut Pro, and released it on the Web, where it has sold quite well. Her movie has been screened in theaters, and excerpts have run on network television. And it was made with gear most anyone can afford.

Going further, I produced a 30-second TV ad spot (mocking political candidate ads on MTV's "Rock the Vote") using the video function of my digital still camera. I posted it on my Web site and got nearly 200,000 downloads within a few days. Later, I made a 15-minute documentary the same way: I had it shot, edited and on the Web within a weekend.

I also master music CDs--on my computer. My brother and I run a small record label, for peanuts, producing and distributing music for our bands and those of our friends. We record in my brother's basement on a few thousand dollars' worth of equipment. Another brother has a band, Copper, that shot a music video and posted it on the band's Web site. It quickly generated tens of thousands of downloads. Copper streams its music, promotes its shows and sells its CDs on its site, too. Sure, the band would be willing to sign with a big record company, but it's doing far better on its own than it could have a decade ago.

We may be bigger media geeks than most, but there's nothing special about my family--we're doing the same thing as millions of other Americans. According to analyst Chris Chute of IDC, a market research firm, sales of camcorders and editing software have exploded: 4.7 million digital camcorders were sold in the United States in 2004, and 11 million units were sold worldwide. The latest trend is toward high-definition cameras. Sony's HDR-FX1, which sells for $3700, is as popular with pros as it is with amateurs.

For the past hundred years, the major entertainment companies have controlled the means of producing movies and records--there's a reason why the shorthand for their business is "the studios"--but now everyone can afford the equipment. That means the entertainment industry has to rely on its talent base and, judging by recent releases, it doesn't have a monopoly on talent.