In The Cloud: Your Film in a Post-Ownership World
We are in the early stages of a massive paradigm shift that will forever change people's attitudes towards “consuming” film and TV. With shelves of books, video and music reincarnated in the Cloud, opportunities for indies are rapidly changing. A $10 gross profit on a DVD is now a nickel for a stream. The proliferation of digital platforms--with Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Netflix leading the charge--calls for nimbleness, flexibility and DIY savvy. These skills are old-hat to the indie producer. And as we know, connecting social media between your film and its audience is key. New Video moderates a panel of filmmakers and technology experts who will share their vision of the future, critical insights on new trends, and concrete strategies for survival in a post-ownership world. Specializing in indie, documentary and art house films, New Video distributes across streaming, downloading and cable VOD platforms and hard goods to a broad spectrum of stores and platforms.
Presenters
As Co-President of New Video with partner, Steve Savage, Susan Margolin leads one of North America’s largest home entertainment distributors.
Susan has built a reputation for sales and marketing prowess on over 25 years of experience in the distribution business. In 1991, she launched New Video as an independent home entertainment distributor with Savage. Today, New Video boasts more than 500 content partners, including A+E®, HISTORY™, Lifetime, Tribeca Films, Sundance Institute, Major League Baseball® and Scholastic®. The company has grown from a highly regarded home entertainment distribution company of quality packaged content to a worldwide content aggregator and distributor of feature films, TV programs and series, and web originals via digital download, streaming media, cable VOD, Blu-ray and DVD, and limited theatrical release.
Susan is known in the industry for her dedicated support of filmmakers and the independent film community. Since launching New Video’s Docurama Films® in 1999, she has championed more than 300 celebrated, award-winning non-fiction films, from D.A. Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back to Danfung Dennis’s critically acclaimed Hell and Back Again, releasing in theaters and across VOD, digital and DVD. Flatiron Film Company was launched in 2011 as a brand for original web series and narrative indies, including the theatrical, VOD, digital and DVD release of Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. She has spearheaded numerous indie and festival titles and brought them to a wider ancillary and digital market, including the Oscar®-nominated films Waste Land, GasLand and Restrepo. In 2011, New Video signed on as Sundance Institute’s exclusive digital content aggregation partner for Sundance Film Festival and Lab titles, providing a unique gateway to digital distribution that emphasizes filmmaker ownership.
With Savage, Susan is among this year’s “Digital 25: Leaders in Emerging Entertainment” honorees, an annual award given by the Producers Guild of America. A graduate of Brown University, Margolin is a board member of BAFTA NY and is a member of IFP and New York Women in Film and Television, where she serves on the advisory board.
Shawn is the Founder and CEO of Prescreen, and an angel investor focused on social commerce and new media platforms. Before relocating to San Francisco, Shawn was a Principal at Chicago-based Lightbank, an early stage, technology venture fund focused on applying technology to fragmented industries. Prior to Lightbank, he was VP of Business Development at online collective buying pioneer Groupon. In September 2008, Shawn joined ThePoint.com as VP of Business Development where he was instrumental in transforming the collective action platform ThePoint into Groupon as we know it today. In 2007, Shawn founded CapAlly - an online peer to peer student loan marketplace and social network.
Before getting involved in the start-up world, Shawn was an asset manager for Black Diamond Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar alternative asset management firm. Shawn started his career as a trader for TransMarket Group, where he traded a diverse portfolio of financial products on multiple global exchanges including the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, EUREX, and LIFFE. Shawn holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University.
Jonathan Zepp currently drives strategic content partnership efforts for Google's transactional movie service (available via YouTube and the Android Market) and is involved in the company's various other film & TV initiatives.
Jon previously held key digital entertainment roles at Sony Network Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and Napster, after having started his career as a lawyer at Latham & Watkins.
Jon graduated from Boston University Law and split his undergraduate time between the University of Kentucky and The City University of New York, Baruch College.
Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, founder of The Webby Awards and co-founded the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Tiffany’s work as a filmmaker, technologist and activist have received 48 awards and distinctions for her work and her last four films premiered at Sundance. She is known for her ground-breaking work using documentaries and new technologies to make social change. Her award-winning new feature documentary “Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology will have it’s theatrical release around the country this fall. A celebrated thinker and speaker, she has advised Secretary of State Clinton, is on the advisory board of M.I.T.’s Geospatial Lab and presented the 2010 campus-wide Commencement Address at University of California, Berkeley. www.connectedthefilm.com, www.tiffanyshlain.com twitter @tiffanyshlain
Dan joined IHS Screen Digest in 2004 and played a key role in the development of the company’s digital media coverage. As head of IHS Screen Digest’s Broadband department he specialises in online content and the technical issues surrounding the distribution of digital entertainment.
As part of IHS Screen Digest's broadband team, Dan led the development of the forecasting models used in the online Broadband Intelligence service including online movies, TV, music and user generated content. He has also been involved in a wide range of consultancy projects for clients including national broadcasters and the European Commission, and is a regular speaker about the online content business at international conferences.
Dan also oversees all IHS Screen Digest's music coverage, having been involved in the music business since 1997. He has written a number of IHS Screen Digest reports including ‘Online Music: Market Assessment and Forecasts’ and ‘Broadband Digital Movies: European market assessment and forecasts’. He has spoken at international conferences on a variety of subjects including IPTV and digital content.
Dan has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Philosophy from University College London and is the author of a couple of books; Introducing Logic (2002) and Introducing Capitalism (2009) which have been translated into several languages.
Dan can provide comment and insight to the media on the following areas:
• Forecasting models in the digital distribution of movies, music, TV and user-generated content
• Online Music: strategies of major record labels, revenues, forecasts and rights
• Online videos: rights, revenues, key players of the market and forecasts
• Online movies: strategies of key broadcasters, market analysis, revenues and forecasts of consumer spending.
Contact details
dan.cryan@screendigest.com
Sunday, March 11
