The future of music is the future of movies is the future of technology, and that's what's so awesome about the first day of BABC 2007:
http://babc2007.com/content.asp?pageid=85
• California and the U.K.; Connecting the Centers of Creativity
• The Future of the Internet.
• The Future of the Music Industry.
• Reel Trends in the Virtual World
• The Future of Film and Television.
• Lunchtime Keynote Speaker.
• The Future of Telecommunications.
• The Future of Retailing.
• The Future of Advertising.
• Growth Investments in New and Emerging Media.
• The Future of Sports.
• Gala Evening Event
As I listened to the song "God Bless John Wayne" sung by Wayne's grandaughter Jennifer--who just signed with BMI in Nashville and will soon be facing all the DRM issues recording artists face--I realized there's a lot of money to be made in studying Epic Story and the Classic Western.
In approaching tomorrow's DRM systems, we would be wise to begin by watching Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars, where Clint Eastwood rides into town to find two warring bosses, whereupon he says, "That crazy bellringer was right--there's money to be made in a place like this."
The field is wide open when it comes to creating tomorrow's distribution systems, so come hear Simon Wright--the Chief Executive Officer for Virgin Entertainment Group International, and Jay Quatrini, Esq., Partner, Davenport Lyons - Music & Entertainment discuss The Future of the Music Industry.
The same classical values guiding the rising artistic renaissance will protect the artists' intellectual property. The immortal ideals which guide the story of blockbuster books and movies such as The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Star Wars (all classic Westerns with the epic showdown at the end), are the very same ideals underlying the United States Constitution. These classic ideals--which pervade Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, and the Bible--are the source of both epic story and property rights, of law and business, of academia and civilization.
There are billions of dollars to be made in reviving the Epic, and not just in movies. The next generation of technological innovations, which allow artists to protect and profit from their creations, will be of epic proportions; for the greater glory of the internet has yet to be realized. The rising generation is longing for epics of its own, as demonstrated with the recent success of 300 at the boxoffice. My students love The Odyssey, as they read it beside John Bogle's--the founder and former CEO of Vangurd--Battle for The Soul of Capitalism, and those movies which throw the classical ideals up upon the silver screen in the contemporary language shall be great long-term investments.
So come join Dean Garfield, Executive Vice President, Business Development, Motion Picture Association of America and Claus Nehmzow, PA Consulting Group, as they discuss The Future of Film.
Opportunities abound for all, and it sometimes seems that billions are being left on the table in the realm of story and technology. The question "What ever happened to the Western?" came up this past weekend on a panel entitled Wayne and the Western, which included Brit Eddie Stacey--stunt coordinator and second unit director (Gladiator, Batman, The Last King of Scotland) who'd worked with John Wayne in Ireland and England--and A.C. Lyles (American Masters: Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer, Johnny Reno, The Making of 'Sunset Boulevard').
Well, a few reasons for the demise of the Western were discussed:
1) nobody's writing good Westerns anymore--neither novels nor screenplays
2) good vs. evil, and thus the final showdown, are out of vogue--and without the showdown. . .
3) the kids are all playing video games these days
4) it's hard to picture Orlando Bloom or Toby McGuire leading a cavalry charge
5) everyone's just remaking remakes, as they consider it to be less risky. But in art, taking no risks is the greatest risk of all.
And perhaps these reasons explain why the entire boxoffice is in decline.
Winston Churchill said, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty," and thus opportunity abounds.
Imagine the John Wayne video game. Imagine classical westerns shot in the contemporary context. Fistful of Dollars, which was shot for less than $200,000 in Spain, and which launched Clint Eastwood as an international star, reinvented the genre; and right now some indie filmmaker is likely reinventing the genre with a no-name star--some "Man with no name" who will claim the renaisance's fame. John Fords and Sergio Leones--the world awaits you, along with Louis L'Amours, J.R.R. Tolkiens, and Larry McMurtry's. The pen is mightier than the sword, and in the beginning there was the word.
As sure as The Odyssey--replete with the first showdown in all of Western literature--has lasted 2800 years, the Western will never be out of date.
The Odyssey is a story about forgoing the short-term temptations of the Sirens and Lotus Eaters to make on home. It's a love story--about returning on home to faithful Penelope after twenty years of fighting for one's country. And it's a story about property rights--about rightfully reclaiming that which ones owns--one's home.
Any DRM system or movie which harbors the Odyssey's ideals, and which grants them to their rightful owner--the artists/creators--shall rock the world.
Opportunity abounds. Come join us to discuss this future.
Jennifer Wayne & Dr. E
