Case study – Scorched, Firelight Productions

[http://www.firelight.com.au]

Where did the initial impetus for your project come from?

It was an original concept by Ellenor Cox and Marcus Gillezeau. At the time, Sydney had only 80 weeks of water left in its dams, so we asked ‘what would happen if Sydney ran out of water and was surrounded by bushfires?’

Did you approach the story element of the project differently due to the digital nature of the medium?

Yes. The approach is very different in so far as you are aware that the audience is going to be watching, experiencing and consuming the story in different environments (the bus, the office, etc.) and on different screens (phone, computer, TV). The story can also be explored from many different perspectives as it is told across five or six websites and numerous third party social networking sites.

What is different about developing products across multiple-media platforms?

Developing a story that can work across multiple platforms requires a lot of attention to how people consume and engage with stories on the different platforms. How will someone experience the video or website using an iPhone on a bus? If they plug their iPhone in to their TV once they get home, what will the experience be like then? There is also a range of issues related to the length of webisodes, whether it is fiction or nonfiction. You also have to take in to account the kind of budget you might be able to realistically raise from each of the platforms. Commercial TV will pay a lot for a one-hour drama (up to $500,000 pre-sale). Web portals will most likely pay nothing for your content so you have to find other ways to raise a budget such as an advance on advertising revenue share.

Did you undertake business planning/develop a business case for your project? Did this help?

Sort of. We did approach the financing of the project differently to the standard government funding/TV network/distributor route. As the telemovie is to be broadcast on Channel 9, we attempted to get support from ninemsn (where the ‘Scorched’ website will be co-located as part of the broadcast deal). We had expected that since we were providing a significant amount of high-quality video content that ninemsn would pay an advance or pre-sale for that content, however they were only willing to provide internal in-kind support through advertising of the Scorched website (which they placed a value on). Ninemsn were not able to serve the media (video content) related to the online product and wanted to retain 100% of the ad revenue from our site, even when we were responsible for raising the revenue. When we were unable to keep the site on ninemsn due to these factors, we had to find money to pay for hosting and streaming on another site. Frustratingly, despite the telemovie being shown on Channel 9, they also seemed reluctant to publicise the Scorched telemovie – leading to more costs for us.

We have learnt a huge amount about how we would approach financing projects like Scorched in the future. The main one being that we have to convince the financing agencies, broadcasters and particularly the MEAA (Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance Trades Union) to be more flexible about how we can monetise the proposition.

Describe the business models (revenue sources) that apply to your project. How were these selected?

The telemovie will be sold in the international market place through the distributors Granada International . We have been able to negotiate with the company doing the video streaming that the site be geoblocked [access is restricted to internet addresses originating from a specifically geographic region] to Australia and ungeoblocked on a country-by-country basis. This is a significant breakthrough for the monetisation of websites that are augmenting a heritage media product such as a telemovie. This is because the website, like the telemovie, can be sold as a premiere screening in other countries which increases its value.

What is the importance of the international community to your work? Is Australia too small a base or do you think companies can be successful working just in Australia?

The international community is crucial to our work but there is still some resistance to funding new media projects to the same levels that networks fund TV. However, that will change rapidly over the coming 12 months, especially since the merging of the AFC, FFC and Film Australia into Screen Australia. That merger will mean a more coordinated approach to financing new media should develop. What will be crucial is that Screen Australia develops funding policies that are flexible, and recognise that there are no strict formulae to how project finance structures might work.

What is a valuable thing you discovered whilst working in the digital content industry that you didn’t know before?

If you are going to produce content for the internet, you need to develop an entirely new set of skills and knowledge that relate to the delivery systems involved in serving media and content to consumers. A simple analogy is it would be like a writer having to learn how to build and run a printing press to get their novel out to market. We have had to learn exactly how the delivery of our content works at a technical level, which has required a lot of time that we would normally have dedicated to the creative execution of our work.

Plus, making content for the net is a lot of fun. The interactivity with the audience is instant.

How do you stay current (professional development, networking)?

Attend conferences. Read. Talk a lot. Take a lot of people to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Trawl the Internet to see what’s new. Subscribe to various online industry magazines.