New Media and Movie Deals

When I was in film school, I learned that film and television were two very different media.  You were either a film person or a TV person.  TV professionals, accustomed to the lesser medium, often faced difficulty translating their talents for film, and a film director demoted to a television project could be all but written off entirely. 



Then came internet-entertainment, and it was hailed as yet another breeding ground for Hollywood, much as TV had been for up-and-coming film directors. But I think the long-standing myth of artists-tied-to-media, or film as the holy grail of entertainment, has finally been been debunked…though at first glance it may not seem that way…



Larry Strong and Kevin Arbouet, directors of the original Obama Girl shorts, have landed a feature film gig

.  Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, creators of Ask A Ninja have a deal to remake Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  ZeFrank and Amanda Congdon both left new media (and New York) to pursue bigger dreams in old media.  Sure, they’ve left us, but they’ll come back.  Congdon already has. 



New media is not just breeding ground for bigger and better opportunities, it’s a component of the new all-encompassing entertainment product.  Hopefully these artists were tapped for their abilities to captivate on multiple screens, big and small, silicon and fabric; to engage the metaverse with immersive entertainment. Different media crafted in different ways to entertain at different times, and in different environments.