Release date has become beginning, not end
The Project Factory director Guy Gadney says cross-platform initiatives have turned release dates into the beginning of a project’s cycle.
“The release date is now the beginning, not the end. It’s the birth, and from that moment on it’s about raising the child,” he told Encore.
“Producers used to deliver and then move on to the next project, but now it’s just the beginning.”
This new approach differs from the traditional delivery date in which a finished television program or film remained unchanged once it had been completed and then released.
According to Gadney, creatives have a lot more control of the product than before, and that product changes according to the audience’s reaction and needs.
Gadney’s company The Project Factory – ran in conjunction with business partner Jennifer Wilson – recently completed an online game and iPhone application based on the television show Bondi Rescue, released as part of a joint venture with production company Cordell Jigsaw (Michael Cordell and Nick Murray).
The project raised questions about digital rights, which in the case of Bondi Rescue, were not owned by Network Ten, the broadcaster. Gadney believes digital rights become a new discussion that must be defined when working on any project.
Gadney believes the change to digital media is a cultural change, from seeing a film or a television program as a product to be released, to seeing it as a small business.
“Producers find that their business model has been challenged. Your strategy is a technology question as much as an audience question,” he said.
