All articles by Michael Gubbins
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FeaturesEmpowering Audiences is Cross-Media Mission
Michael Gubbins looks at some of the main conference themes discussed at the Power to the Pixel London Forum.
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News
Screen opinion: the film industry's zero-sum game
Economist Richard Bronk makes a fascinating case this week for the reasons why economists failed to predict the downturn. 'Economists and bankers,' he suggested, 'assume they can reduce uncertainty to measurable risk based on systematic regularities in the past that can tell you what is going to happen in the ...
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United Kingdom - Sustainable development
London-based Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) is a business on the move. It doesn't have a great deal of choice in one respect - the company's Tottenham Court Road offices are to be demolished to make way for a new rail network.But Mike Downey and Sam Taylor's eight-year-old outfit has ...
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Screen opinion:Film industry must dodge thesucker punch
Don't worry,' a reassuring senior financier mentioned this time last year, 'the thing with film is that there will always be another sucker at the table.' The hedge funds might dry up and the dodgy tax loopholes close but in true Micawber fashion, he remained confident that 'something would turn ...
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Screen opinion:Time to get real
Could 2009 be the year we all get real' The thought springs to mind in contemplating the Alice In Wonderland aspects of the last few months. There has, of course, always been a surreal aspect to the industry but rarely has so much of the business seemed to be out ...
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In Focus - European film finance unveiling this season's model
A year ago, Screen's European Film Summit in Berlin was already focused on the dark clouds on the horizon - the terms 'credit crunch' and 'sub-prime' permeated almost all the discussions. Few, however, were predicting the abrupt ending of a credit boom would lead to the kind of downturn we ...
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Screen opinion: film must marry magic and business
As befits these recessionary times, there has been a noticeable shift of tone at the business end of the industry recently. New emphasis has been placed on the search for scientific, transparent, bona fide facts and figures that might impress an investor or bank manager. With risk-aversion now set in ...
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Screen opinion: What's in a name'
'For the first time in 20 years, no-one wants to venture a guess about what will happen this year,' Universal Pictures International president David Kosse told Screen this week.We do seem to be heading into a perfect storm somewhere in a Bermuda triangle, comprising an uncertain digital transition, a crash ...
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Carl Clifton takes up key roles at The Works
Former HandMade COO and head of sales Carl Clifton has started work in his new role as executive director of UK-based international film company The Works Media Group. He is also managing director of the company's sales agency, The Works International, whose current slate includes James Marsh's Man On Wire ...
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Screenopinion:Film must look to reinvention
In the middle of the fake souk in the hotel complex where the Dubai International Film Festival is based, there is a Santa's grotto blaring out Frosty The Snowman.Given the temperature is up to 28 degrees centigrade even in December, it is a surreal setting - perfect, in fact, for ...
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Features
Europe - breaking the deadlock
Given the slow pace of change in European digital cinema, there is a danger in over-hyping any kind of movement. But a $56m investment in leading UK and France-based D-cinema business Arts Alliance Media (AAM) may prove significant.The money from European services company Econocom and various private investors will allow ...
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2008 Review of the Year - Crunch time
This has been the year of the reality check. Over the last few years, there has been reason for confidence about strong growth. Globalisation was opening or reopening territories, with vast populations seemingly all demanding to be entertained. New technologies were promising to crash through the limitations of the physical ...
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Profile: Arts Alliance Media eyesD-cinema breakthrough
The conversion of the world's cinemas to digitalequipment wasalways much more thana simple upgrade of theatre equipment. The industryhad been built ona single standard - 35mm film- and, for all its glaring inefficiencies, it worked in its own way.What digital cinema proposes is far more challenging as well as considerablymore ...
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Screen opinion: Transparency is key issue for film
The much-touted notion of recession-proof cinema can look like a bad joke for much of the business. The queues that have been exciting attention at theatres in large parts of the world are a million miles from the experience of most of the industry.There is little more than a passing ...
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Are there upsides to the downturn for film'
'The film market needs to change. I have been told it will never change but two years ago the same thing would have been said about the financial markets.'So says Gennaro Buonocore, managing director of media markets at electronic interdealer broker Icap. The company has put its money where its ...
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Arts Alliance Media gains $56m boost to D-cinema ambitions
Arts Alliance Media's (AAM) ambitions for digital conversion of Europe's cinemas hasreceived a $56m (Euros 43m)boost with the signing of a financing agreement with European services company Econocom and various private investors.The company has also announced a strategic partnership with Arqiva Satellite & Media for the satellite distribution of content.Bothdeals ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Indies find the Sky's the limit
UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has not enjoyed the same recognition for its influence on film as it has on sport, which has been revolutionised by its multi-channel offering.The film industry's television focus has been turned far more towards the BBC and Channel Four, both of whom have a production remit. ...
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In focus - Distribution - Facing Europe's digital dilemma
'We are in the business of culture, not the culture of business,' says Mark Cosgrove, head of programme at Bristol's Watershed cinema complex in the UK. It is a distinction that is relevant in Europe in a way that would seem extraordinary to much of the world and particularly the ...
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Screen opinion: animated film rises above the waves
Those whom the gods of film wish to destroy, they first declare the next big thing. Nowhere is that fact clearer than in the declaration of 'waves' - a supposed shift in audience taste.Just think back to a couple of years ago and you will recall that we were on ...
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The Rainmakers
High School Musical's (HSM) third instalment lived up to its billing as the right film for the right time: pure escapism in a global recession.High School Musical 3: Senior Year set a new opening record for a musical in the US with a three-day debut of $42m. Internationally, it opened ...