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FORECASTING
SUCCESS
ASU program aims to chart a new course
in the changing seas of entertainment industry
By Oriana Parker
In the late 1980s, movie director James Cameron
started shopping around an idea for a film based on the Titanic
disaster. Put off by the topic, and by the technical challenges
of the project, all of the major studios gave the project a wide
berth, except for Paramount.
But the concept, unlike its ill-fated namesake,
wasn’t
destined to sink: “Titanic,” released in 1997, went
on to win 11 Academy Awards and has grossed more than $825 million
in the United States to date, one of the highest figures ever
recorded by the motion picture industry.
Hollywood, and indeed much of the American entertainment industry,
is a hit-driven enterprise. Companies rise and fall on their
ability to pick—and produce—the next big “blockbuster.” So
why did MGM, 20th Century Fox, Universal and other studios fail
to see the potential of the concept for “Titanic”?
“Given the guidelines of industry thinking at that time,
the decisions of the studios who passed on ‘Titanic’ were
perfectly logical,” explains Peter Lehman, director of
ASU’s
Center for Film and Media Research and Film and Media Studies.
Collisions
and convergence
One of the primary forces
jamming the prognosticators’ forecasting
abilities seems to be “convergence,” a term which
refers to the technology-driven unification of different media
channels over the last several decades. Film is grappling with
convergence-related issues, as is television, the recording industry
and many other entertainment segments.
“The entertainment industry’s current reactions to advanced
technology can best be described as chaotic—for instance,
they were caught off guard by the advent of the iPod,” said
Lehman. “At this point, no one ‘speaks’ the
languages of both entertainment and technology.”
Enter Enter/Tech
Perplexing as these dilemmas
are, ASU is already working on the answers. Lehman, an expert
in film theory, and
Paul Privateer,
an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Film
and Media Studies department and the Consortium for Science
and Policy Outcomes, are bravely exploring the uncharted and
often stormy seas of convergence with 25 undergraduate and
graduate students, via an exciting new program called EnterTech.
The program within the Film and Media Studies department in
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will grant an undergraduate
certificate in Entertainment and Technology and is planning
a professional master’s degree.
EnterTech introduces students to cutting-edge
predictive models. Classes touch on such theoretical hot topics
as sociobiology, fuzzy logic, and chaos theory. Not all of the
curriculum is cutting edge: the works of Francis
Bacon, Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, John Locke and Adam Smith
are
also intensely examined.
Tomorrow’s forecasters
EnterTech’s predictive science approach
to entertainment/technology convergence problems has found favor
with Hollywood professionals.
More than 20 producers, lawyers, and studio executives, including
Hirsch and Papazian, are helping to shape the curriculum and
sharing their expertise with the students.
“We’re creating the next generation of leaders,” stresses Privateer.
David Young, vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
asserts that the program is gaining national attention for both its interdisciplinary
approach and its diverse mix of students.
“Our program is attracting a trans-disciplinary mix of students from pre-law,
business and science, in addition to film and media studies majors,” says
Young. “Our Hollywood visitors remarked that’s not the case in
California film schools.”
-- Oriana Parker is a Scottsdale-based freelance
writer. |
