Intellectual Property Distribution (Was: Re: MOVIE REVIEW)

[Bala Pillai <bala@malaysia.net>]

Amir,

At 10:02 3/1/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>Low-budget, full-length Malaysian independent movies seem to be like our old
>Minibuses ... you wait around forever, and then two of 'em show up at the
>same time. I envisage marketing problems

What I have found is that it is more a distribution problem than a marketing
problem. Ofen erroneously these two are lumped together.

For example, thanks to our "Interactive Cultural Communities - havens for
eservices" obsession, and our soon-to-be finalised relationship with a world
leader in animations, Chennai-based Pentafour <www.pentafour.com>, we will
soon
be able to solve this distribution problem for Asian animated movies. 

How do we do it? 

Step One: Produce a short teaser of the movie. 
Step 2:  Enable our growing 300,000 relationships to download the preview with
an offer to pre-buy the movie at a discounted price. 
Step 3: Use the "pre-buys" money to co-finance the production of the movie. 
Step 4: Use the orders indication to arrange finance for release marketing
(think of the orders as a beach-head that can be extended with additional
money
for extension)
Step 5: Complete the movie and fulfill the orders
Step 6: Fulfill more orders at full price coming through referrals
Step 7: Promote the movie - by now the costs should be 80-110% recovered
Step 8:  Fullfill orders that come because of promotion

These are just the bare-bone steps. I have left out steps relating to
distribution of subsidiary cable, TV, video club etc rights. Of course, like
with any idea, success or failure is not in the idea but in one's acumen in
execution and in trouble-shooting the problems that come along. And in
organising non-manipulative cooperative partnerships. And perseverance.

If the pre-buys is below a certain level, we would typically drop the idea and
refund the money or offer to hold it for the next movie.

Let me know if you'd like to work with us in enabling a thousand Asian Walt
Disneys to bloom. I love your creativity and your warped sense of humour and
know that with our organisational smarts, we'd be a winner.

Yes, the knowledge economy ain't about bricks, mortar and tax-free incentives.
It's about bringing cooperative "stretch the envelope" minds together. It's
about win-win relationships between those with logistics savvy and those with
creative savvy. 

cheers../bala
bala@malaysia.net