HOLLYWOOD AND THE JOBS CRISIS - THE CONCLUSION: FEWER JOBS, LESS PAY AND THE OLD WAY IS GONE

If you thought it was going to better....

The industry’s rapid transition away from physical products such as film prints and DVDs and toward digital distribution is allowing studios to get by with leaner workforces -- a shift that has been both exacerbated and exposed by the recession.

Experts say that the thousands of jobs that have disappeared as the result of the digital revolution and the economic crisis are unlikely to completely return.

"Five years from now, there will not be as much pressure on studios to have as many titles as possible. That will mean fewer people employed in Hollywood, more of whom work in CGI or who are employed on the technical side," Edward Jay Epstein, author of "The Hollywood Economist," told TheWrap.

Fewer jobs, leaner workforces and less money to throw around over the next five years?  This is not going to end well.

An old way of doing business is vanishing just as rapidly as Hollywood is moving its films and television shows into the digital cloud and streaming.

"Everybody is revising their business model right now ... film, TV, advertising," Chris McGurk, CEO and chairman of the digital cinema company Cinedigm told TheWrap.

[snip] 

Indeed, despite sturdy box office performance -- especially internationally -- and robust television ads sales, the economic downturn of the past three years has caused real economic pain throughout the industry. From the executive suite to the makeup tent, thousands of people lost their jobs. Some have found new positions (frequently for less pay); others have left the business entirely.

Does anyone want to guess why the people who work in the business are saying things far different from the people who "know this business"?

 All are grappling with a radically altered industry -- fewer films are being produced, movies and miniseries on the broadcast networks are something of an endangered species, and studios are slashing their production budgets. Generous back-end deals and multi-year production pacts are rapidly disappearing.

As I said previously those who can adapt will survive and prosper those who remain stuck in a 2006 mindset  will find themselves dead.

As for the once thriving home entertainment sector, the rapidly declining DVD market means that the layoffs in that sector aren’t likely to stop anytime soon.

Studios such as Paramount have already begun to merge their home entertainment, digital operations and licensing divisions, and executives tell TheWrap that they expect many of the other major studios to follow suit.
The jobs that remain will require a skill set that is uniquely different from the one offered by many industry veterans. Older forms of exhibition such as movie theaters aren’t ready to shuffle off this mortal coil, but to survive and thrive today, studio executives must have a firm understanding of everything from tablets to UltraViolet, qualities more likely to be found in Silicon Valley than in Hollywood.

Content, IP and brand management are key to surviving the downturn we are all facing. .If you do not have a plan that works with those three elements you are going to be in deep trouble.