Some of the Voce crew attended the Churchill Club’s event The Future of Movies: Digital Age Cinema Executive Roundtable last week and we all concur that the Club came through once again (even if tickets cost more than seeing a Giant’s game).

Moderated by Scott Kirsner, author of the CinemaTech blog, and columnist/contributing writer for Fast Company, The Boston Globe, and the Hollywood Reporter, the panel included some movie industry heavy-hitters like:

• Randal Kleiser, President, Randel Kleiser Productions, Inc.; Director, Grease, The Blue Lagoon, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Lovewrecked
• Bob Lambert, Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Technology Strategy The Walt Disney Company
• Tim Partridge, Sr. Vice President and General Manager, Dolby Professional Division, Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
• Jerry Pierce, Senior Vice President, Technology, Universal Pictures
• Todd Wagner, CEO, 2929 Entertainment

The consensus from other posts we’ve read is that Wagner stole the show with his sometimes brash but consistent articulate points, progressive thinking, and business experience with his partner Mark Cuban, another entrepreneur most know isn’t afraid to mix it up with the big boys. Todd made the point that there are many similarities between Hollywood and start-ups here in the Valley. He said that making movies is like starting a company - it takes a lot of money to get going, hire, create, and market a movie (something Cuban blogged about recently), just like a company, with both seeking financial returns in the midst of big risk. The difference is though, as Wagner said, that after 72 hours of a picture being on the street you already know your financial trajectory. With a company there is time to right the ship.

Some other key takeaways:

• Wagner advocates a multi-platform method of distribution, whether it be releasing a movie in the theater and selling it as a DVD to patrons on the way out from viewing the movie or syndicating live broadcast to TV, radio, and the Internet much like what CBS did for the NCAA Basketball Tournament last fall.
• Panelist concurred that currently there are a couple hundred digitally capable movie screens in the U.S. and that it will be a fairly long time before the conversion to digital is complet
• The fastest growing segment of entertainment is home theater. This is due to technological improvements in consumer electronics - TVs, DVD, HD, etc. This, one panelist claims, is contributing to the movie industry’s demise as consumers see less incentive in going out to a movie when the quality of the viewing experience is comparable in the home.
• High definition’s presence in the home is growing, but 40 percent of displays in the home don’t have HD input despite having the capability. Do consumers care?

The Churchill Club’s event ties together a lot of the work we do at Voce. With clients at both ends of the spectrum, NEC Digital Cinema and Digital Deck, it’s interesting to hear industry perspective on where Hollywood and Silicon Valley both build and burn bridges. One thing remains clear through all of this - consumers rule. When consumers are fed up paying an exorbitant amount of money to go to a half decent/half digital (sound only) movie they will revert to the comforts of their digital home theater system. When more technology companies push Hollywood to embrace the digital era - bring to movies the visual quality blockbusters deserve - distribute mind blowing 3D features - coordinate cross multi-platform distribution - then we’ll see the true power Hollywood and Silicon Valley are able to embrace.

You can download the podcast of this event here, although it has yet to post to the site.

Ryan Lack & Josh Gershman

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