I was recently invited to the Karlovy Vary Film Festival to give a talk about the future of film with Ted Hope. He and I spoke about this once before at the Vimeo Festival, and we decided we wanted to try something new, and make the panel a bit more participatory. So, we have jointly written a blog post laying out some of our thoughts about the future of film and are encouraging people to respond in advance of the festival with their comments. As we say in the post:

“As we put our thoughts out there for you to consider, ask yourself: “are these the trends that will most effect content, production, and consumption?” Did we leave something out? Is one not important? Join the conversation and let us know. Similarly, consider that these five suggestions may be the preeminent factors in shaping the next few years, but the real question is always “how?” As creators, facilitators, and consumers, what must we do to confront these issues? Are there models and best practices already emerging? Have there already been noble failures and/or arrogant efforts attempting to address these factors? What would a vision look like that might address these key elements? We all must share our thoughts, our hopes, our failures, along with what we learned from our successes if we are going to build something new, something that truly works for everyone.”

We hope to hear from you in advance, and yes, we’ll be incorporating feedback from here and the festival organizers will be selecting some responders who are attending the festival to participate in the discussion in person. I don’t believe it will be live streamed, but we’ll circle back with some conclusions, or at least further thoughts.

And yes, by the way and because I’ve been part of these discussions before, we did take note in our essay that the future of film is more diverse than two white guys prognosticating about it. So, give us your input, but don’t do it here. In order for us to track the comments, it’s best to leave yours here. Thanks.