Being A Short Contrast Of Two Divergent Models Of The Creator/Publisher Dynamic
On the one hand you’ve got the traditional publisher, complete with royalties for creators, paid from the coffers of a large media conglomerate. I particularly recommend your attention to lines like Two sources close to the production recall a principal player receiving a merchandising residual check for 45 cents and In several instances, New Line struck deals with companies within the Time Warner family, such as Warner Bros. Records and the TBS cable network. Just sayin’.
On the other hand you’ve got the indy creator, who will try all kinds of things to connect with the audience on a one-on-one level. The concept of a street team isn’t new to webcomics — just view the year-round association of über-PA boosters/volunteers known as Enforcers — but Meredith Gran (disclosure: she did our masthead) has taken this a step further and created a street team that is geographically specific. Interesting.
And while, yes, large publisher types have done street team-type things before, they always end up like those hot women in calculated tight black pants pretending to like a particular brand of vodka — contrived and artificial.
From the Peter Jackson/New Line article you linked:
“If Jackson can show that New Line could have signed more profitable deals with outside companies, he might be able to demand some significant lost revenue.”
This seems to explain that line in the Zuda contracts about how the creator has no right to complain if Zuda cuts deals with TWI (Time/Warner). Very interesting.
By Joey Manley on 10.05.07 5:38 pm
I’ve heard of this sort of thing before — even with prizes for people who post the most flyers (although that sort of thing is impossible to verify). But I imagine if it works for Meredith we’ll see it happen a lot more.
By malki ! on 10.06.07 9:12 pm
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