The state of the business of Hollywood, and more precisely the Southern California film industry, is finally getting  some long overdue national press coverage.

Digital technology and the Internet have shaken the foundations of every American business. This, of course, has been exacerbated by the current economic crisis. By looking at attendance numbers and box office returns, Hollywood seems to be doing pretty well and entertainment has often been cited as being “recession proof”.

Armed with this assumption the national media, those in other parts of the country hard hit by the economy and even our supposed liberally biased lawmakers, never seem to have much sympathy for the troubles of “Tinsel Town”. But here’s the dirty little secret; A-list actors, high-paid producers and Bentley driving agents only make up a fraction of people who make their living here. Yes, entertainment industry labor makes a higher wage than the national average, but the costs of living in Los Angeles more than make up for it and for most, the work is freelance and filled with short and long periods of unemployment.

Those actually trying to earn a living in our little industry town who don’t reside under a rock, have first hand knowledge of the bigger reality which is, because of a confluence of factors, several mentioned above, the rank and file workers of the motion picture, television and gaming industries are hurting, major studio production slates for films and television are down, and most everyone can see the fissures in a business model, which has historically been painfully inflexible.

Alas, business reporters are starting to take notice. Friday, Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post wrote about the problems of an industry, which is still working off this business model created almost 100 years ago.

There is a sense that it may all be coming to an end, that the threat this time is real and that the old business models can’t survive. With the rise of legal and illegal downloading, the Internet has already decimated the music business, and it is just beginning to overturn the economic foundations of the movies, television and electronic gaming as well.

And last week, Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes of the New York Times had an insightful article about the challenges facing a new generation of studio executives. The people at the center of power in an industry which creates jobs not only locally, but worldwide.

After riding two decades of almost nonstop growth from the cable and video revolutions, a new generation of Hollywood power players is finally being forced to test its mettle.

These executives — consummate insiders who enlisted when young and worked their way up — now find themselves pushing 50 just as some brutal problems are pushing back: a collapse in DVD sales, a credit crisis that has curtailed financing for new movies, a group of corporate owners determined to pull more profits from studios to compensate for hard-hit publishing and broadcast television divisions.

For those of us tenacious, brave or crazy enough to be in this business, the title of a 1940′s era musical-comedy seems appropriate advice, “Hold on to Your Hats”.

On February 19th, USC’s Annenberg School for Communications will be presenting author Scott Kirsner for an exploration of Hollywood’s relationship with innovation — from the days of Thomas Edison to the era of YouTube, the iPod, and the Xbox. This discussion will explore how new technologies and new ideas have shaped the movie industry, and where we’re heading next. Kirsner, author of The Future of Web Video: Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers, and a new book, Inventing the Movies: Hollywood’s Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo, from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs. He will be joined by Steve Schklair, CEO, 3ality Digital Systems, Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, Co-founders, JibJab Media and Cliff Plumer, CEO Digital Domain. Following the formal program, there will be time to network and meet the author. This event is part of Dean Wilson’s initiative on Sustainable Innovation, and is produced in collaboration with the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC. To RSVP click here.

Parking information and directions to campus »

Steven De Souza, writer of Hollywood blockbusters such as “48 Hours”, “Die Hard” and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider”, is trying his hand at directing for the Web. De Souza is in post on “Unknown Sender” which will be distributed via Strike TV, an internet start-up born out of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike earlier this year. The film is one of the networks first projects and stars Timothy Dalton of James Bond, 007 fame.

Strike TV is a content distribution site to keep an eye on. What differentiates it from all the other video spigots out there, is that many of Hollywood’s top creatives (i.e. De Sousa) fully support and are participating in the development of the company. What’s in it for them? Well, first and foremost is the artistic freedom the medium allows. Creative’s relish the fact they will be able to produce their work without the multitude of interferences which usually accompany studio and large network projects. It also can serve as a springboard to bring successful Web projects to other venues.

Strike TV’s Peter Hyoguchi was kind enough to give us a heads up on the “behind the scenes” for the project which was recently posted on vimeo.

Here is Part III of our interview with Dan Lebental.

In this segment Dan gives us some great insights into the feature film editorial process. We discuss topics such as what it’s like screening the “first cut” with the director and starting out on the directors cut, bringing the length of IRON MAN down from 3.5 to it’s final running time of 2 hours, exploring variations of the film and reinventing scenes, and something he fondly refers to as “index card death row”. We also get to talk a bit more about his long term working relationship with director Jon Favreau, getting the studio involved and the editorial muse. Finally we discuss an issue that confronts directors and editors on many visual effects films, the time quandary. Specifically, the amount of time it takes from the director’s contractual (DGA) 10 week cut to lock VFX sequences and get them in the “pipeline”.

Today we present Part II of my interview with Dan Lebental, film editor of Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment’s, IRON MAN.

In this segment Dan talks about his experience cutting on the Avid Media Composer, working with the visual effects team (upwards of 800 people) at ILM and the economics and intricacies of cutting a film with nearly 1000 visual effects shots. We go on to discuss the state of, and need for, industry accepted digital post production workflows. Finally, we talk about cutting IRON MAN utilizing the Avid DNX36 codec, and his first experience cutting a studio feature in HD. Enjoy.

Last Friday, I had the good fortune to visit the offices of Dan Lebental’s editing company, Splice-Inc. in midtown Los Angeles. Many of you know that Dan was the “film” editor of this summer’s first box office breakout hit, “Iron Man”. Not only is the film doing incredibly well in theaters, but it has also become one of the most critically acclaimed pictures in the genre.

Posted here is the first of our 3-part interview with Dan. In it, Dan tells us how he initially became interested in film editing, his “big break” which made him one of the most sought after music video editors of the early nineties, and how he developed a working relationship with director Jon Favereau.

On crutches and awaiting knee surgery, Dan was kind enough to give us an insider’s perspective of what it is like to participate in such a massive creative endeavor.

You will need Apple’s QuickTime 7 to view this properly.