Tom Hanks, Charles Dickens & The Future of Broadcasting

I made a movie!

 

Tom Hanks is no dope.

And neither was Charles Dickens.

What do they have to do with one another?

Tom Hanks and his partner Gary Goetzman have been trying to pitch a new series called "Electric City".

So far, they have met with no success. Every network and every studio have turned them down.

Now, you might think that a guy with Tom Hanks' track record should be able to walk into any network in the country and get a deal. Apparently that is not the case. Apparently it is easier to pitch and sell The Real Housewives of Omaha than Mr. Hanks' rather edgy new concept...

but that's for another blog...

This one is about what he did... or is doing..  And in that, there's a good lesson for us all.

Hanks is going to take this concept for Electric City to the web, but in bite-sized chunks. 2-3 minutes each.

They have partnered with Reliance, a Mumbai based production company.  India, Reliance points out, has 700 million English speakers and they all have smart phones and they all want to watch video on their phones.

This makes sense.

It also makes sense to create the content in bite-sized chunks, 3 minutes or less.

Who says you have to watch in half hours or hours?

Music, which has had a pretty good run online so far, tends to sell in 3 minute chunks, so why not video?

And, serializations are the best way to keep people coming back for more.

This is a lesson Charles Dickens learned when he published Little Dorrit between 1855-57.

He did it with 19 separate 32-page chunks.

He published them once a month.. and it kept the public coming back for more..and more.

There is a famous story of an English ship pulling into NY harbour and the crowd yelling up at the deck as it aproached...'did Little Dorrit die?'

Dickens was no dope.

And neither is Tom Hanks.

And maybe a serial series of short video segments designed specifically for online is the way to go.