American Cinematographer - March 1995 - 98

Filmmakers' Forum
Virtual

Companies, Walled Cities,
and the Right-Brained Economy:
Cinematographers on the
Information Highway

by Everett M. Ehrlich,
Under

U.S.

Secretary for Economic Affairs,
Department of Commerce

The

needs of the moment, and

computing and telecommunications
capabilities that are creating the Infor¬
mation Highway are more than "technol¬
ogy," just as Watt's steam engine was
more than merely a "machine." The new
information-processing "technologies"
will create new goods, services, and
jobs, and will ultimately raise living stan¬
dards. In short, they will change the way

perhaps to
subsequent claims. But it also
follows, for example, that if you can bring
companies together into virtual compa¬
nies, then each one is going to have to be

work and live. This article talks about

selves down and focus on what they do
best. Size alone is no longer a sustain¬

we

how and what those changes might
for cinematographers.
The first of the changes con¬

manage

the best at what it does.
The Information

Highway,

therefore, is going to pressure large or¬
ganizations everywhere to break them¬

the outside

only to watch. You can
only be part of a virtual company if you're
on the Highway and know how to use the
technology that brings the components
of virtual companies together.
One implication, of course, is
simply to get inside. That means know¬
ing how to use computing and telecom¬
munications networks. It is only a matter
of time, for example, before electronic
bulletin-board-type media match cinema¬
tographers with work, as they will do for
almost all occupations, however ad¬
vanced. Digital portfolios will allow a
cinematographer to send a sampling of
her or his work to any location on the
globe electronically.
And, once you're in the walled
city, there are exciting new opportunities
if you have the inventiveness to find
them. Considerthis example: successful
on

retailers used to think that their "skill"

having goods on hand to serve their
customers, but once they started to

was

analyze computerized databases of
their sales, they recognized that their
real ability was knowing what custom¬
ers

wanted. In other words, new technol¬

allowed them to redefine their skills.
Cinematographers, take note!
Is your real skill managing camera equip¬

ogy

mean

"Computers will replace you
only to the extent that you think
like a bureaucrat, a functionary,
a manager, an unquestioning
member of a large organization,
or a chess player."

companies. Throughout most of
companies grew in size
big automobile companies, big com¬
puter companies, big film studios -
because big companies could coordinate
their activities better through their inter¬
cerns our

this century, our
-

nal structure than

a

bunch of smaller

companies could through the market.
But that was then. Today, ever
more powerful computing and telecom¬
munications networks allow wholly
separate firms to operate as if they are
part of one organization. Economists (and
I confess to being one) call these "virtual
companies," constellations of companies
that come together to produce as if they
are one, only to resume their separate
existences after the fact.

96

as

able

competitive advantage

if they

were

studios and distribution channels need
not be inevitable. After all, it's hard

let alone best
end up producing
entertainment product and getting it to

and to tailor the

engage

American

Cinematographer

one,

at both. Markets may

the

at hand to the

skill is.

implication of this trend is that the longpresumed marriage between production

cinematographers - economic free
agents who bring their skills to the point
of demand at precisely the moment
they're needed. Studios now assemble
such virtual companies to produce indi¬
vidual films, partly to produce efficiently
resources

-

You're either best, or one of the rest. One

enough to be good at

In this sense, our firms are

coming to do business

-

consumer

better than mergers

A second and

more

will.

obvious

phenomenon is that being in the world
means being on the Highway. The High¬
is the walled city of a new millen¬
nium, allowing those on the inside to

way

in commerce together and those

March 1995

ment to achieve a
certain outcome,
or is it a more gen¬

eral understanding
of how light adds
to a

story or emo¬

tional experience?
The difference is

Timothy Leary

important one,
because comput¬
erized imaging will
make the first skill

second skill

obsolete and the
valuable. Tech¬

an

even more

nology, therefore, will allow cinematog¬
raphers to redefine their skills - if they
it well.
A third trend worth noting is
what I call the right-brained economy.
The rush of science and technology in the
two centuries of the Industrial Revolution
use

has favored the left-brained aspect of our
- rationalism, empiricism,

capabilities
and

analytic deft. But as our computing
machines gain power and functionality,
their ability to gather and analyze data
will increase
essence

by orders of magnitude, in

automating the left-brained
Continued

on

page

95
American Cinematographer - March 1995

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