David Puttnam has warned businesses including screen producers to adapt to the changes sweeping the world in the digital era, or face the consequences.
“If you cling to existing business models and try to protect your revenues from being cannibalised your business is already in serious trouble,” said the producer of Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields, Midnight Express, The Mission and Local Hero.
In a conversation with Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Lord Puttnam said, “You have to understand and embrace the very significant changes of the digital revolution to maintain your relevance and adapt your businesses. This is a problem right across the global economy. People who continue to do things the old way will be swept aside.”
Screen Queensland chair Professor Peter Little, who attended the Tuesday session, observed that far from being gloomy, Puttnam described himself as a “change junkie” and urged producers to take advantage of new business models and rising players such as Netflix, which are commissioning content.
Little pointed to Hoodlum Entertainment co-founder Nathan Mayfield, who was in the audience at the Queensland University of Technology Gardens Point campus, as an example of a producer who is tapping into new markets.
A former Chancellor of the Open University UK and Sunderland University, Puttnam serves as the British Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma, as well as the Irish Government’s Digital Champion.
Asked if he was fearful of the death of cinemas, Puttnam demurred, pointing to the enduring communal experience of watching films with audiences.
He retired from film production in 1998 to focus on his work in public policy. In Brisbane he said he quit the film business because he no longer wanted to be inundated with scripts and books.
But he hinted he may have one more film left in him on a topic which addresses his concerns that the level of activism among young people has fallen markedly since the 1960s.
According to Little, Puttnam said the film would “focus on young heroes and hopefully help to inspire a more activist approach by the younger generation.”
Puttnam declined to say more about the project.