An e-mail I just recieved from Rich Rice with the line "me and bubbles you" tells me that it's probably time to train the producer/consumer mindset on the bubble phenomenon about to emerge with the release of Steven Soderbergh's Bubble on Friday. A piece called 'Bubble' Vision appeared in the Washington Post this morning that raised some questions teachers of new media writing might want to think about. On one level, the film and its "day-and-date" release strategy (offering the film in every form--theater, tv, DVD--at the same time) makes a gesture to be applauded by writing teachers championing audience choice over producer decisions. If you prefer the theater experience, fine; if you'd rather watch at home in pajamas, no problem. Similarly, champions of new media literacy could laud the production model--a work filmed with digital video cameras, "amateur actors and only the bare bones of a script" is something instructors thinking about having students create digital video projects can relate to. It's worth acknowledging the experimental and prosumer possibilities raised by the project.

But, here comes the however: beneath the surface my reaction is that the project also represents a clever attempt to capture the media market and diminishes the choices of consumers. It turns out the film represents a carefully timed flexing of the media muscles of 2929 entertainment--the conglomerate headed by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. It's not as if viewers can decide to finger the remote Friday night and take in the film--they first need to sign up for HD Net TV. Where the film will appear in theaters will also be controlled, no doubt, by 2929. Really there is no way to get to the film without going through the ladder of 2929's monopoly. If this vertical control of new media creation marks the release of the film, we may need to check our enthusiasm with the opening scene. It may turn turns out much of the motivation is economic:

In the 1940s, this kind of vertical integration was declared illegal by the federal government, and movie studios were ordered to divest themselves of the theaters they owned; since deregulation in the 1980s those strictures have largely disappeared. In today's media climate, Wagner insists, it's the only way to make a buck.

Not that there is anything wrong with that (*); it's just that pushing the piece through the "information wants to be free" filter of net culture seems a likely misreading. The real concern, I think, for new media teaching is how this might impact the evolving spaces where more genuine grass roots video composing and sharing is taking place. There is still a space and audience payoff for posting things like "The Real Shining" to spaces like Ourmedia or vSocial. I'm still more interested in saving my applause for that kind of composing.