Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in March that he believes the recession will be over by the end of this year. That’s no consolation, however, to those working in film and television right now. Financing for new projects is next to impossible to secure, which means many previously planned productions in 2009 have come to a near standstill. When production stops, post work dries up, leaving few options for smaller facilities who pay their bills with contract work.

The game industry is one of the few bright spots in the struggling content creation community, though it is not immune to financial trouble. The demand for console gaming is definitely on the rise. But despite impressive sales increases in the past year, many larger game companies have had to lay off workers in order to offset the growing development costs associated with new gaming consoles.

Industry analyst Wanda Meloni says the silver lining to all this carnage – her estimates put the figure at around 8,450 laid off since last July – is how the layoffs and economic challenges are motivating massive, positive change in the game industry. Just like in the film industry – and in the wider media industry – the newly unemployed, as well as those struggling to keep businesses from going belly up, are “looking ‘outside the box’ at new business models, production models and distribution models.” Meloni calls this shift the “Gaming Renaissance Movement.” Many of these new start-ups are funded with pooled severance package money, and are pieced together with grit, creativity and sheer determination. The majority are going where the new, relatively easy money is: iPhone apps. With more than 40,000 titles in Apple’s App store, it’s already a crowded market. But the install base of 30 million will likely double to 60 million by the end of the year. These former console game developers say that’s an opportunity they simply can’t pass up.

The author of our feature on page 24, Alexandra Mejia, was a film and commercial editor who decided that steadier work and more rewarding challenges awaited him in the game industry. He relates what he learned after making the switch to editing video game trailers for his current employer, Volition. (Yes, playing video games all day was certainly a deal clincher). Mejia is more than just an editor in his new role, and that, he says, is another reason he’s happy he made the career move. The budget-conscious video playback system he created for the entire development team is already playing a leading role in Volition’s recent ramp up in online marketing.

In these complicated times, the online piece of the puzzle has become increasingly important. For an in-depth session on how to mine the viral market, sign up for our next Webinar about the business of producing Web video (June 2) in the StudioDaily Store.

– Beth Marchant, Editor-in-Chief

bmarchant@accessintel.com