Technology & The Web:
Exploring Digital Media Through Filmmaking Trends:
-In the past, a website was a tool to host reel and supply contact information, whereas now, a well designed-website can be a tool to assist in marketing and building an audience for a film.
- There are various digital media, including social media, video, and online advertising.
- This industry has a wide variety of jobs, with various opportunities for those involved in sales or marketing.
- More and more businesses are using digital media to reach their target audiences.
- Since media is constantly changing, it is vital that companies stay up to date with the most recent trends.
- With the increase in streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, more and more people are ditching cable tv, with the popularity of these only expected to increase.
- It is estimated that conventional television will lose 10% of its viewers by 2022.
- As more and more people consume content online, digital media is growing at a rapid place.
- It is estimated that by 2022 that digital media will account for nearly 60% of global internet traffic.
- Photo Art is increasingly employed by filmmakers because it can create an immersive experience for viewers, used to add another layer to the film to make it more interesting.
- Often, photo art will be used to tell a story which is difficult to do in any other manner.
- With the arrival of VR, there has been an emergence of interactive films which allow the viewer to be an element in the story.
- More and more films are being designed for VR viewing specifically.
- As the world becomes more and more connected through technology, more films are being created that are authentic and relatable, reflecting real life events.
- Designing a website has become a lot easier, no longer having to employ a specialist, as there are wide varieties of templates, allowing companies to create professional looking websites in a matter of hours.
Biggest Media and Entertainment Technology Trends:
- During the pandemic, all aspects of the entertainment industry moved into the digital domain, which creators and producers will continue to want to exploit, maintaining the traffic which they had experienced during these years, driving innovation in these fields.
- AI will affect the media and entertainment industry, mainly through recommendation, voice recognition, and media automation.
- Since the arrival of streaming services such as Netflix, upending the way we consume media, every provider has invested in recommendation technology to surface content more quickly and accurately to audiences who will enjoy it.
- As of 2022, 80% of Netflix's content delivery is achieved through recommendation.
- AI is also used in content automation, generating snippets of a film that are likely to appeal to audiences in thumbnails or previews.
- Thus, if a service knows that we enjoy romance, and we preview a film containing both action and romantic elements, we are more likely to see a clip featuring romance.
- Since the digital shift which has occurred due to the COVID pandemic in 2020, a Metaverse has emerged online, with interconnected digital environments where one can socialise, work, and be entertained.
- For example, stars Ariana Grande and Bruno Mars had concerts inside of Fortnite.
- Streaming services such as Hulu and Disney+ have features such as "watch party" enabling users to share movie time with groups of friends from anywhere in the world.
- As well as new collaborative ways to experience forms of entertainment such as movies and music within online environments, the Metaverse will give rise to completely new forms of entertainment, such as exploring digital environments. Disney, for example, has plans to create a Metaverse theme-park.
- NTFs (non-fungible tokens) have the potential to have a transformative impact on the media and entertainment industry.
- Now we mostly see them being used for the sale of digital artwork, but in the future they could be used from anything from IP management to selling content based on shows.
- Rick and Morty's creator, Dan Harmon's new show, Krapopolis, is said to be entirely curated on blochchain and will feature its own marketplace for trading NFTs based on the show.
- NFTs also have the potential to impact the way artists and stars build relationships with their fans by enabling them to release exclusive collections which can be collected when fans interact digitally with their idols.
- Social media 2.0 is defined by a desire to overcome some of the negative aspects identified with 'traditional' social media, including data and privacy concerns, as well as identity theft, the dissemination of disinformation and fake news, and the opportunities it creates for trolling and bullying.
- Social media 2.0 also encapsulates the concept that the way we consume media from networks such as CNN and Fox News is changing.
- These days, it is likely that we will receive content from these networks through bite-sized posts on social media, where it can be discussed and rated rather than just passively consumed.
- It is likely that traditional, mainstream, mass-marketed forms of media and entertainment and media will continue to lose ground to the more personalised, niche, and community driven creator economy.
- Mainstream media outlets will then try to emulate the methods of YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch, repositioning their celebrities as influencers, and building more community-generated content into their output.
- The amount of money paid to influencers via Patreon doubled from $1 billion in 2020 to $2 billion in 2021, meaning that audiences are growing increasingly more comfortable with the idea of bypassing networks and platforms in order to directly connect with their favourite influencers.
The Trends And Techniques Shaping The Future of Film:
- Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon are leading the way in both the creation of original works as well as the the distribution of smaller-budget, short form, and documentary films. It is interesting to note that these three categories are seeing an increase in popularity.
- In 2017, Netflix spent $6 billion on original films and TV series, and plans to expand the budget to $8 billion in 2018.
- Televisions are slowly replacing the cinemas as a more popular way to consume films, as there is easier access to 4k digital flat screens, which provides a clearer visual experience than the cinema screens do.
- Television shows also do a better job of tapping into pop culture, as the production cycles are much shorter, enabling them to be more responsive to culture.
- In 2018, Netflix had around 700 shows in production.
- Crowdfunding has become a more viable source for funding a film.
- The Veronica Mars film was able to raise $7 million with crowdfunding.
- New rules from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are likely to expand options for crowdfunding films.
- The new rules, based on the 2012 JOBS Act, allow securities to be sold via crowdfunding and set the parameters for those sales, allowing crowdfunders not only to contribute to film projects, but actually invest in them.
- The content of a film is also changing to reflect the milieu in which it is produced.
- Recent pushes for better representation of human diversity and viewpoints have lead to a corresponding increase of films told from the perspectives of women, people of colour, and disabled characters.
- The rise of social commentary in film may have a democratising feedback-loop effect, building more connections between audiences and content, giving the audience a richer field of storytelling views with which to understand their own circumstances, and provide a common cultural vocabulary with which to discuss these experiences with others.
- Hollywood is looking to prequels, sequels, and adaptations to further their revenue.
- The Los Angeles Film School (LAFS) has noted an increase in handheld footage, as well as an increase in the use of practical effects, either alone or layered over CGI.
- Large-format cameras are becoming more popular as they have a long focal length, which makes the scene feel more natural, closely mimicking the behaviour of the human eye.
- 2016's Late Shift was billed as the first ever interactive film, allowing the audiences to influence the character's behaviours and the story's outcome.