It feels like every day, news comes out that adds to the growing clamor of what the future of the entertainment industry will look like. In March, a lot of people were holding onto hope that the pandemic would end swiftly and sets would only close for a short period of time. By May, studio executives and creatives alike started to change their tune and the predicted date for when things would return to ‘normal’ became more and more abstract. Uncertainty set in, which was quickly followed by worry then fear. Fear of not being able to pay your bills on time, fear of not having access to healthcare, fear of the industry reinventing itself without you. All valid concerns. In response people got creative, creating podcasts, virtual live shows and sometimes even reinventing themselves by using this time to pursue other passions.
Late in the summer production slowly started to come back to life, which I wrote about here. Since then I have noticed that our new ‘normal’ has definitely changed, but the influence media has in the everyday person’s life has not changed (as evident by things like increased chess set sales after the release of ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ ). The three biggest changes I have seen have been in the works far longer than this pandemic, but have recently been amplified. They are :
Creation of Set Bubbles
Around mid October articles started to get released about Trillith, a town that was being created from scratch 20 miles outside of Atlanta. The idea was originally created in collaboration with British Film Studio, Pinewood, but later they left the deal. As the pandemic continues, which has made it impossible to go back to ‘normal’ on a set, bubbles of various sizes are being created in and outside of Hollywood. Trillith is going to be a live, work, play town mostly for the people who are working on the studio’s sets. There are other examples as well, with Tyler Perry’s state of the art production studio getting back into production over the summer and high profile shows, like The Great British Baking Show physically creating a bubble for their contestants in northern England so the show could commence. Pushing a show normally shot in 12 weeks to six.
Shows without a live audience are continuing to shoot because due to the combination of lockdowns being reinforced and the start of the holiday season, new content is in high demand.
Infusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) (used both instead of and in collaboration with creative talent)
Companies like Rosebud, which is an AI generated media company, are actively working with advertisers and short form content producers (mostly enterprises), to create non-human talent using AI. This practice prevents any person from having to be a part of riskier social interactions in a pandemic, but also prevents clients from needing human talent. Rosebud is currently focusing on advertising, but has plans to move into film/TV and gaming. Listen here for more context on the company and it’s founder, Lisha Li.
Brud is a transmedia studio that creates digital character driven story worlds. They are another company that I am following as the founder’s hope is to help reinvent the media landscape by creating the next Marvel. Brud creates characters that are inherently global because they are computer generated, allowing things like language translation to be instant. The company is VC backed and their primary character is Miquela, who has been around since 2016, though the studio is creating new AI characters all the time. You can learn more about the brand via the founder Trevor McFedries on the Masters of Scale podcast.
These companies are examples of brands that are utilizing technology to change who tells stories and how. The one thing that concerns me is that some of these technology driven media companies are backed by venture capital (VC) potentially pigeonholing the companies to do things like: have a financial exit plan for the investors within 10 years of the initial external investment, change the company’s leadership to less ethically sound individuals and for companies like Rosebud, to do things like move to work with non enterprise customers. All of which would create additional causes for concern to both creatives, who could have less opportunities to obtain jobs, and to the end content consumers who may start to confuse human talent with non-human talent, opening up the floodgate for issues with deep fake technology.
There is a silver lining here though because at this time both Rosebud and Brud has vowed to use their technology in ethically sound ways. There are also people like Joy Buolamwini who through her organization the Algorithmic Justice League are trying to ensure that AI is powered by ethically sound and inclusive databases.
Leaning Into the Creative Omnichannel Presence
The final way I see entertainment evolving is through Radha Blank like come-ups! Now more than ever I am starting to see creatives understanding their omnichannel presence in a similar way to the way businesses do. If this channel does not work for them right now they are starting to realize they have other options. If they are a screenplay writer maybe they can write for film or create a YouTube channel or launch/relaunch their career on TikTok. This strategy is evident by cases we have all seen this year, such as Radha, Tabitha Brown and Julian Bass. Creatives thinking about their craft in an omnichannel way is gamechanging especially because some channels have given them more creative control than others, allowing them to get their foot in the door. To give it a positive spin, the pandemic has opened some people’s eyes to the fact that their perceived way of being able to do their craft fulltime, may not be the only way. It is also now being proven that by having more paths to success a more diverse group of people are successful, providing much needed inclusive representation in the media landscape.
These are the top three ways I am seeing the entertainment field evolve right now, but I have a feeling there will be a part 3. Would love to hear from you on if you have noticed anything else that I missed or if I said something you hadn’t thought of.
If we do not speak again before — happy holidays!
@mastersofscale podcast @monetizing media podcast @reidhoffman @brud.fyi @rosebud @pinewoodstudios @trevormcfedries @lishaliCEO @ATLANTA Define American 🇺🇸 @pinewoodstudios Radha Blank
