Y2K, CONVERGENCE, NEW millennium, dot com, e-commerce, portal, broadband… Have I uttered enough buzzwords to grab your attention? Of course all of these terms, as well as the countless new ones that are coined every day, represent the changes to our personal and business lives as a result of new technological advancements. The question is, what exactly are these changes? How will advertising, filmed entertainment, music programming and information reporting be affected and/or altered by tomorrow’s technologies?
I certainly don’t profess to know the specific answers to that question, but I will say there is a readiness factor that I believe is required of all individuals and companies.
That factor is to know what you do and how to best do it.
I have had the benefit for most of my career to work for diverse production companies, companies designed to create material for several different media. My point of view has always spanned the different disciplines of film and video production. Change was something we instigated rather than something for which we waited. As a necessity of self-preservation, we had to know what we did and how to do it best in order not to be spread too thin or stray off on a tangent that tapped the resources of the company beyond its means (or current business plan). It is always interesting to ask people what their company does. Short, concise answers usually reflect a core understanding of their business. Well, lots of buzzwords are just that…
I think some of the new technologies that are becoming part of our industry (film, advertising, and music) promise great opportunity for creators of filmed content. New distribution methods will unlock the binds of financial viability to allow a vast array of specialized programming to be made available, if only to an interested few. That’s where the advertisers’ ears perk up. They always want to speak to the interested few.
Gun Control
In the past, the only way to do this was through extended "reach," shotgun style, relying on the quality of the message to blanket a large group in hopes that it will filter down to the interested few. But that put pressures on creative content. The message had to be suitable for mass consumption. This oftentimes led to compromises that defeated the effectiveness and therefore the purpose of the advertisement in the first place. When results didn’t materialize from a commercial, the plan of action was to up the caliber of the shotgun shell. Make it prettier, faster, sexier, funnier.
"Great spot, what was it that they were advertising?"
What were we trying to do, and why did we stray from what we do best? Maybe the medium is not the message after all.
Creators of filmed content and managers of production are the essence of every new entertainment technology/distribution medium. Audiences soon grow weary of the flash of the new. Just as we no longer gather to watch films run backwards or marvel at a test pattern on a television screen, we will also grow weary of pointing and clicking for entertainment. After all, the "interactive" world of today is not truly interactive. It’s inter-reactive. Programmed. Finite. Ideas, emotions, inspirations, are interactive experiences. Infinite. The stuff of narrative storytelling.
I am most excited about what lies ahead for technology because I believe it represents a new opportunity for makers of creative media to express themselves, and for managers of production to support that process. Specifically regarding advertising in this new technological environment, it’s funny how cyclical life can be, as we re-experience marketing becoming programming and programming becoming marketing. And all of it becoming entertainment.
So now here I am, Y2K-ready… I know what I do and, maybe not how to do it the best, but certainly how to do it the best way I know how!
Review: Writer-Director Adam Elliot’s “Memoir of a Snail”
It's not your typical stop-motion film when characters name pets after Sylvia Plath and read "The Diary of Anne Frank" — or when the story's inspired by a quote from existentialist thinker Søren Kierkegaard. And it's certainly not your typical stop-motion film when you find yourself crying as much as the characters do — in their case, with huge droplets leaking from bulging, egg-shaped eyes so authentic-looking, you expect the screen to get wet. But those are just a few of the unique things about Adam Elliot's "Memoir of a Snail," a film that's as heart-tugging as it is technically impressive, a work of both emotional resonance and great physical detail using only clay, wire, paper and paint. One thing Elliot's film is not, though, is for kids. So please take note before heading to the multiplex with family in tow: this film earns its R rating, as you'll discover as soon as young Grace, voiced by Sarah Snook, tells us she thought masturbation was about chewing your food properly. Sex, nudity, drunk driving, a fat fetish — like we said, it's R-rated for a reason. But let's start at the beginning. In this, his seventh "clayography" (for "clay" and "biography"), the Australian writer-director explores the process of collecting unnecessary objects. Otherwise known as hoarding, it's something that weighs us down in ways we can't see, for all the clutter. Elliot also argues that it helps us build constrictive shells around ourselves — like snail shells, perhaps. Our protagonist is Grace Pudel, voiced with a quirky warmth and plenty of empathy by the wonderfully agile Snook. We first encounter Grace as a grown woman, telling her long, lonely life story to her pet garden snail, Sylvia (named after Plath), at a moment of deep sadness. Then we flash... Read More