Category Archives: The Mediascape

Webseries format matures

Posted on by
Reply

Alexandre Pierrin writes in CMF Trends that “Webseries Emerge From the Shadows“.

He points to more web platforms betting on webseries and pouring serious money into their production.

The motivation seems to be capturing mobile viewers with time to kill.

“Millennials are without a doubt the largest consumers of web-based videos. They represent a prime target for television channels seeking to rejuvenate their audiences as well as for major corporations in search of new customers. The Media Technology Monitor estimates that, during the fall of 2016, 80% of Canadians aged 15 to 34 used their smartphone to watch online videos. It’s actually smartphones, and not PCs or tablets, that represent the most commonly used devices by these young adults to view videos on the web.”

One takeaway is that “the 10 x 10-minute format already seems to have become the norm”.

Here’s a list of 2016’s best webseries. Glad to see Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on it.

My take: certainly, making a series of 10-minute shorts on a shoestring and uploading them to Youtube requires a good idea and a lot of gumption to get it all done. Harder still is attracting an audience to watch. That’s why I’m slightly sceptical about webseries. (For instance, I saw The Guild on Netflix.) But if you do make it online, be wary of bad deals on TV. By the way, my son was making his webseries, Fast Forward Cooking, five years ago.

Netflix lunch boxes coming soon

Posted on by
Reply

Bloomberg Technology recently published Netflix Plans New Toys, Merchandise Based on Hit TV Shows, by Lucas Shaw.

The article links to a Netflix job posting that seeks “someone to take on the responsibility of creating an end-to-end strategy and executional plan for merchandising and promotion of the Netflix brand and/or content.”

The emphasis seems to be squarely on promotion rather than profit:

“We are pursuing consumer products and associated promotion because we believe it will drive meaningful show awareness/buzz with more tangible, curated ways to interact with our most popular content. We want licensed merchandise to help promote our titles so they become part of the zeitgeist for longer periods of time. Last but not least, merchandising and promotion will be used as a marketing tactic to capture member demand and delight our member community.”

Netflix has already beta-tested merchandising with it’s hit show Stranger Things. You can buy 46 Stranger Things items, from Hawkins High School iron-on patches to jewellery to t-shirts.

Shaw concludes with a nice quote from Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos:

“We don’t want to make any shows to sell toys. What’s really important is there’s a marketing component that comes with toys. Kids carrying the backpack sells the show.”

My take: back in the day, this was called merchandising. It’s still that but the goal is now becoming more about marketing. The next level, of course, is transmedia, in which the story continues on in the real world, in this case, via stuff. Think comics and board games, for instance. Secret decoder rings?

Seed and Spark wants Canadian features, series

Posted on by
Reply

Seed&Spark, the indie crowdfunding and streaming platform, believes independent films require the seed of an idea and the sparks of human and capital investments to bring them to life. Based in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, they’ve recently turned their gaze north, to Canada.

Caitlin Gold, Acquisitions & Programming, explains:

“I’m most interested in acquiring features and series with at least one season completed. ALL filmmakers are welcome on our platform as long as they can demonstrate how their project is inclusive, and representative of the diverse world we live in. We are particularly interested in working with female filmmakers, people of colour, minorities, the LGBTQ community, etc. ALL stories matter. Later this year, filmmakers in Canada will be able to crowdfund with us as well.”

I asked Emily Best, Seed&Spark Founder and CEO, how their expanded focus on Canada came about. She replies:

“The credit belongs to ‘Storypreneur’ Annelise Larson. I met her a few years ago at the Vancouver International Film Festival where we were both tasked with guiding filmmakers to good distribution outcomes and we discovered we share a brain about building audiences. She is working on helping me open Seed&Spark’s crowdfunding platform to Canadian filmmakers and in the meantime, we’re programming a channel of Canadian films together.”

I followed up with Annelise Larson for the full scoop:

“When I first heard of Seed&Spark I was a fan of the concept, a crowdfunding platform for filmmakers by filmmakers. In my work as a digital strategist and teacher for media storytellers I instantly recognized the potential, but was disappointed it was only available in the U.S. Emily and I had an online acquaintance for a couple of years and then met in person at VIFF in the fall of 2015 when we sat on a panel about digital marketing and distribution. We realized pretty quickly we were brain twins, finishing each other’s sentences and nodding in vigorous agreement when the other was speaking. Early last year when Seed&Spark launched their streaming platform to compliment their crowdfunding platform, I knew this was something Canada needed more than ever. Emily and I both share a passion for supporting filmmakers and independent, diverse voices. We believe in the digital opportunity to help them have sustainable creative careers and want to support that whenever we can. Seed&Spark is such a fantastic, empowering model, and recently supercharged this by incorporating a dashboard interface that gives its filmmakers access to audience data that is a little mind blowing. Canadian filmmakers and storytellers need Seed&Spark. We thought a great way to begin would be to get Canadian content for the streaming platform in time for National Canadian Film Day on April 19, 2017. This day promises to be the biggest film festival in the world ever with hundreds of screenings across the country as well as online. Seed&Spark hopes to be part of that story, supporting Canada in its celebration of its 150th birthday. I hope it is just the beginning of the Canadian Seed&Spark story.”

My take: If I had a Canadian feature or web series, I’d jump all over this. It promises to be a great introduction to the Seed&Spark community, with the potential to become a funding source in the future. This is some of the best news to come out of America lately.

Report signals big changes coming to culture in Canada

Posted on by
Reply

The Department of Canadian Heritage has just released a report titled ‘What We Heard Across Canada: Canadian Culture in a Digital World’.

The 52-page PDF organizes the feedback into eight themes:

  1. Showcasing Canada’s cultural sector
  2. Reasserting the role of Canadian creators in the digital age
  3. Defining Canadian cultural content and Canadian cultural creators
  4. Adapting current funding models to a constantly changing cultural landscape
  5. Finding new sources of public funding is required, but where should these funds come from?
  6. Modernizing Canada’s legislative framework and national cultural institutions
  7. Clarifying the role of Canada’s public broadcaster
  8. Collaborating to take up the challenges ahead

According to the media release:

“Minister Joly and the Department of Canadian Heritage will continue to work together with the goal of launching Canada’s new policy toolkit for creative industries in 2017. This will mark Canada’s new direction as the country kicks off its next 150 years.”

My take: changes are coming! Maybe before July 1, 2017. With a huge portfolio and ramifications for many companies and jobs, Minister Joly must realize that change is often difficult. Will we see new programs added to the status quo, or wholesale change?

CMF Trends 2017: the Content Value Chain

Posted on by
Reply

The Canada Media Fund‘s CMF Trends has published its latest Trend Report: The Digital Puzzle: Piecing Back Together the Content Value Chain.

This 21 page PDF is packed with up-to-date statistics and asks germane questions such as:

“How has the new audiovisual value chain been reconfigured?
Which players are best positioned to make the most of it?
In an era of overabundance, what types of content stand out?”

One of the telling charts is Advertising Spending which shows that internet advertising is up 500% in the last 10 years versus TV advertising which remains flat — and that internet advertising surpassed TV advertising in 2013. Moreover, Google and Facebook are expected to command 73% of each additional digital ad dollar over the next three years.

Other strong trends:

  • An online environment dominated by a handful of platforms controlled by big players seems to have evolved, resulting in what some call a ‘discovery oligopoly’ that controls each stage of the consumer journey: access, discovery and consumption.
  • At the global level, consumer demand has crystallized around three categories of content: drama series, youth programming, and live content.
  • Diversity is a winning business model. Focusing on cultural diversity and gender equality means reaching a wider audience, promoting the development of technologies for all, and, ultimately, generating greater profits.
  • Silicon Valley and Hollywood are no longer the only ones
    calling the shots. New hubs are emerging elsewhere, especially in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), and China, in particular, which has become an increasingly important player in technological development, investment, and coproduction.

Two interesting quotes:

“As viewers gain more control of their programming grids, the owners of non-essential and non-live content are at significant [risk]. Either you are live and large… or dead. — MoffattNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, 2016″

“But one thing is certain: content will be at the center of where the industry goes from here. And those who own and control the content will help steer the direction. — The Boston Consulting Group, The Value of Content, 2016″

My take: definitley worth the read. In many ways, this is the mediascape I began wondering about a dozen years ago. Currently, my media consumptions looks like this, in no particular order: live TV news and events, live TV sports, a handful of ‘real time’ TV series on the East Coast feed (so three hours earlier on the West Coast), a Chromecast TV app for The Daily Show, iTunes Internet Radio, Netflix for movies, foreign TV series and Chelsea, Crackle for Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Twitter, Flipboard, and Periscope apps, plus Paper.li, On Screen Manitoba News and other web sites for type content, quite often via Google. Oh, and The Weather Network! How about you?

Gender Parity Coming to Canada Soon!

Posted on by
Reply

The Canadian Media Producers Association recently released a study of gender inequality in Canada’s media industries titled “Women & Leadership: A Study of Gender Parity and Diversity in Canada’s Screen Industries”.

The 62-page report spans the globe and is number-heavy. It concludes with a call for a six-pronged approach to gender parity:

  1. Disclosure & Research
  2. Financial Incentives
  3. Conscious Inclusion Initiatives
  4. Skills Training
  5. Confront the Portrayal Issue
  6. Diversity within Gender

Specifically, in terms of financial incentives:

“Many of the senior women interviewed pointed to levering ‘financial purse strings’ as the only effective and immediate means to change. The two leading suggestions identified are: 1. introduction of 50/50 allocation in all public funds as between female-led and male-led projects; 2. introduction of incentives for both producers and broadcasters such as top-up funding or a bonus tax credit for female-led projects.”

Proving it can be done in Canada, the report releases figures on BravoFACT‘s move to gender parity in 2015:

“Most importantly, the results of this initiative clearly demonstrate how setting firm targets can have an immediate impact on social change. In this instance, one year after setting parity as a firm goal, the percentage of female producers and directors of projects funded rose to 59% and 49% respectively.”

My take: this can’t happen soon enough for me. Maybe we can solve the wage gap at the same time.

Equity Crowd-funding in Canada

Posted on by
Reply

When we think of crowd-funding, Kickstarter and Indiegogo come to mind.

For instance, over 20,000 film and video projects have been successfully funded on Kickstarter, with an average goal of approximately $5,000-$10,000 and pledges of about $25-$30.

But what if you want to raise much more money, and instead of giving away ‘rewards’ (otherwise known as perks or swag) you want to give away shares in your project company? Enter Equity Crowd-funding or Crowd-investing.

There are two options when crowd-investing in Canada: the Start-up Crowdfunding Exemption and the Regulation Respecting Crowdfunding.

The maximum value that can be raised is $250K twice a year with the first, and $1.5 million with the second.

Four provinces allow both, four don’t allow either and the rest allow one of each.

FundingNomad is the new kid on the block in Ontario:

“FundingNomad is a crowdfunding platform that presents exclusive deals to investors that have been fully vetted and selected by our professional team of experts. Many angels and institutional investors choose to invest through FundingNomad because of the increased efficiency and access to deal flow.”

My take: keep in mind, most investors are in the game to make money. When you invite investors into your company, you’re competing with all the other investment opportunities out there. So, your promise needs to be unique and the return attractive, or you need to appeal to other motivators. For docs, that might be the cause, for narrative projects, that might be the stars, for instance.

Woody Harrelson: live cinema pioneer

Posted on by
Reply

Believe it or not, Woody Harrelson pulled it off!

Last week I posted about his audacious plan to to live-stream live cinema. Apparently, other than a few bumpy bits, it worked!

From the Guardian review by Ryan Gilbey:

“Even at its liveliest, cinema can only ever be a refrigerated medium, relaying images to us that were shot months, years even decades earlier. But this week there was an exception to that rule. Woody Harrelson’s directorial debut, Lost in London, was broadcast live to more than 500 cinemas in the US, and one in the UK, as it was being filmed on the streets of the capital at 2am on Friday. As if that were not impressive enough, the picture was shot in a single unbroken 100-minute take with a cast of 30 (plus hundreds of extras) in 14 locations, two black cabs, one police vehicle and a VW camper van festooned with fairy lights. Actors who try their hand as a director typically start off with something small-scale – a sensitive coming-of-age story, say, such as Jodie Foster’s Little Man Tate or Robert De Niro’s A Bronx Tale. With Lost in London, Harrelson went as far in the opposite direction as one can imagine. This was edge-of-the-seat, seat-of-the-pants film-making. He didn’t just jump in at the deep end: he did so into shark-filled waters. … Nothing, though, will quite match the sensation of having watched the messy but miraculous birth of a genuine oddity: part celebrity satire, part mea culpa, part site-specific, one-night-only art installation.”

My take: unfortunately, none of the theatres were located in Canada. Netflix, can you get this please?

“Live Cinema” to go live tomorrow night

Posted on by
1

A cinematic first is happening in London and the United States tomorrow night.

Woody Harrelson is directing his first feature film, Lost in London. It’s a film he wrote and stars in.

But what’s particularly notable is that this film will be the first to be streamed directly into theatres in real time, while it’s being shot.

Woody’s friends are telling him that’s a bad idea.

Entertainment Weekly has interviewed him:

“EW: What’s the closest comparison between this and something else you’ve done?

WH: Holy moly, I’ve never done anything where I felt like this. I guess a comparison might be Saturday Night Live. That’s like doing live theater, though you have commercial breaks. But to do it 100 minutes in a row with no break? Yeah, it might be accurate to call this insanity.”

The show starts at 6 p.m. on January 19, 2017 (9 p.m. on the West coast) at over 600 theatres.

My take: I applaud Woody for the audacity to try this. With 14 locations, it’s not a filmed stage play. But with no editing possible, the acting and cinematography need to be excellent. He knows there was post-production on Russian Ark, right? Must be watching too much Periscope Live 360 or something.

Only 13% of 2017 movies are original vehicles

Posted on by
Reply

Fandango, the American movie ticket company, recently polled its users to determine the 30 most anticipated films of 2017.

As usual, Hollywood does not disappoint.

There are few surprises here; the vast majority are instalments in comic book franchises or other sequels.

When I say Hollywood doesn’t disappoint what I mean is that they show the usual trepidation to try something, anything, new.

Without further ado, here are the titles, sorted by release date:

January 20: XXX: The Return of Xander Cage
February 10: The Lego Batman Movie
February 10: John Wick: Chapter Two
February 10: Fifty Shades Darker
February 17: The Great Wall (Matt Damon, the Great Wall of China and monsers)
March 3: Logan (Wolverine)
March 10: T2: Trainspotting
March 10: Kong: Skull Island (from the producers of Godzilla)
March 17: Beauty and the Beast
April 14: The Fate of the Furious
May 5: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
May 12: Snatched (Amy Schumer goes on vacation)
May 19: Alien: Covenant
May 26: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
May 26: Baywatch (from TV)
June 2: Wonder Woman
June 9: The Mummy (reboot)
June 16: Cars 3
June 23: Transformers: The Last Knight
June 30: Despicable Me 3
July 2: Spider-Man: Homecoming
July 21: Dunkirk (directed by Christopher Nolan)
July 28: The Dark Tower (by Stephen King)
July 14: War for the Planet of the Apes
October 6: Blade Runner 2049
November 3: Thor: Ragnarok
November 17: Justice League
December 15: Star Wars: Episode VIII
December 22: Pitch Perfect 3
December 22: Jumanji (sequel)

I believe only four of those 30 films are original vehicles. In other words, roughly seven out of eight movies are remakes, reboots, sequels or franchise instalments.

My take: The only films on this list I might see are Blade Runner 2049 (this sequel is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Ryan Gosling, both Canadians), T2: Trainspotting (just because) and maybe Kong (if it’s campy enough). By the way, tomorrow is National Screenwriters Day!