February 22, 2022
This past weekend, I was lucky enough to have three days off, for President’s Day (thanks Boss… er, me) which meant I had more time than usual to catch up on streaming. Thank God I had that extra time though, because I needed it just to sort through all of the crap on my five different streaming services just to find the 2-3 available movies and shows that I actually wanted to see. Then the next evening, I had to do it again since I couldn’t remember which service had the films and shows I’d just added to my queue the night before (do not blame age).
Luckily, I pay for these services, so I didn’t have to sit through ads, although I did have one too many previews stuck in there by Amazon Prime. But in a way, I guess I was sitting through ads, as I scrolled past all of the suggestions Netflix et al., were giving me via their algorithm, which still doesn’t seem to know what I want, even if I ask specifically for “new” films – not new to the service, or “released in the past year” or “exciting”… no Netflix, exciting is not a synonym for new. Not to mention all the “Included with Prime” suggestions. Ads.
This shit is so broken that each week, I open an email from some new company that is asking me to feature their new version of TV Guide in the newsletter – some app that will use some other algorithm to tell me what I want to watch and where it is located – but none of those new apps help me get to where I want to go either (and none of the founders realize I already tried to build this shit with Flicklist, so I'm gonna want it to be pretty stellar). And then, if I write about streaming, I get tons of emails from readers asking if I’ve found anything better, because they’re also stuck wondering if there’s anything to watch on any of their services.
Then I turn to trade press, or LinkedIn, and see some other pundit talking about the wonderful mash-up that will be Discovery+HBO+Max+CNN, or how Netflix is doomed unless it buys ViacomCBS neé Paramount and adds advertising… and I start to wonder how I cut this new cord before it gets bundled even further?
There’s a reason that tens of millions of people cut the cord to begin with, and most of the reasons we left cable behind are being rebuilt into the new streaming system. There was too much crap we didn’t want. It was too expensive. The customer service was built by sadists. There were too many ads, even though you were paying through the nose for this crap already. And there was a trend towards mediocrity that stifled the soul. Until recently, you could define cord cutters as people who didn’t care about 24hr breaking news, sports or reality TV, because you weren’t gonna find that shit if you did cut the cord. Most cord cutters – until about 2020 – wanted good movies and great series, on demand, on their own time, without interruptions. They didn’t want a new cable, and especially not one where you can’t find anything and pay more than before to get less.
Now that NBC and Discovery are following Netflix and Amazon into the streaming lands, and the latter seem to want to become the former (why, oh why?!), every remaining customer needs to cut the cord just to get the crap the cord cutters never wanted in the first place, so more of that shit has to be made to keep them coming. It’s an endless, spiraling circle that descends into the lower levels of a hell different than what I remember from Dante, but definitely involving some fraud and treachery.
So now, all of us cord cutters are wondering – how do we cut this new cord? And can I still get my TikTok with that snip? I think we’ll be stuck here until we give all these folks a few more billions to spend on more content – so they can charge us more for the privilege of seeing what we wanted to unsee (see Amazon's price hike in the lead photo above) - before enough people realize this wasn’t what we imagined for the future of streaming, all of it collapses, and we build something better (again). In the meantime, send me your TV Guide apps and those of you with more pull than me might want to convince someone that more better bests just more.
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Film
Video games are beating Hollywood at its own game: Uncharted is hailed as one of the most action-packed cinematic video game series to date. And contributor for Digitaltrends, Giovani Calantonio makes the case that its film adaptation, Uncharted, starring Tom Holland, just doesn’t compare — the video game, which took 15 years to build, boasts better, more impressive set pieces and intricately-planned out action sequences. “The film adaptation of Uncharted underlines an awkward reality for Hollywood. When it comes to big-budget spectacle, movies are no longer the best way of delivering action.” Action-fanatics also love that interactive factor. Movie-watching is a more passive experience and “will always be a focused, less-demanding storytelling medium.” Put bluntly, audiences (especially younger ones) are getting bored faster and want to engage with their heroes in the action. Calantonio’s takeaway: “Video games have superseded [Hollywood Blockbusters] after over a decade of trying to emulate them.” “Weak parlor tricks” like 3D action movies [which once added an interactive element to these movies] ]are already overshadowed/replaced by a VR headset. (GSH) It could also just be that this movie sucked for many other reasons, but the bigger idea behind this story could still be true. (BN)
Netflix Agrees to new 15 Month Window in France: That headline might seem like a defeat if you don't follow the industry closely, but it's a win compared to the 36 month window that used to be enforced- by law - in France between a theatrical and streaming release. And it also comes with a commitment to more local funding of $45MM USD in French productions that begin with a theatrical release. All of this so Netflix can cooperate more with Cannes. It's both ridiculous and a sign of what can be done with more regulation in a market. Deadline reports. (BN)
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Branded Content
How Brands Can Go Beyond February To Celebrate Black Culture: “Like many other Black marketers, [Adage contributor Jackeline Stewart-Hawkins has] come to anticipate a swell of projects in the weeks leading up to month-long celebration of Black history and culture. Each January, brands scramble to put together their Black History Month marketing plans to be on trend. But, while Black culture sets trends, centering Black communities should not be reduced to one.” Brands need to include and represent Black people and culture in their marketing/content/mission…etc for more than a month for obvious reasons, one being that “Black people exist beyond February.” Hawkins also cautions against one-dimensional storytelling: “brands must reflect the diversity within diversity. Center multiple Black storytellers who represent a range of geographic, social and political perspectives. Resist the urge to always feature “perfect” talent. Denying us the space to be flawed undermines our humanity and upholds a society that only respects Black people who fit arbitrary, often whitewashed, standards.” Her final message to brands: “See you in March.” (GSH)
Apple’s Surreal ‘Shot on iPhone’ Film Pays Homage to Korean Cinema: Many years after shooting an award winning short film on an iPhone 4, Apple enlisted Park Chan-wook, critically acclaimed South Korean director (known for Snowpiercer, The Handmaiden and more) to shoot the first “Shot on iPhone” ad in South Korea. Adweek’s Brittaney Kiefer explains, the result is “Life is But a Dream” which “explores Koreans’ perspectives on the interconnectedness of life and death. The story follows an undertaker who digs up an abandoned grave to steal a coffin for the burial of a warrior called the “White Marten.” In the process he accidentally awakens the ghost of an ancient swordsman, who then rouses the spirit of the warrior. Drama ensues as life, death, a wedding and a funeral all come together in one surreal and macabre tale.” The film, which combines genres such as horror, fantasy, martial arts, rom-com, and musical, is, of course, shot on an iPhone 13 Pro. You can watch the short film by entering the Adweek article. (GSH)
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Miscellany:
Real-time round-up: the metaverse and emerging 2022 trends: Video game software developer and publisher Epic Games writes about their place in the architecting of the metaverse, a space they describe as a “shared social 3D world with persistence, discovery, moderation, and commerce.” For one, their application, MetaHuman Creator “empowers anyone to create photorealistic digital humans…in minutes. To date, over one million MetaHumans have been created.” What’s more, Epic Games’ game engine, Unreal Engine, is transforming the way creators tell stories: The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, for instance, “illustrates that the blurring of boundaries between film and games is now a real possibility.” Looking forward, we can expect these novel technologies and work-flows to shape branded content. We’ll start to see transmedia campaigns, “in which brands reuse the same digital assets for multiple marketing activations – and even bring them into the physical world.” We’ll also see “more and more augmented or mixed-reality graphics used to enhance live event content.” This is just the tip of the iceberg – check out their post for more! (GSH)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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