March 3, 2022
It’s hard right now to concentrate on news of any kind that isn’t related to Ukraine, so much so that to be honest, I almost skipped writing anything this week. But while I didn't let a war stop me from writing, I'd understand if no one feels like reading.
To my mind, the other news this week that was worthy of any extra attention you might have was that Epic Games bought Bandcamp, but to my mind, the reason it’s important isn’t what anyone seems to be writing about (that I’ve found as of yet). Most articles about this are either bemoaning big tech swallowing their beloved little music site, or they seem to be wondering how Epic will merge music into their games, or the metaverse. But the reason this news was interesting and inspiring to me is what it says about Tim Sweeney’s vision for the future of the web and the world, or metaverse if you want to call it that (he's the CEO). And it’s clear that his vision is one that is participatory at its core – not just in the sense of audiences participating in the creation and enjoyment of the space, or in the sense of participating in the game, or in participating by loving the music inside the game or by the musicians you love, but as a participatory economy.
From that lens, bringing in Bandcamp (while keeping a lot of it independently run), makes perfect sense. Bandcamp equals participatory culture in so many ways. Not only do fans connect with and buy directly from the artists they love, but these artists/creators participate in the economic success in a manner that is much more artist-friendly than most platforms, indeed - it's what makes it a true platform. I don’t fear that anything will change there, because it goes against everything Sweeney and the Epic folks have been saying, and fighting for, for quite some time.
The entire Epic vs. Apple fight wasn’t just about the 30% app-store fee, but what that meant for creators in the future of the metaverse, and their role in a future economy not controlled by one company, and how they could profit. Many people didn't believe this, but Sweeney and his team argued this throughout the trial, and Sweeney has been arguing about this need for a while now. There are many examples, but just look back at this piece from 2020 in the GameMakers Letter where Sweeney talks about his vision for the future of the metaverse as a participatory economy, which I think is worth quoting at length –
“The other critical element of the Metaverse is it’s not just built by one mega corporation, right? It’s gonna be the work, the creative work of millions of people who can each add their own elements to it through content creation and programing and design. And the other way of adding value.
So it will be a massively participatory medium of a type that we really haven’t seen yet. And even though you have Fortnite and Minecraft and Roblox each manifest some aspects of it, I think we’re still pretty far from having the thing. But yet the talk about this thing is it’s not just the work of one company. It’s not just one company’s product or revenue stream. Right. We’re talking about a mass participatory media, which needs to be an economy [...]
And so the critical thing with this effort is to build out not just a 3D platform and to have technical standards, but also a fair economy in which all creators can participate, make money and be rewarded in an economy with both the principles ensuring that customers are treated fairly, that there is not, you know, massive fraud or scheming or scams. But also one in which companies have the freedom to release their own content and to profit from it.
You know, they say something is only a platform when the majority of the profit is made by creators rather than the company that built the thing right? [...]"
And that’s the future Epic is trying to help build, and which Bandcamp enables them to build better, as it has already built a creator centric, participatory economy around music. It’s a pretty genius move.
In the film world, the next step about five to ten years ago would have been to buy Vimeo next, as back then, Vimeo was all about building that same kind of economy for creators. But they’ve lost that vision and are more focused now on “enterprise solutions” and such. In fact, as of right now, I’m not seeing any currently successful company in the film space that is even thinking about this future anymore (some start-ups are, but no one with traction). The closest things we have to participatory tech in film are really just watch party - which is brilliant and has re-connected many friends I know to film watching - and Film TikTok, but those are far from the vision of the metaverse. And don't talk to me about VR Cinemas - done that, not participatory or fun.
Just to take this further for a moment – Joe Russo (of Avengers: Endgame, etc.) made the news a bit this week by saying to IGN that he thinks “that the [storytelling] revolution comes from the gaming side because that’s where the technology is.” Russo went on to say that “traditional film studios do not understand [the technology] nor is it part of their business plan to curate technology, house it, pay for it, pay for its development, hang on it.” (Thanks to GSH for bringing this article to my attention).
I think Russo is only partially correct – the film world won’t be part of this revolution, but not just because they don’t understand technology, but also because beyond appealing to fans in blockbuster movies (which Russo makes), they’ve lost any sense of how to think about building participatory culture, or a participatory (and less extractive) economy around this culture. That’s the future (and the past, but that’s another post). And that’s the future of storytelling, the metaverse, and of any “content” business. Good on Hollywood for using Unreal Engine (from Epic) to make cool content, but they need – we all need – to be embracing the rest of what Epic and Bandcamp represent – and that’s the whole participatory culture/economy concept. Whoever does for movies, if it's possible, will be the real artists and companies positioned for the future.
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Film
Muslim filmmakers on ethics and accountability in the documentary ecosystem: Join Firelight Media on Friday, March 4 at 4pm ET for a Beyond Resilience virtual roundtable discussion with Muslim filmmakers on ethics and accountability in the documentary ecosystem.Following the premiere of the documentary Jihad Rehab at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, these filmmakers and their allies have called for a broad re-examination of what constitutes ethics and accountability in the documentary ecosystem for funders, programmers, distributors, and filmmakers. The panel will include discussion of these filmmakers’ own representational storytelling practices. Moderator: Marcia Smith, Co-Founder & President, Firelight Media. Panelists: Karim Ahmad, Writer and Culture Strategist; Assia Boundaoui, filmmaker, The Feeling of Being Watched, and Firelight Documentary Lab alum; Sami Khan, filmmaker, St. Louis Superman; Marjan Safinia, filmmaker, And She Could Be Next **Accessibility notice: This event will include ASL interpretation.** Click here for more details and to RSVP.
Exhibit A: How to Apologize, own a mistake and help a community move forward:
Exhibit B: How to Not Do This:
What more can I say...?
AI-Generated Andy Warhol to Narrate New Netflix Documentary Series:The Frankenstein monster of 2022 is here, though not in the way Mary Shelley might have expected. “A new Andy Warhol documentary series, coming to Netflix next month, will resurrect the Pop artist using artificial intelligence. In the show, Warhol can be heard reading from his diaries. That voice, however, is not the artist’s own but rather the product of AI made to sound like him”, writes Alex Greenberger for ARTnews. As Greenberger points out, the documentary is representative of a growing trend: the use of AI in blockbuster documentaries. AI was used to resurrect the voice of Anthony Bourdain for Roadrunner and to bring to life the Beatles for the series Get Back. The use of AI is pretty cool, though it “has provoked debate about the ethics of utilizing the technology to enliven dead figures and generated questions about the truth-telling quality commonly associated with documentary filmmaking.” Check out the trailer for The Andy Warhol Diaries here. (GSH)
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Distributing Your Film Panel at the DCIFF
I'll be speaking this Saturday, March 5th at 11am ET on this panel on distribution at the DCIFF - my first in-person film event since the start of this pandemic. I'll be joining Sana Soni, Director of Sales at 1091 Pictures, and Phil Grabsky, producer and director at Seventh Art Productions (UK) for "deep discussion about film distribution, sales and associated strategies and realities." Register and more info here.
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Miscellany:
Meta to Start The Network by We the Culture: In its commitment to provide financial support to historically underrepresented populations, Meta created We the Culture, started by Black Facebook employees and creators. We the Culture Friday is the newest addition to The Network. Adweek’s David Cohen explains “the goal of the program is to empower those creators to become adaptable and build a sustainable business, with Meta providing funding, opportunities and resources along those lines.” You can check out what 2022’s creator class is up to here. (GSH)
Pussy Riot Founder, Trippy Labs, PleasrDAO Members Launch Ukraine DAO: Crypto users have arrived to defend Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. Nadya Tolokonnikova, founder of the Moscow feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot joined digital artist Trippy Labs and members of PleasrDAO to announce Ukraine DAO which is harnessing web3 tech to raise funds for Ukrainian orgs helping to alleviate suffering from the war. 10,000 Ukrainian flag NFTs minted on Ethereum will be available for purchase, with proceeds going to the Return Alive Foundation and NGO Proliska. “This is exactly what DAOs are for, making change offline in the real world harnessing the power of blockchain”, explains Alona Shevchenko, a Ukrainian activist. Ukraine DAO represents a big step in defining digital activism, and activism in the 21st century. Decrypt contributor Jason Nelson has the news. (GSH)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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