Content Creation for the Internet – SMPTE 2013

June 18, 2013, Entertainment Technology in the Internet Age, SPMTE and SCIEN conference, Stanford, CA—A panel took on the topic of new tools and concepts for the Internet. The program chair and moderator was Fred Fuchs from Riverside Entertainment. Speakers were Ann Greenberg from Sceneplay, Peter Hirshberg from Entrepreneur Marketing, and Carl Rosendahl from Carnegie Mellon.

Technology impacts creation, interaction, and storytelling. What happens in the intersection of technology, Internet, and storytelling?
Greenberg suggested that companies like Ion that started as a music label moved to trimedia. Now they do digital video identification and synchronize data. Gracenote generates music metadata as a part of their IP and identify video. They help to synchronize second screen offerings through their metadata. They blend interactive and metadata to make the audience the creative artist by interacting with the storytelling. The metadata adds intelligence to the script. Other companies are making all media more democratic. The standards are enabling the audience to receive and participate.
Rosendahl commented that be relationships between electronics engineers and film started back in 1980 with Pacific Data Images. This company eventually was absorbed by DreamWorks which went on to create movies like “Ants” and “Shrek”. The company develop new technologies and showed how to use them. Now the web is becoming a platform for video, and the next generation storytellers are creating new technologies that involve games, transmedia, and greater interactivity.
Hirshberg mused on the changing notion of platforms. The screen is now incorporating other senses and sensors to address artificial reality and big data. These new platforms require new tools and new models for the use of the tools. Now, user generated content and libraries working through open systems and social media are emerging to create new forms of media. These new forms create greater immersion, and provide feedback to features like gamification. The global village now drives attention to all people, and social features are in all media.
Over three quarters of all TV watchers are using a second screen at the same time. This social function distracts the audience, but now TV is easier to consume and getting better. One fourth of Twitter tweets are about TV, so the medium is more interactive with viewers. These changes also force producers to perform real-time social monitoring, to generate pop and sustain interest. As broadcasts move into transmedia, paths are not liked but are doing well with the intense fan base that immerses itself for days at a time in binge watching.
In the future, we will see more 2-way TV to build stories together. This interface will be more like the Kinect than Google Glass, since glass is not really for consumers. TV will be better because the video world will interact with you. Over time, we may even see free-floating screens where games, social media, data, and other devices change where we play.

Creation for the Internet, for demographics and people?
Greenberg agreed that content will be for people but, at the same time, all the people will have to be included. This dichotomy will require creation from interaction.

Will narrative change from just watching to connections with outside devices?
Hirshberg noted that the old media don’t go away, they just change. The viewers can match channels with their own interests, and the Web gives users control of time and participation. The value of brands will change as emotion and storytelling include the users.
Greenberg added that this is a high concept market. Transmedia will move into the story world, and the characters will drive the story. The onus will be on the creators to improve character development.
Rosendahl stated that TV is not a destination, so it has to be unlocked from localization.

If consumers are influencing producers, what the are the feedback mechanisms?
Greenberg proposed capturing screens through slave recordings with intelligence scripts. Twitter hash tags will feed into the scripts to take real-time pulse of the audience. This will be a significant change from current linear content when the audience effects the developments. In one recent experiment, deck released an album as sheet music only.
Hirshberg observed that a number of transmedia projects and experiments are going on. Twitter is the lowest common denominator for all of them.
Rosendahl mentioned that games, where players create the experience, can be applied to linear media and TV audiences. The technologies for massive interaction already exist, and the computer-generated images are just doing what we can do anyway, even though they can do much more.

How to make money in the intersection of games, storytelling, and narrative?
Greenberg responded that the industry becomes an attention economy. The bulk of this audiences over 40 years old, and international audiences are likely to be even older.
Rosendahl proposed extracting value from the participants, like casual gaming and games for women.
Hirshberg acknowledged that smaller audiences are a given for the larger number of channels. At the same time, production costs should drop as video becomes more like games. Transmedia still too expensive to be viable in the space.

Monetization as broadcasts changes, will participants yet paid?
Greenberg considered that some will buy and the industry can change models to freemium paths. Users should be compensated.

Kids are making music and videos and driving sales of these products without producers. Is music the leader into the new types of video?
Rosendahl objected that photography is just the opposite. The professional ranks are shrinking because anyone can do photography for free with low-end cameras. The problem is that amateur pictures mostly look amateurish.

Fuchs summarized that we need to find ways for people to collaborate. Producers need to learn what users want. The creative people, writers, etc. need to talk with the technical people to understand capabilities and trends. We are now in a transformation. Where the technical and creative people must learn from each other and work together.