NAB
The imaginary
worlds in Disney and Universal’s theme parks will become increasingly
immersive, predicts the latest Future Today Institute Tech Trends report.
article here
Storytelling
experiences themselves will move to a collaborative model, where the audience
has varying degrees of impact on how the narrative unfolds. This in turn opens
up the opportunity for repeated engagement with entertainment franchises.
“The entertainment
industry is at a tipping point, where new technologies are allowing exploration
of completely new forms of expression,” says the FTI’s chief executive, Amy
Webb.
The report itself
spans multiple industries and the section on entertainment alone runs 70 pages. NAB
Amplify has edited the highlights that the TFI has culled from hundreds of
sources, including securities filings, patents, academic research, market
research firms, white papers, and the press.
Synthetic
Influencers
The influencer
economy, estimated to be worth $16 billion last year, is giving creators
control over their businesses with the consequence that power is shifting away
from social media platforms.
TFI thinks the
influencer economy poised to eclipse traditional marketing and advertising
channels but that virtual or synthetic influencers are about to muddy the
waters.
Some of these
computer-generated characters have already amassed social followings in the
millions, agency representation, and partnerships with brands but most
importantly they are “unencumbered by the demands and limitations of human
influencers.”
Remote Revolution
The content
production process is being upended in a number of ways, among them the build
out of remote and decentralized workflows away from the traditional production
hubs.
Instead, talent in
regions like New Mexico, Turkey, Australia and Southeast Asia are benefitting
from being able to be connected to a production which might be produced in
other parts of the world. At the same time, the report thinks there’s a
virtuous circle not only in productions being made quicker and cheaper but,
paired with global streaming channels, affords a chance to “showcase a greater
variety of voices from different cultural and demographic backgrounds.”
Participating in
the Story
Spatial audio,
volumetric video capture, and haptics will increasingly allow us to hear, feel,
and see the action, “transforming us into participants rather than spectators
of the events happening on our screens.”
What’s more, as the
capabilities of our technical devices expand, consumers don’t just watch their
favorite content, they experience the narratives with all — or most — of their
senses.
“However, as
consumers become accustomed to multisensory engagements, and enabling hardware
becomes more accessible, expectations might shift in other areas of
entertainment. This provides additional layers for storytelling: What does a
location smell like? Where is the sound coming from? Is it windy or hot?
Creatives may need to design olfactory, sense, and spatial elements, just as
sound and production is designed now,” the report proposes.
Incorporating these
aspects in storytelling will also potentially help bring viewers back into the
cinema, where the sensory experience can be better controlled and the necessary
hardware can be made available.
Customized Content
Stories are
evolving from finite products to flexible formats consisting of a variety of
modules that can be combined in a near infinite number of ways. AI-assisted
writing can adjust plotlines automatically to fit the viewer’s taste profile,
based on such data as a person’s past viewing choices, browsing history, and
favorite online publications.
The practicality of
producing “modular narratives” requires that exponentially more material be
shot than with linear storytelling.
Naturally, this
inflates costs and production time. It also changes the kind of control that
directors, producers and writers can exercise over their product.
“Their work becomes
an environment and narrative setup in which a variety of actions can take place
— similar to what a game designer provides,” the report suggests.
It also questions
whether personalized content-on-demand will touch people in the same way as
today’s movies. If everyone consumes different versions of a narrative
ecosystem, the foundation for a broader societal discussion shrinks or changes,
possibly hindering the exploration of important, controversial topics.
Two-Way
Storytelling
We will see more
Massive interactive live events, or MILEs, hybrids of TV shows and video games
with a storyline that unfolds continuously over several weeks, where viewers
can interact with the livestream to influence the action.
Different stories
will lend themselves to different degrees of relinquishing control and
different forms of consumption, opening up doors for endless experimentation.
This new hybrid will also cross-pollinate audiences between gaming and
streaming and create new business opportunities for existing titles on both
sides.
Another advantage
of participatory narratives: What happens will be novel and different each time
an experience is launched, keeping the fan community continuously engaged.
AI Voice Dubbing
AI systems can now
take a movie’s dialogue and dub it into multiple languages, re-creating actors’
original voices (Val Kilmer’s reunification with Tom Cruise in Top Gun:
Maverick was recreated by vocal clone). With synthetic media applications
adjusting lip movements to fit the spoken words, authentic localization of
content can now be achieved quickly and cost efficiently.
The technology can
also amplify the impact of such content: Viewers are able to recall dubbed
material much better than content with subtitles.
Push Button Video
Text-to-video
solutions enable companies to scale their corporate communication and marketing
messages.
While long-form
narrative content is far from being produced with a single push of a button,
the increasing number of end-to-end solutions, bundling algorithmic voice and
image technologies, will be accessible and increasingly utilized by
budget-conscious companies, members of the creator economy, and regular
consumers. The ease of use and rapidly improving quality of these tools will
further heat up competition for viewers’ attention.
Virtual Concerts
Take Off
Virtual reality
concerts first gained popularity during the pandemic to make up for canceled
shows. Now they are evolving into their own category of entertainment,
providing more intimacy with performers and new opportunities for smaller acts.
Megan Thee
Stallion’s “Enter Thee Hottieverse” tour is just one example of a recent VR
experience from a popular artist who can make more money virtually than on a
physical tour.
Monetization
opportunities include merchandise and experiences. And the gaming environment
presents natural crossover potential. As companies explore opportunities to
make VR available to smaller bands, those artists will potentially be able to
connect with and monetize their audiences without having to go on tour.
Live acts are also
freeing themselves from location-specific constraints. Volumetric capture and
ubiquitous highspeed connectivity promise to replicate performances in real
time to any venue.
Personalized Theme
Park Experiences
Existing theme park
customer platforms, mobile apps, and wearables provide an ever more optimized
and personalized experience to park visitors, thanks to AI and sensor
technologies.
For example, in
Hamburg, the “Yullbe Wunderland” experience allows participants to “shrink” to
miniature size so they can dive into the world of the largest model railroad
ever created. Up to six people wander through a 250-square-meter space, each
wearing a backpack computer, VR headset, a helmet with infrared sensors,
microphone, headphones, and hand and foot trackers. Data from this uniform, as
well as from 150 cameras in the room, combines with data from other users to
enable collaborative sensory experiences.
VR entertainment
experiences use the technology for localized social activities that stimulate
all the senses, enabling customers to fully immerse themselves in artificial
worlds.
Merging Physical
and Virtual Theme Parks
The next frontier
is connecting these platforms to data outside the park ecosystem for even
greater personalization and user friendliness.
For clues look to
Disney+, which announced last October that it would morph into an experiential
lifestyle platform that enables data exchange between its park and streaming
services, while providing a more personalized experience in both.
Both Universal
Studios and Disney filed patents that transmit data about personal preferences
from guest wearables to park entities — staff, for example, could communicate
accordingly or trigger customized experiences. The two companies also have
plans to bring their parks into virtual realms.
“If theme parks
fully embrace a presence in the metaverse, it could lay the foundation for an
entirely new form of experiencing theme parks, one that’s not bound by
real-life limits such as lines, hours of operation, or weather.”
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