From Terminator to Animator, Tech in Hollywood Rules
Hollywood has long been a hotbed of technological innovation. From the introduction of ‘talkies’ to the golden age of Hollywood glamour and completely new worlds made of pixels created by artists and computer scientists – it is an industry that has perpetually reinvented its formats to push the boundaries of entertainment.
Los Angeles is famed for creativity. The creators that get big movie projects off the ground are entrepreneurial in spirit and creative by nature.
As the global hub for media and entertainment, startups in the sector have unparalleled opportunities to partner with leaders in these fields, creating a strong culture with entrepreneurial flair that feeds other parts of the ecosystem. Here are five ways the industry is being transformed by technology and why we’re talking all things Media & Entertainment at 4YFN in LA.
1. From Terminator to Animator
For most people, what they know and understand about artificial intelligence is what we have garnered from movies like Terminator and iRobot. It is thanks to Hollywood that we’re so well acquainted with these sci-fi ideas, although usually with a dystopian twist.
But AI is already proving its worth on film sets, beyond its role as a convenient plot device. Film makers in the US are harnessing AI to find new ways of incorporating humans into CGI and changing the perspectives of photorealistic CGI objects in moving shots. The work currently painstakingly undertaken by humans over days can be achieved in hours by AI-systems. Time is money and compressing timelines on movie projects is very good for business.
AI is also being used to edit movie trailers and predict movie tastes and streaming suggestions. Deepfake technology is expected to take the world by storm in the coming year and has already been used in the movies to bring late actors back from beyond the grave.
2. Dated Data
Film projects suffer from a heavy data burden, generating terrabytes of data each day on set that has historically been fragmented. The transition to cloud is generating new opportunities for collaboration across sets, adding efficiencies and creative dynamics that help productions to thrive.
3. Crowd Entertainment
As anyone in the business of show business can tell you, funding remains a major barrier for projects, especially independent ones that sit outside of the big studios. Access to finance for creative projects is being democratized with crowdfunding, bringing new ideas to the screen with microfinance. In each of the last few years, the Sundance Film Festival has premiered a number of movies financed through Indiegogo, one of 4YFN LA’s sponsors.
4. The Wire
And then there is streaming. Streaming has changed distribution of entertainment as we knew it forever. Beyond just the on-demand services we all like to enjoy, the dissemination of digital formats to cinemas has been a revelation for distributors. Compression technology and exponentially greater bandwidths are changing the game.
5. Entertaining Ecosystems
Startups have a huge part to play in the ecosystem of the film industry as it continues to push forward and break the mould. Cultural innovators that can make it in LA are on the fast track to commercialization if they can crack one project, keeping the ecosystem thriving there.
At 4YFN LA, we are very lucky to partner with Sprockit, a trusted and proven industry leader, to bring top tier Media & Entertainment content to our stage and several of their startup members to our 4YFN pavilion. Key speakers include Kitty Gambel, VP, Unscripted Television, MGM; Audrey Morrissey, Executive Producer “The Voice” (NBC); and Bill McCullough, VP Creative Director, NFL Media among many others. Sprockit startups featured in the 4YFN pavilion include Cerebri AI, Raydiant, Stainless AI and The Q.
If you love technology and like to be entertained, then this is the program for you. Join us at 4YFN LA, 22-24 October. https://www.4yfn.com/los-angeles
