Viewer Generated Content leaves Hollywood in the Dust
Viewer Generated Content leaves Hollywood in the Dust
The cost of quality as well as the expectation thereof, creates a perfect storm for disruption.
Join me and my colleagues for a General Seminar on the futures of storytelling and Hollywood on Wednesday May 17th.
In my humble corner of the space-time continuum, content creation tools are about as common as cat videos. Seriously, phones have become so advanced that even the lower end cinema cameras are only a few hundred dollars more than the latest model iPhone. It's like every Joe and Jill on the street can become Spielberg or Scorsese overnight.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I took a spin in the janky time machine and crash-landed a few years into the future. I emerged from the smoke, brushed myself off, and decided to watch some TV at my future-pal's place. Here, the barrier to creation is thin. The cost of achieving cinematic quality is as cheap as those ramen packets I survived on during college, and audience expectations have lowered like the speed of my internet during peak hours.
It's like meeting in the middle of a Venn diagram where one circle is "Great Production Value" and the other is "I can do this in my PJs". Viewer Generated Content, or VGC as the cool kids call it, has become as pervasive as my grandma on Facebook. Many entertainers have found their groove, happily dancing to the tune of their 1000 true fans.
But hold onto your popcorn, folks, because this isn't just about satisfying niche audiences anymore. There are a handful of shows that have exploded onto the mainstream like a cat meme on steroids. They've displaced decades-old franchises like the perpetually grim "CSI: Gary Indiana" and "Law & Order: Doxxed Victims Unit".
This timeline is a playground for creatives, a wild west where the sheriff is anyone with a camera and a dream. And honestly? It's about as chaotic, exciting, and unpredictable as a kid on a sugar rush.