This story originally appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of Playback magazine

Future-forward media innovation rarely affects the nuts and bolts of mass-media content creation. The 22- to 42-minute TV show. The 90- to 120-minute feature film. The three- to five-minute YouTube video. All done in standard or high def and distributed among standardized channels.
But the ever-increasing ancillary content for those standardized products? Changing at a pace that seems to challenge even Moore’s Law.

Discoverability is the challenge of our time and technology is its double-edged sword. As much as it provides new tools for creation and distribution, it also clutters the environment with a million distractions. So how do you know what to invest in next, or put forward with your next CMF or Bell Fund application?

Here, bold entrepreneurs and big brains weigh in on what they think will be the next big thing in entertainment media and why — or why not — you should be paying attention to it.

James Stewart, Canadian 3D pioneer and principal of Geneva Films 

Stewart  is betting  on virtual reality as the next big thing in storytelling.

With an eye on both sides of the content-creation fence, Toronto-based filmmaker and commercial director James Stewart is an enthusiastic adopter of the next big thing. And for him, that’s virtual reality (VR).

“Absolutely it is,” he says. “In a way, it’s a continuation of what happened with 3D. 3D was, and is, very popular in cinema but it didn’t really take off on other devices. The next progression of 3D is VR and it’s going to happen in a substantial way in 2015 with the launch of Oculus Rift.”

Stewart was one of the first out of the gate with mass-market 3D in Canada, using both sides of his business to build what was at the time an arguably unrivalled skill set in 3D content creation. In addition to adventuresome commercial content for clients such as Lexus, he also handled the 3D mastering on Werner Herzog’s highly regarded 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. His latest project, Foxed, a stop-motion 3D short, is now going into development with Martin Katz’s Prospero Pictures as a feature, and will include an ancillary VR experience.

Stewart has the entrepreneur’s zest for the new, but he also believes innovation provides a means to stand out and get an early toehold in new markets.

“I think everybody should be into anything that’s new and innovative. But not everybody is like that. I embraced HD early and 3D and I like telling stories on different platforms. There’s always interesting opportunities for the first ones in on new platforms.”

He says he believes the potential for Oculus Rift is “as significant as the iPad or the way mobile has gone” and that producers and content creators have an opportunity right now to fill a void that will soon exist. Depending, of course, “on their ability to create great content.”

Ana Serrano, CFC director of digital 

Tasked with exploring bold new digital territory with and for CFC creators Serrano keeps an eagle eye on bleeding-edge trends – and she also sees a bright future for virtual reality.

“I think we’re definitely going to see a lot of digital media companies that have the bandwidth to explore and look at VR,” she says.

The CFC Media Lab, which is part think-tank, studio, school and accelerator for digtal creators and their creations, is already deep in the VR mindset, having built a VR extension for the David Cronenberg-inspired Body/Mind/Change exhibit (in association with Toronto-based Occupied VR) and the 360-video-capturing Bubl cam, from Toronto-based Bubl, was “accelerated” through the CFC’s IdeaBOOST program.

She says mass adoption of VR is within reach in Canada, thanks to recent developments such as YouTube’s confirmation (announced officially March 13) to several tech blogs in January that it will support 360 video.

“That’s a big thing,” she says. “Because when you see 360 video on the head-mounted displays or or the Cardboard or Gear VR, it’s really quite compelling. The resolution is not really quite there yet but you can imagine…UGC (user-generated content) 360 video is going to happen. You’ve got cameras that are the right price point for people to make it.”

Shelly Palmer, American tech pundit and media consultant

Palmer pegs new story arc forms as the big new opportunity in digital media.

While the internet of things and the awesome power and potential of smartphones intrigue and excite Palmer, he sees huge potential for content creators in new storytelling spaces like Snapchat.

Once thought of as a medium for teens and, well, sexters, Snapchat leapt into the media mainstream this January with the announcement of its Discover feature, which features Snapchat-specific content from major media organizations.

Snapchat storytelling through photos and video is a new kind of “film grammar,” he says, akin to the music video explosion of the ’80s and its influence on short-form stories. And broadcasters are already getting on board.

“If you’re 14 years old, you’d never want to watch ESPN, or any regular football again,” he says of ESPN”s Snapchat presence. “You’re in the locker room, you’re on the bench, the players are talking to each other. It’s not even backstage – it’s more personal than backstage. That’s a new kind of story arc that’s interesting and if I’m a creative, I have to respect new forms of story arc.”

Snapchat even commissioned an original series for Discover, Literally Can’t Even, from Hollywood scions Sasha Spielberg and Emily Goldwyn. The three-minute episodes evaporate after 24 hours. Bolstering the channel’s cred further, no less than Madonna selected the service to premiere her new music video in February and AT&T is supporting SnapperHero, a superhero-based Snapchat series from producer Billy Parks.

Mitch Joel, president of Montreal-based digital marketing agency Mirum

Joel who is also the author of Six Pixels of Separation and Ctrl. Alt. Delete, says niche is firmly the new mass – and broadcasters need to change their outlook.

YouTube superstar Bethany Mota has been on Mitch Joel’s radar for awhile. The self-made, self-taught online celeb has an eight-million-strong subscriber base and often over-indexes on individual videos by another two or three million. He often uses her in presentations to illustrate his “niche is the new mass” belief, he says, comparing her average video views with the high-profile launch of comedian John Oliver’s HBO political show that earned about a million viewers.

“These models are very, very profound to broadcasters,” he says. “These tiny niches are significant audiences. Go back to Bethany Mota. I was talking about her before [she appeared on Dancing with the Stars] and I’d ask the audience, raise your hand [if you know her] and nobody raised their hand. When I said John Oliver, everyone raised their hand. But that niche is still able to get nine, ten million subscribers.”

“The difference is the mindset of the broadcaster and the advertisers is that they look at niche and think small and marginal. They don’t understand that niche is the mass.”

– Image courtesy of Shutterstock