The Increasingly Digital World of Cinema

In 2013, Netflix took the glass ceiling crafted by more than 50 years of television and started making huge cracks. House of Cards became the first original online-only episode of television to receive a nomination for a major Emmy Award, and winning for the less-than-major (or so the Huffington Post tells me) Primetime Emmy Award of Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

In 2014, Netflix started cracking the nearly-century-old glass ceiling of film and managed to nab an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature for The Square.

And in 2015, Netflix busted the glass of the TV ceiling with a major Emmy Award win for Best Supporting Actress of Uzo Aduba in Orange Is the New Black.

This year, Netflix has continued its brief but insistent tradition of pounding on the door of traditional media (sorry, swapping metaphors real quick) with its 4th year in a row of nominations for Best Documentary, this year for Ava DuVernay’s 13th. Meanwhile, Amazon has managed to jump ahead and land its first appearance at the Academy Awards with nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor, and Best Picture for Manchester by the Sea (which, unlike Netflix films, was shown in movie theaters on wide release).

None of this is to say traditional media is dead. But it is definitely changing, and “new media,” or online-focused media, is coming fast. As Dylan sang, the times, they are a-changin’. (The hint should’ve maybe been grabbed when Joss Whedon’s independent musical phenomenon Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog won a Creative Arts Emmy in 2009, but it took a while for people to catch on.)

Just look at YouTube for an example. Created slightly more than a decade ago, YouTube was originally the source of such videos as Charlie the Unicorn, Chocolate Rain, and Annoying Orange. And a veritable slew of cats playing instruments. Now? YouTube has launched a pay-service titled YouTube Red, has had an Emmy Award-nominated series via Honest Trailers, and in 2016 saw the first former YouTube star win a major film and television award, the Golden Globe, via Rachel Bloom, composer, creator, and star of the hilarious and uncomfortable as hell Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (watch it, it happens to be on Netflix as well as The CW).

Think about that. Someone on YouTube, who was previously best known for the absurd and sexual comedy songs “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” and “You Can Touch My Boobies,” a talented woman who got into comedy as a “Meh, why not” moment, has won one of the most prestigious awards available to Hollywood performers. If that’s not a sign that YouTube is on the rise, I don’t know what is.

Think about all the mockery YouTube stars get. Sure, we allow that some musicians or singers get discovered on YouTube, like Justin Beiber, but film and television stars? No one with talent would start making videos on YouTube, right? WRONG, said Rachel Bloom, who then probably wrote a song mocking you for thinking such ridiculous things. (And Donald Glover, even though his YouTube fame started with his music as Childish Gambino, not his acting.) According to a 2015 survey conducted by Variety, YouTube performing artists and celebrities are more popular among teens than celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Steve Carell, and Taylor Swift, with 8 of the top 10 most popular on the survey originating on YouTube.

But the flow isn’t just one way. Netflix has just recently announced that Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese will be developing his long-laboring film The Irishman with their company following the corporate chaos at his usual studio Paramount. Further, according to a list of the most subscribed YouTube channels, excluding media categories, six channels are official VEVO channels for major musicians, and The Ellen Degeneres Show’s official channel comes in at number 14. Based on views, the official YouTube channel for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., comes in at number 4, with more than 12.7 billion views. Television and film have also made heavy appearances in the digital world, with the largest viral video hit of 2016 being The Late Late Show with James Corden’s clip of “Carpool Karaoke featuring Adele.” The online popularity of that segment has become so strong, they have created a spin-off show for the segment produced by CBS TV Studios and distributed by Apple Music.

Additionally, according to PwC, 78% of consumers subscribe to at least one service that delivers film and television content via the Internet, without the need for traditional cable or satellite TV subscriptions. Furthermore, smartphone users spend 71% of their time on mobile devices using apps. According to Business Insider, “Google, Facebook, Baidu, Yahoo, and Microsoft accounted for 19% of all the global ad spend flowing through all media” in 2015, and the #1 media company in the world is Alphabet, the holding company for media giants YouTube and Google. Coming in at #5 and beating out both Viacom and CBS Corporation is Facebook, which also owns the social media application Instagram.

Whether you’ve thought about it or not, everyone reading this has almost certainly seen or experienced the effects. Instagram trailers, repeating autoplay ads on Facebook, official Twitter accounts, and teasing teaser trailers. Traditional media scrambles and fights to figure out that sweet spot of crafting the viral hit that is the perfect blend of entertaining, memorable, and not annoying. Most of the time, like with the Norwegian comedy talk show I kveld med Ylvis, it’s a complete accident. But while studios invent more and more ridiculous and forgettable campaigns, some are starting to reach out to those born by the internet’s digital production formats for ideas. For example, Academy Award-winners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have teamed up with 14 YouTube creators to foster and create short form film and television ideas through their new venture New Form Incubator.

So, ultimately, what does this all mean for the film and television industry? Well, we’ve seen studios attempting to regain the kind of control they had in the 1940s and ’50s, being more heavily involved with developing stories and creating massive multi-film deals… and we’ve seen that backfire for basically everyone not named Marvel/Disney. I think what we’ll begin to see is more traditional media gurus dipping their toes into the digital media waters, while studios start to look at new media for ideas, creators, and content. It’s been happening by degrees, but things are going to start speeding up, especially if Manchester by the Sea wins that Best Picture Academy Award. Don’t worry, though. Television and film aren’t dead. After all, we’re in a golden age of television where quality content is being created left and right, given near blockbuster film budgets. So they won’t leave yet. They’re just coming to a computer screen near you. And who knows? Maybe by this time 5 years from now, there will be an Academy Award for Best Picture-nominated film distributed on your smartphone instead of in theaters. Wouldn’t that be something?

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