Movies

We often think about movies as being the big blockbusters that appeal to millions of people, and take millions of dollars and hours to create. But most of the moving images we see in our lives are not big blockbusters. They are the smaller, more local, common videos we consume on UA-cam and Instagram. These poles represent the common extremes of videos we consume, both in terms of production expenditures and duration. As we consider the future of movies, we should expect to see a greater variety emerging between these poles, and even pushing beyond them. Hit television series have established a precedent for the 100-hour narrative - that will grow to 2 or 300. And while television commercials have been telling 30-second stories for decades, Tiktok is expanding this form, and we should expect ultra-condensed story-telling to stick around and become even more deliberate. Production methodology and toolsets will also expand. The economics of digital versus physical world-building are on the brink of inversion, and we can expect to see movies utilizing virtual sets and characters not only because they are more flexible, but also because they will soon be less expensive. Digital set-builders might even license their creations for re-use, so that filming in 1920 NYC could become a consistent shooting location. Characters being similarly malleable will also become common. Actors and crew will use headset displays to be present in the digital environments. Editors will use the same displays to do their part. This evolved methodology and toolset will be utilized by the whole range of creatives: blockbuster-makers, indi auteurs, longform masters, micro-storytellers, as well as ordinary folks whose movies will continue to form the broad, fertile base of the always-on pyramid.
This video on “The Future of Movies” was commissioned by China Mobile as part of an online course. It is one of 36 lecture videos. A version with Chinese subtitles is available at Citic Migu: citic.cmread.co...
A transcript of the lecture in English is available here: drive.google.c...