Hello! I’ve been thinking about lifecycles, beginnings and ends, and the ever-expanding middle ground. The day, from dawn ‘til dusk, brings night. Fresh starts and cold turkeys. Ramp ups and downs. Seeds and harvests. Growth. Decay. You get it…
Life events, as productions, as dividing lines; more so, processes. Intersectionality.
Before. During. & After.
Pipelines, from one point to another. All the in-betweens can be timestamped, colored in, with context -- information and experience. They’re distances, marathons and sprints. The infinite race, the first launch is just the start of the process. And vice versa.
Projects. It is a market. It is constant, seismic. Incessant, eternal. A scam, where speed and quality are everything.
Recognizability. This might draw parallels to some of the recent headlines around actors licensing their name, image and likeness (facial and vocal) through the use of AI. If you haven’t, it’d be cool to fill out the poll before looking at the results to last week’s questionnaire about The Use of AI in Media. The ~1% rule holds true yet again with about 20 replies. I still need to try to gather more responses on a few other social platforms.
Doubles. I imagine some agent might get clever enough to parse out an actor’s life into segments with this technology. I want 70s Harrison Ford and late 90s Salma Hayek together in a movie, with a cameo from Tupac. Enter in public figures to the public domain, know you’re generally in the clear if you take a non-commercial approach and don’t carry malice in your work. Marked.
Indicate fair use with good intents, ask for forgiveness.
Civic centers. Municipalities might try to do this with cities as “digital twins” in virtual worlds. Landlords prevail, rent seeking missiles. I want the actors above to be set in Florence during the Renaissance, or maybe Prohibition era Chicago. If I took about an hour, I could whip up a slew of storyboards with variations of these characters and settings with AI. Mise en Scène.
Seek high-density, hyper-local territories.
Collectivity. The brand names aren’t enough, but they’re a start. Association games play to the audience, both studio execs and/or movie goers (B2B2C). The familiarity with talent is the common edge. Owning these fandoms, perhaps with a steady drip of content, will result in the ultimate benefit(s) through conversion. Again with 1% rule here, unless there’s more aligned interests though progressive community involvement. Get points on the board, together.
Barbells. The power vacuums rest on either side of the spectrum. The creators (few) and the consumers (many); fuse. All are instruments in a symphony, ingredients in a special dish. Interest groups as focus groups. Style and aesthetic parameters beget originality. To be tagged and labelled.
This has all happened before, and it will happen again.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. History rhymes. See ya next week. 6 left.
Tech
Horizon, blockchain game dev, raised $40m CD
Ludenso, AR for educational books, raised $1m TFN
Gamurs, esports gaming network, raised $12m Elysian SPM
Kive, AI visual content library, raised $7m TFN
Blackbird, restaurant loyalty and membership, raised $11m CD
Lego owner acq Kirkbi, ed-tech behind Brainpop for $875m WSJ
Metalenz, tiny cameras for 3D imaging, raised $30m TC
Replay to be a partner on Theta Dapp network Med
Nxyz, blockchain data, raised $40m CD
Scale3, web3 infra for devs, raised $5.3m Fins
Msft starting a Dalle2 competitor right into Office suite Verge
Fantium, “invest” in athletes, raised $2m (gl) SPT
Puttshack, like TopGolf for putting, raised $150m Fins
AI music generators TC
Meta employees don’t want to use the metaverse app Verge
Media
Disney Animation creating immersive experience like van Gogh (I biffed on that VG deal) THR
Banijay acq Beyond Intl (MythBusters) THR
Bytedance financials WSJ
Nflx “immersive” shopping experience at The Grove THR
UTA starts another venture fund with Investcorp Dead
LAMF looks to Spac Everton (hm) Bberg
Nintendo streaming concerts and live events VGC
Nflx unveils $7 ad tier CNBC
SkyStream launches new set top device Sky
NBCU inks immersive deal with Meta THR
Nflx to allegedly reveal more viewing figures thru Barb Fortune
Musk wants to turn Twtr into something like a WeChat Bberg
Roku launches more devices Bberg
Boost Mobile (owned by Dish) to get Spac’d by Dish chairman (art of the self deal) Reut
Primary Waves $2b deal with Brookfield to acq music copyrights Var
Meadowlark focused on docs/series THR
BMI moves into a for profit model Var
WBD shuts down Stage 13 and WBTV Workshop Var
Ryan Neece raised $200m athlete fund to invest in VC funds Forbes
ILM expands to Mumbai Var
Omidyar networks reporters in residence (hmu if interested) ON
Entertainment
Pitt’s Plan B explores a sale WSJ
Skydance receives $400m from KKR and daddy Var
Glass Onion to get one week in theater from Nflx Var
Uni wins Stephen King’s Fairy Tale w Paul Greengrass THR
Apple boards Skydance The Gorge w Anya and Teller Dead
Kolstad forms Story Kitchen around IP / world building (watch this space) Dead
Liam Neeson in talks for Naked Gun rebook THR
Kinglsey to lead Gaiman graphic novel Violet Cases THR
Oregon Trail musical film adaptation in works (everyone dies of dysentery) Var
Ryan Z and Sarah Murphy start Fat City w Anonymous Dead
Wicker Man TV series in dev with Serkis and Studiocanal Dead
Brosnahan and Oscar Isaac to star in Bway revival Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window THR
Conqueror Ent is a new prod co backed by Grains Valley, focused on China Dead
Dumb Money is the Gillespie film about Antisocial Network acq by Sony Dead
Toei and CJ launch live action / cartoon slates Var
Ryan Condal extends HBO overall deal Dead
Stanton to direct Blink of an Eye for Searchlight THR
BBC acq Firebird Pics THR
Andy Horowitz launches a producing “collective” with backing Dead
DnD doc in works from Hasbro THR
Jason Kim overall w 20th and Onyx Dead
Envison Ent receives investment from Magnus Rausing Dead
Amblin acq sci fi pic The Exchange Dead
Leto to play Lagerfeld Dead
Hello Sunshine developing Goldilocks Bears with Build a Bear (smart brand deal) THR
Disney+ acq Idina Menzel doc THR
Collaborative
Musical rhythm improves short term memory of faces PNAS
Bryan Lourd profile CNBC
State of AI report SOAI
Causeway trailer YT
Roblox to grow up with its audience Konvoy
Language models to simulate human samples Arx
Gavin Purcell on his web3 identity Med
AI Bill of Rights PDF
Hamish McKenzie on Substack stats SS
Alex Heath interviews Zuck Verge
Kent Bye mega-thread on Meta’s Connect VR day (who asked for the metaverse?) KBtwtr
America’s throwaway spies Reut
Learnings from the Index games summit Index
China gets around censorship with puns ROW
Buttplugs and chess championships ArsT
The Wonder trailer YT
Brain neurons into gaming PDF
How synch fees are evolving ST
Stars at Noon trailer YT
M3gan trailer YT
Minimum viable community (make $1k off em) MusicX
Simon DLR on staying on the story’s trail with crypto SDLR
Back to the basics with software Med
Black reality in fantasy Spot
DAOs in sports med
AI restoring film archives (and soon animation to live action) Med
Listen: Fake Joe Rogan x Steve Jobs pod ArsT
Read: The artists who wanted to bounce from IG and video NYT
Watch: Stable Diffusion in VR SFtwtr