5 ms·

“I wonder if, say, a bonobo throwing shit at a whiteboard full of titles as a method of deciding what projects to make would have more or less success than all

“I wonder if, say, a bonobo throwing shit at a whiteboard full of titles as a method of deciding what projects to make would have more or less success than all of these other ‘deciders’ who think they know what people want or don’t want.”[0] [0] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/netflixs-big-wake-up-call-the-power-clash-behind-the-crash-1235136004/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/netflixs-...

passion__desire 3y ago
Why is Netflix not following short high quality 1-3 min videos model which is popular with young crowd? They already have Fast laughs tab which mimics that. Youtube / Creative studios could pitch 1-3 min video ideas which Netflix could greenlight and provide just bare minimum capital to produce. If the final film is good, Netflix could buy the film and release on their platform. Current Trends which are in favour of above idea: 1] Story generation will get cheaper thanks to ChatGPT. 2] Film generation will get cheaper thanks to Stable Diffusion. 3] Short video formats are already very good, engaging. 4] RunwayML and so on.
- themitigating 3y ago
  Wasn't this what Quibi tried?
  - passion__desire 3y ago
    Not sure why Quibi failed. Maybe trying to get distribution/tech and content right at the same time didn't work for them. Netflix doesn't have distribution problem, just content and it should try to iterate on what works. Personally, there are so many short stories (e.g. by Greg Egan, Borges, others[0]) which I would like it to reach mass audience. Rights are tricky issue though. https://qntm.org/responsibilit https://qntm.org/responsibilit [0]
    - nerpderp82 3y ago
      Quibi failed because they over capitalized it and then pulled out when it didn't have the xxM DAUs. They basically launched and had an amazing journey in the same month.
      - Miraste 3y ago
        To be fair to the backers (such winning personalities as Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, ugh), it wasn't a case of 1M DAUs when they wanted 5M. It was more like 5k DAUs when they wanted 5M. The idea was dead on arrival, no amount of money and effort would've saved it.
    - mikeryan 3y ago
      Quibi was interesting - the more I think about it (I work in this space) the more I think they actually might have had something. The reason they failed is mostly because they went too big too fast. They spent almost a billion dollars in content at launch and expected to get a ton of people subscribed quickly at $8 a pop. Had a bit of a chicken and egg situation there. They needed enough quality content to justify that amount per month. But it was all new, untested content. When they didn't get the subscribers they had pretty much zero runway to ride it out and iterate.
- Miraste 3y ago
  The pitch/studio model does not work for short content, and it never will. It's too slow-moving and corporate. The videos that succeed in this format are zeitgeist, flash-in-the-pan trends that are faster to produce and more dynamic than even the laziest reality show. The production value doesn't really matter--if anything it's a downside past a point.
  - passion__desire 3y ago
    Odd1sOut (Youtube Creator) has a animation series on Netflix. So in some sense, Netflix is already doing it. They just have to create a marketplace for this.
  - nerpderp82 3y ago
    That is why you would need to fund creative teams and not specific projects. Those teams would make the zeitgeist shorts.
  - passion__desire 3y ago
    If hackathons in software work and produce good product ideas, why can't the same be possible in creative fields? Cutaways in Family Guy are already short jokes which are shared without broader context on social media and they are popular. Netflix can always A/B test newly introduced content to determine engagement. Already built up cultural context (e.g. idea of multiverse, matrix and so on)need not be re-introduced from scratch, so no need to spend screen time on them.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  Re. (1), not even slightly interested in spending time watching/reading a story written by ChatGPT.
  - passion__desire 3y ago
    Here's a good first draft of the short story I generated. https://pastebin.com/pDaJXHuC https://pastebin.com/pDaJXHuC
    - erehweb 3y ago
      This is interesting, but mostly due to the prompt you gave.
      - passion__desire 3y ago
        Here's another short story which GPT-4 churned out. https://pastebin.com/vyThZkvR https://pastebin.com/vyThZkvR

passion__desire 3y ago

Why is Netflix not following short high quality 1-3 min videos model which is popular with young crowd? They already have Fast laughs tab which mimics that. Youtube / Creative studios could pitch 1-3 min video ideas which Netflix could greenlight and provide just bare minimum capital to produce. If the final film is good, Netflix could buy the film and release on their platform. Current Trends which are in favour of above idea: 1] Story generation will get cheaper thanks to ChatGPT. 2] Film generation will get cheaper thanks to Stable Diffusion. 3] Short video formats are already very good, engaging. 4] RunwayML and so on.

themitigating 3y ago
Wasn't this what Quibi tried?
- passion__desire 3y ago
  Not sure why Quibi failed. Maybe trying to get distribution/tech and content right at the same time didn't work for them. Netflix doesn't have distribution problem, just content and it should try to iterate on what works. Personally, there are so many short stories (e.g. by Greg Egan, Borges, others[0]) which I would like it to reach mass audience. Rights are tricky issue though. https://qntm.org/responsibilit https://qntm.org/responsibilit [0]
  - nerpderp82 3y ago
    Quibi failed because they over capitalized it and then pulled out when it didn't have the xxM DAUs. They basically launched and had an amazing journey in the same month.
    - Miraste 3y ago
      To be fair to the backers (such winning personalities as Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, ugh), it wasn't a case of 1M DAUs when they wanted 5M. It was more like 5k DAUs when they wanted 5M. The idea was dead on arrival, no amount of money and effort would've saved it.
  - mikeryan 3y ago
    Quibi was interesting - the more I think about it (I work in this space) the more I think they actually might have had something. The reason they failed is mostly because they went too big too fast. They spent almost a billion dollars in content at launch and expected to get a ton of people subscribed quickly at $8 a pop. Had a bit of a chicken and egg situation there. They needed enough quality content to justify that amount per month. But it was all new, untested content. When they didn't get the subscribers they had pretty much zero runway to ride it out and iterate.
Miraste 3y ago
The pitch/studio model does not work for short content, and it never will. It's too slow-moving and corporate. The videos that succeed in this format are zeitgeist, flash-in-the-pan trends that are faster to produce and more dynamic than even the laziest reality show. The production value doesn't really matter--if anything it's a downside past a point.
- passion__desire 3y ago
  Odd1sOut (Youtube Creator) has a animation series on Netflix. So in some sense, Netflix is already doing it. They just have to create a marketplace for this.
- nerpderp82 3y ago
  That is why you would need to fund creative teams and not specific projects. Those teams would make the zeitgeist shorts.
- passion__desire 3y ago
  If hackathons in software work and produce good product ideas, why can't the same be possible in creative fields? Cutaways in Family Guy are already short jokes which are shared without broader context on social media and they are popular. Netflix can always A/B test newly introduced content to determine engagement. Already built up cultural context (e.g. idea of multiverse, matrix and so on)need not be re-introduced from scratch, so no need to spend screen time on them.
SoftTalker 3y ago
Re. (1), not even slightly interested in spending time watching/reading a story written by ChatGPT.
- passion__desire 3y ago
  Here's a good first draft of the short story I generated. https://pastebin.com/pDaJXHuC https://pastebin.com/pDaJXHuC
  - erehweb 3y ago
    This is interesting, but mostly due to the prompt you gave.
    - passion__desire 3y ago
      Here's another short story which GPT-4 churned out. https://pastebin.com/vyThZkvR https://pastebin.com/vyThZkvR