Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Seriality



On Friday there is to be a high-level international symposium organized by the HFF (The University of Television and Film Munich) devoted to the future of series production in a dramatically altered television culture. The HFF is not far away, just five tram stops, and so it would not be a too onerous outing. Shall I invest EUR 50 and attend? 

At my age there is no chance that I will ever again be professionally involved as creative producer, let alone showrunner. Might I not find it depressing to listen to and even to meet some of the generation now challenged by delivering entertaining 'seriality' in a digital cross-platform environment?

Do I need to be reminded of how much has changed since my soap opera days in the nineties? Back then none of the protagonists even had mobile phones... no conversation using what the Germans call a Handy ever provided a 'plot spin'. 

I wonder how in an on-demand non-linear video access world how tomorrow's showrunners will deploy social apps permitting the audience to influence an ongoing narrative? I wonder, too, whether directors will accept ceding control of the final edit, if multiple camera streams are made available in real-time and the choice of viewpoint is left to the viewer. Not feasible? For Formula One broadcasting the 'Race Control' app offers a choice of eight different and concurrent video feeds, There is coverage from in-car cameras and from the pit lane as well as social media via an integrated and editorially managed Twitter account.

And what fun it could be in the studio and on location to capture the action with improbably devices like the one shown below!








No comments: