Next to be obsolete: Making a living

[Andrew Reid]

Some worrying thoughts are occupying my mind at the moment so it might do me some good to let them out for a run... Here goes.

In the 1990s I grew up with the early internet, it wasn't very media rich due to the bandwidth constraints and it only worked well on a big screen with a keyboard at a desk, so it suited web pages and forums. Written stuff, basically. Come the y2k and we began to see the early social media sites like Myspace and then Facebook but you still had to use these at a desk. Which lends itself to being able to type long sentences and create art.

Come smartphones, they couldn't offer the full world wide web experience, on a pokey slow browser, but this changed with apps. So fast forward a bit to the 2010s... There has been a proliferation of apps into our lives, but it wasn't really until Youtube and Facebook Groups got some serious traction that things started to change. I used to be pretty confident in the EOSHD blogging days that if I sat down to write a review, or opinion, or do some proper journalism or get a scoop and break the camera news first it would get some attention and traction, now I am not so sure it will as it is a separate indie .com website outside of social media, and this is very bad news for the internet because we cannot let Meta and Google and a handful of other corporations OWN the entire web.

So to the making a living bit...

For creatives like photographers and filmmakers the internet was a real blessing, it allows you to setup stall with a website and get your work out there. You get noticed and then you get hired, that's how it used to work. There has to be a strong demand from industry for those positions as well, no matter how good you are it doesn't matter if the cinema industry is in a downward spiral.

Cinema and photography have to compete with other forms of content too.

Again it comes back to smartphones. Neither cinema and photography are well suited to a small screen and even smaller attention spans, they are supposed to be viewed on a large canvas and in a socially interactive way like in a gallery or theatre. Now with stuff like streaming, this works fine when everyone has a subscription to one or two of the same platforms like Netflix and are stuck at home with nothing better to do like during covid, but after a while there is a total oversupply of stuff to watch, and a total ADHD mess of an audience who is getting constantly distracted by social media content in direct competition to the long form stuff.

So we have a meltdown at the moment in the filmmaking industry, and even in the commercial videography industry where it is now so easy to shoot something, companies may as well hire an intern to do it or have some staff do it themselves, because the bar is set by social media and that as I said works best with very short authentic bursts of home made content, where production quality or even the camera doesn't really matter.

With photography, if you're an artist trying to compete for attention with all of that stuff you are going to be in trouble if you don't do double-duties as a social media influencer, which of course means making YOURSELF the story and front and centre. Not a lot of artists are all that comfortable with that. I'm not. So the business model now is that your content has to be free, and you merchandise it or earn from advertising and sponsorship due to your social media reach as an artist. And I REALLY hate that because it cheapens what it means to be a photographer or filmmaker.

At the end of the day, the photos and films should be what matter and they should be paid for.

PS

Have you noticed by the way - that the AI bubble has completely lost people's interest, the content is all so un-compelling? Why do you think this is... It's because there is so much of it... And it is disassociated with the artist's own hand... And that is exactly what all this tech has done to use filmmakers and photographers... The accessibility of tech means that there's now too much content, and not enough demand for the next piece.

A big economic correction is on the way.

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

because the bar is set by social media and that as I said works best with very short authentic bursts of home made content, where production quality or even the camera doesn't really matter

That is about the sum of it unless we are talking movies, series and advertising.

Most businesses seem prepared to have any old shit as long as it’s cheap. Or free. And plenty are happy to work for free because it’s a foot in the door innit?

And I think it’s happening increasingly in wedding video land… Social media is full of folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

So I’m just counting down the next 6 years and I’m done because I can’t change the situation and am not prepared to dumb down in order to conform.

And I think I can squeeze out another 6 seasons…

And when I say ‘counting down’ and ‘squeeze out’, I don’t mean coast, or not care, but rather keep putting out the highest quality content for the duration of my career both for myself and my clients.

But yes, it’s ‘everything’…quality, prices, attention spans…dumbing down in general.

[Andrew Reid]

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

That is about the sum of it unless we are talking movies, series and advertising.

Exactly, but those 3 are facing extreme competition too now...

Advertising work faces competition from the influencer garbage, and the ability to fly out influencers to a launch rather than film a professional ad for the web, etc.

Series, there's just too many.

Movies, too many and too many of them just no good.

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

Most businesses seem prepared to have any old shit as long as it’s cheap. Or free. And plenty are happy to work for free because it’s a foot in the door innit?

Yep, fully agree.

It's got sooooo bad. When the meritocracy breaks down, this is what you get. A race to the bottom!

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

And I think it’s happening increasingly in wedding video land… Social media is full of folks gushing about any old shit and actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

Yeah it's because they're digesting it on phones... it's fast food content.

Anything too crafted or demanding, and they just switch off.

Or perhaps just too ADHD distracted to focus on it, even if it grabs them in the first 30 seconds?

30 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

So I’m just counting down the next 6 years and I’m done because I can’t change the situation and am not prepared to dumb down in order to conform.

And I think I can squeeze out another 6 seasons…

And when I say ‘counting down’ and ‘squeeze out’, I don’t mean coast, or not care, but rather keep putting out the highest quality content for the duration of my career both for myself and my clients.

But yes, it’s ‘everything’…quality, prices, attention spans…dumbing down in general.

I hope we can turn the ship around. The industry is going to be in deep trouble if it doesn't.

The internet has to be nursed back to health. We can't afford to have any further slide into the pockets of Meta and the like... The founding principals have to be better defended!

[Clark Nikolai]

3 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

4 hours ago, MrSMW said:

... actually they seem to genuinely love rubbish over anything crafted.

 

I agree with both of you but one thing I've noticed to add to it is that with young filmmakers/videomakers/creators/viewers I get the sense that well-made media is viewed with suspicion whereas something sloppy or of low quality is viewed as having authenticity to it.

[Ninpo33]

26 minutes ago, Clark Nikolai said:

I get the sense that well-made media is viewed with suspicion whereas something sloppy or of low quality is viewed as having authenticity to it.

Good point. Also to add, if you’re a generation that grew up with reality television always being a constant, the look and feel of unscripted stuff feels very normal.
 

I work a lot in reality television and have to really think back to when it wasn’t dominating the channels. I don’t like it and it’s trash but it pays the bills and allows me to pick up other creative narrative stuff when we’re not filming. I miss the good old days of quality cinema and seeing something like the Matrix or Fight Club or Seven and just having a paradigm shift in the way I saw the world. 
 

 

[MrSMW]

5 hours ago, Clark Nikolai said:

I agree with both of you but one thing I've noticed to add to it is that with young filmmakers/videomakers/creators/viewers I get the sense that well-made media is viewed with suspicion whereas something sloppy or of low quality is viewed as having authenticity to it.

I don’t know if it’s so much suspicion as that folks have the attention spans of gnats and swipe & scroll is how we role these days.

Guilty myself, but not if I am looking at or for something very specific.

I don’t think it is something that can be fought however.

Better tp pick small battle you can win than all out war you cannot. Sun Tzu (maybe…)

[BTM_Pix]

11 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Have you noticed by the way - that the AI bubble has completely lost people's interest, the content is all so un-compelling? Why do you think this is.

It might help if 

a) Every piece wasn't introduced with the breathless "hey look what I made with AI". It should stand up whether you did or didn't and it just comes across as being inauthentic. Which, of course, it is.

b) It wasn't being pushed by the same NFT/Crypto/Whatever this week's fad is shills.

c) It evolves beyond more or less just remixing existing content. People aren't moved by it because they get the feeling they've seen it before. Which, of course, they have.

9 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The internet has to be nursed back to health. We can't afford to have any further slide into the pockets of Meta and the like... The founding principals have to be better defended!

I remember in my 30s going back to a hip club that I frequented when I was in my teens and very early 20s and feeling completely out of place and absolutely not getting it.

Its a bit like that for the internet with the internet now. 

[ND64]

The other day I randomly observed an interaction between an instagram influencer and her follower in comments  section of one of her reels where she was bragging about an old compact Sony handycam she found on ebay and loved the image "vibe", which means the worst quality you expect from some P&S cameras. The follower said I love that camera makers increase resolution in every generation and we sill looking for crappy film look! (Btw, that wasn't film look at all, it was 30fps washed out ccd soap opera video). And the influencer replied resolution is for commercials! 

This should be a wake up call for everybody in this industry (not just Japanese, but even DJI and Apple): these people don't care anymore! All they need/want is vertical 30fps 2MP image! Then I asked myself am I even prepared to market my art/content to these consumers? We're in such a "fad economy" that "better" becomes obsolete, and "worse" sells better! Those who know what will be the next worse thing, make tons of money; and people like us have to check how much we earned today through "buy me a coffee" link lol.

[MrSMW]

3 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

I remember in my 30s going back to a hip club that I frequented when I was in my teens and very early 20s and feeling completely out of place and absolutely not getting it.

I went there in my 20’s and even then felt out of place and out of time.

The 1920’s was probably my era…