2022 prediction. The art that will matter most in the next years will have its roots in web3. What started in cryptography will end in myth making memes.
Barry Diller said Hollywood is dead. "I used to be in the movie business where you made something really because you cared about it.” Tho certainly the old Hollywood is dead, Web3 can change this.
Web3’s impact on film and TV will require a platform for decentralized funding of content + decentralized media distribution. Then power shifts to end points –to artists/owners + consumer/owners – from tastemakers. Will happen.
Now we are in the silent film era of NFTs. They will get smarter (@cryptoys @real_alethea ), they will do more, they will be gateways to a range of relationships and experiences, and they open up financing channels.
Hollywood is like the 1863 Académie des Beaux-Arts — powerful but tying itself up with conventions and shibboleths and feeling past its moment. A case study for the hazards of centralization and concentration.
Hollywood has of late decided to embrace a new tone: more broadcast, avoiding too artsy, too funny, action-y, red stateish, too smart, or too 1%. In creative processes, rules close you off from essential serendipity.
Also politics is pretty important now, particularly in criticism-- if you read US criticism, you know ideology gets airtime.
When I discuss Hollywood btw, I am mostly excluding Marvel as well as a few filmmakers working in their own cultural bubbles.
The audience didn’t change but Hollywood unilaterally changed. Does it seem we are in the least exciting creative era since the 50s? That’s a choice.
It’s as if Hollywood as a whole pulled back on its … ambition or taste. Risky. You can’t succeed in show business trying to be safe. You can’t stop caring primarily about seeking the edge and making great art.
The best new ideas don’t come from safe spaces. They look bad to the establishment. You’re not going to come up with the next revolutionary hit while having a gluten free scone with a side of bupropion at the Farmshop and coming up with rules.
Results haven’t been awesome. Audience seems to be disengaging from Hollywood in some respects. Netflix US is ~flat despite Squid Game. Paramount+ and Peacock do not seem to be scaling healthily.
2021 vs 2015 Best Comedy/Drama Emmy nominees mean IMDb down from 8.42 to 8.07 and the % of shows below an 8 has gone from 14% to 31%.
Emmy ratings down ~33% from 2016. Oscars down ~70%. No one cares.
Movies are down. But I would note: people do seem willing to see movies they like. Spiderman is about to cross $1B in box office. Part of the problem is the movies.
What’s doing well — All entertainment that is not part of the consensus -- TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, games. Like or not, the average wojak meme or @sidetalknyc video or @CryptoDickbutts mashup has an immediate unselfconscious energy.
vm.tiktok.com/TTPd6cYYR8/
Streaming has been a business success – but is it turning into a cultural fail?
Open financing and distribution of premium content on a censorship resistant platform will erode the moat. People around the world, in DAOs, will fund (and co-own) content, creating a digital Salon des Refusés.
Openness will allow culture to be more diverse, free, interesting, surprising, challenging, and happening. And everything is downstream from culture. Web3 culture will make the roaring 20’s happen.
Feels good, man.