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Tag: Netflix

  • Social Media – Frankenstein Resurrected?

    Social Media – Frankenstein Resurrected?

    Is Social Media A Boon Or Bane? The Eternal Debate Continues In The New Netflix Documentary-

    Jeff Orlowski’s Docu-Drama ‘The Social Dilemma’ Does Not Tell Us Anything New….We Have Known Both Sides Of Story For Long….What It Does Is To Reinforce The Arguments – Primarily Against Social Media Giants. 

    The Documentary Has Two Distinct Tracks. The First Track Features Interviews With The Most Smartest And Conscientious Employees Of The Big Tech Giants. The Second Track Showcase A Fictional Story – How Social Media Manipulates & Ruins Kids Of A Perfectly Normal American Family.  

    The Great Minds Of Silicon Valley Include:

    1. Tristan Harris – Former Google Design Ethicist
    2. Justin Rosenstein – Co-Inventor of Facebook ‘Like’ Button
    3. Tim Kendall – Former Director of Monetization At Facebook, Former President Of Pinterest
    4. Renee DiResta
    5.  Jeff Seibert 

    These Interviews Highlight Risk Of Social Media Addiction. Social Media Giants Engineer Platforms To Create Addiction, Manipulate Behaviour & Reap Profits For Their Shareholders. The Dangerous Impact On Mental Health Of Children & Teenagers, Personal Privacy & Data Confidentiality Issues, The Rise Of Hate Crimes & Genocide, The Fuelling Of Fake News, Death Of Democracies Are Some Of The Negatives That Can No Longer Be Ignored. 

    The Documentary Considers Founders Of Social Media Giants To Be Trapped. Too Naive! Shareholders & Governments Are Human Beings – And Human Beings Have A Choice – But Are We Willing To Call Spade A Spade? 

    Social Media Is A Drug. Agree. It Is Challenging The Organised Religion – An Equally Dangerous Drug 🙂

    Why Our Best Brains Work For Biggest Social Media Companies? Agriculture Crisis Hits Headlines Every Year And We Have No Solution….Why We Applaud New Feature Upgrades Of Big Tech Giants While Many Genuine Research Organizations Die Every Year…

    Technology Is Neutral. A Gun In The Hands Of Police Protects, While In The Hands Of Terrorist Kills. 

    Social Media Has Reunited Families, Help Raise Awareness Of Evils, Found Blood Donors, Brought Joy To Our Life. But It Has Also  Led To Recruitment Of Extremists In Terrorist Organizations, Body-Shaming, Incited Crimes Etc. As Well. 

    Social Media Is Not 100% Evil Or The Only Evil. It Is Too Simplistic To Blame It For All Evils In The Society. Yes – It Is A Platform That Amplifies The Evil In The Society. Social Media Giants Are Taking Corrective Actions But We Need Neutral Champions To Review These Actions. 

    Practical Takeways:

    1. Regulate Screen Time For Self & Kids

    2. Do Not Take Devices To Bedroom

    3. No Devices For Kids Till High School

    4. Research & Question Sources Of Information

    5. Explore Alternatives To Big Social Media Products

    6. AI Is Already Running The World

    I Believe Our Ethics, Values & Choices Drive The Usage Of Any Technology. Social Media Can Be An Agent Of Good. Let’s Switch Off The Screens, Watch The Real World, Smell The Flowers & Drive A Positive Change. The Answers Lie With Us….

    Watch It – A Important Documentary To Watch. One’s Outlook Toward Mindless Scrolling & Notifications Will Change!

  • A Long Story Short: Short Films Are Trending Big Time!

    A Long Story Short: Short Films Are Trending Big Time!

    Short Films are trending big time in India and other regions of the world.

    The current rise of short films in India can be contributed to the following factors:

    1. Digital Technologies:
    The proliferation of affordable and reliable internet has created new opportunities for content consumption. The ‘mobile first’ generation is hungry for good content on their personal screens. The cheap internet has opened up the entire nation and regions for consuming short films – one does not need to visit a cinema. And short films are ideally suited for the personal screens and small time window.

    2. Demand for Diverse & Innovative Content:
    Young Generation is more eclectic in their choices. They are looking for new and diverse content. They are more experimental in nature and reward a good story regardless of the star cast. The young and impatient generation has a short attention span and they are look for instant gratification. Short films are “Any Time Movies”.

    3. New Distribution Platforms:
    Online Platforms like YouTube gave a big boost to short films. Today, there are numerous platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Zee5, ErosNow etc. providing a great distribution reach to these movies. Humara Movies, Pocket Films, Terribly Tiny Tales, Alt-Balaji etc are dedicated to the short films.

    Tata Sky has a dedicated Shorts channel which has more than 2000+ movies. Shorts TV is the global leader for short movies and it produces and distributes short movies.

    In addition, there are large number of Film Festivals dedicated to the short movies.

    4. Creative Freedom:
    Film makers love the creative freedom provided by the medium of short movies. There is no big pressure of formula movies and and other commercial considerations to bow to.

    Film makers from across the nation and globe can bring their original stories. They do not need censor certificates for these movies – a big factor.

    Short movies can be a launching platform for new makers. Existing players can use the platform to diversify their portfolio. Lot of big names have taken a leap in the world of short movies – Anurag Kashyap, Sujoy Ghosh, Neeraj Ghaywn, Jackie Shroff, Irrfan, Tapsee Pannu, Manoj Bajpayee, Radhika Apte.

    5. Monetisation:
    Short movies also provide strong monetisation opportunities for unique content. The monetisation opportunities can be: direct brand associations, sale to platforms, film festival reward money and online ad revenue shares. The revenues can be global. The Royal Stag Large Short Films is truly a unique model – which can be exported to the world.

    Apart from the monetisation opportunities, film makers get a lot of Finanical support to get started. In US, film makers also get crowdfunding via Seed & Spark, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other platforms.

    The rise of short movies is a great development. Does it send warning signals to full feature films? Not really. Both short movies and full feature movies can co-exist. T20 and Test Cricket both co-exist. The short movies are actually inspiring full feature movies. The rise of content-driven cinema is a positive influence of short movies.

    Short Film are the Haiku of the Cinema. Short Films are the Jamun Shots – small but they pack a strong punch. Short Films prove that when it comes to entertainment, size does not matter.

    Short movies are an art form in itself – the movies are completing the circle as the motion picture started in form of short movies only!

    Want a quick taste of short movies?
    Check Anukul…

  • How Big Data Is Changing The Entertainment Industry!

    How Big Data Is Changing The Entertainment Industry!

    Big Data is here – The latest buzzword of the Information Technology Industry !

    The world is generating humungous amount of data every second. Rapid advances in technology is making analysis of such data a cake-walk. Big Data is influencing every aspect of our lives and will continue to grow bigger and better. Retailers will push us to buy extra chips and soft drinks from the nearest outlet as we will watch the T20 match with our friends and our favorite teams are playing. They will even recommend our favorite party songs CD and encourage us to donate a dollar to our often visited charity. Preventing diseases, share trading, marketing efforts and lot of other use cases are emerging.

    Big Data is changing the sports and the entertainment industry as well. Sports and entertainment industry are driven by fans and their word of mouth. Engagement with audience is the key and Big Data is creating opportunities for driving this engagement and influencing audience sentiments.

    IBM worked with a media company and ran its predictive models on the social buzz for the movie Ram Leela. According to the reports, IBM predicted a 73% success for the movie based on right selection of cities. Such rich analysis of social data was conducted for Barfi and Ek Tha Tiger. All these movies had a runaway success at the box office.
    Hollywood uses Big Data big time ! The social media buzz can predict the box office success – more importantly based on the trending of the movie, strategies can be formulated to ensure favorable positioning of the movie. All science !

    Netflix is the best case study of analyzing user behavior and hitting the jackpot ! Netflix original show The House Of Cards’ was commissioned solely on the basis of the big data results of the preferences of its customers.

    Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express, one of the biggest box office grossers on 2013, used Big Data & Analytics solutions to drive social media and digital marketing campaigns. IT Services company Persistent Systems helped Chennai Express team with the right strategic inputs. Chennai Express related tweets generated over 1 billion cumulative impressions and the total number of tweets across all hashtags was over 750 thousand over the 90-day campaign period. Persistent Systems CEO Siddhesh Bhobe said “Shah Rukh Khan and the success of Chennai Express have proved that social media is the channel of the future and that it presents unique opportunities to marketers and brands, at an unbeatable ROI (return on investment)”

    Lady Gaga and her team browse through our listening preferences and sequences and optimize the playlist for the maximum impact at live events. Singapore based Big Data Analytics firm Crayon has worked with leading Hindi Film industry producers to understand the kind of music to release to create the right buzz for the movie.

    Sports is another area where big data is making big impact. FIFA 2014 champion Germany have been using SAP’s Match Insights software. It has made a big difference to the team. Data was crunched relating to player position ‘touch maps’, passing ability, ball retention and even metrics such as ‘aggressive play’. Even Kolkota Knight Riders, an IPL team, to determine the consistency of the players based on 25 data point per ball. It helped in auction as well as ongoing training.

    Big Data can definitely be a boon to the entertainment and sports industry. It can improve the profitability of the movies – always a high risk business. The green-lighting of the story to the cast selection to the timing of release can be determined. It can help to pick the right players for the sporting leagues – allowing talent to win !

    Entertainment Industry leaders need to collaborate with the leading big data startups and visionaries to create new uses and deliver new success stories !

  • The Netlfix Culture Document – A Must Read !

    I came across the “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility” document on Sunday evening. It was a good revisit of the Netflix values and philosophy of excellence.

    Sheryl Sandberg even called it “the most important document ever to come out of the Valley.”

    It’s a living set of “behaviors and skills” that the Netflix management team updated continuously and fastidiously. And it drives toward a single point: a company is like a pro sports team, where good managers are good coaches, and the goal is to field stars in every position.

    There are lot of good insights:
    1. Like the expense policy – Act In Netflix’s Best Interest !
    2. Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled – Makes sense
    3. Pay top performers the top salaries – no bell curves or standard increment
    4. Honesty and top severance packages

    A Must Read for sure !

    [slideshare id=1798664&doc=culture9-090801103430-phpapp02]

    Source: First Round

    Also Read Harvard Document on Netflix – How Netflix Reinvented HR by Patty McCord