How many times during the closing credits, on those red velvet chairs, we felt unsatisfied? Maybe we thought that a movie was beautiful, but that would be enough that little bit more just to make it perfect. Today, that thought can become something more than a "critical note" on a film or a TV series and can turn into creative thinking.
Youtube, blogosphere, Twitter, Facebook. The interaction and cooperation between users distinguish what is called Web 2.0, a term that refers to a set of content put into networks by users themselves, and which is opposed to a conception of the Web as a platform where only the major distributors of content can convey their products.
In September 2009, in Turin, took place the conference "Cinema and New Media in Action", organized by Somedia, the Espresso Group Company. First, the work showed that in fields such as television and film we are facing a phenomenon of "digital democracy". In particular, the intervention of Professor Stefano Pace, lecturer of Marketing and Consumer Behavior at the Bocconi University in Milan, focused on the evolution of the concept of "watcher", that Professor Pace explained by an analysis of the instruments, the "cards on the table" in the process of creation and distribution of television and film product: the authors’ cards and the public’ ones. it's been brought out a portrait of a "revolution" that starts from the Web, which is proposed as an interactive platform for the film and television entertainment industry too. Through the web, the audience becomes co-author (or, if you will, co-creator) of the final product. The audience of today is no longer limited only to watch his favorite TV series or movie: he creates it.
But how triggers exactly the phenomenon of co-creation in the traditional "process of production"? Professor Pace brings Lostpedia community as an example, a community of fans of the television series Lost which makes extensive use of narrative technique of "flashback" (or "retrospection"). Lostpedia users actually use events recounted in telefim to imagine circumstances in which the characters could meet, even if these circumstances have not been thought of or actually broadcast by the producers of the original series. In the case of Lostpedia, "fans" give life to a kind of "alternative screenplay", which suggest meetings and previous years’ events.
Always in the field of TV Series - obviously fertile ground - we find the example of the fans of the "saga" Star Trek who, being disappointed at the breakdown of their favorite series, decided independently to produce new episodes, with results so flattering that - said by many - have almost nothing to envy to the original episodes in terms of professionalism and quality. These new “self made” episodes are now easily available via the Internet and peer-to-peer circuits for exchange of content (eg, Torrent, Emule, etc.).
These two examples help us to understand how far the technology allows the transaction of the concept of "spectator" as passive consumer of content till the status of "co-creator", if not original creator of content. And often this process is accomplished via the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web, once simply an information platform, has turn into a social platform, offering itself as ideal support for the modern audience, as a place to forge bonds, as a "social" place. It is in this type of setting that develop " viral ideas" (from Viral Marketing), or the "voices" that pass from user to user in unstoppable progression, which is precisely the main mode of spread of the new content.
Increasingly, the producer of the traditional Media takes advantage of the phenomenon of co-authoring, for marketing purposes or market researches. In the case of the previously mentioned Star Trek, the producer has created - or encouraged fans to create - an entire parallel universe online in which the fan can find all kinds of information, feeling himself such an anthropologist of the narrative universe created by the authors of the sci-fi saga: "races" and galactic people’s uses and customs; technical notes on spaceships, and even a dictionary and a grammar of the Klingon language (alien language spoken in one of these imaginary worlds). In this way, the producer is seeking the involvement of television and film audience, hoping - often fruitlessly – to see the use value of the product to increase. The online community of fans and, more generally, the Internet users’ views are really appreciated by the production: these ones not only consider these opinions the "test" to examine the success of the entertainment product (series, feature films, broadcast, and sometimes also to determine possible future developments or "sequel") or the basis for "viral" marketing type of the product, but also a potentially inexhaustible “container” of inexpensive creativity which production can always rely on (and perhaps be inspired by).
Finally, there are film productions that literally recruit viewers to make them an active part in the film making-of. Viewers panels are selected and participants are given such authority over many artistic aspects of the product: they can express opinions about what concerns the choice of actors, the soundtrack, the trailer editing and in some cases they may also follow, on the Internet video-streaming, the phases of the shoot.
Thanks to technology applied to television and film entertainment, to paraphrase Andy Warhol, perhaps not everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes, but they will certainly have a better chance to realize their creativity.
To Know More
- The Conference “Cinema e nuovi media” ("Cinema & New Media"), Somedia Marketing;
- Lostpedia, the virtual enciclopedia about the series Lost;
- Wikipedia page about Social Network.
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