Together with
Cosmic cover-up. ICYMI, a military whistleblower came out earlier this week with some pretty out-of-this-world claims: the US government is secretly recovering crashed extraterrestrial craft and maybe even parts of alien bodies. NASA and other government agencies firmly deny the allegations, but it makes us wonder… is ET really out there?
In other news… studios go old school, the AI hype bubble, and a teen’s Lego animations hit the big screen.
Top Trends
YouTube → The Out-Laws
Twitter → Poor Things
Google → The Crowded Room
Reddit → Bryan Cranston
TikTok → “Never Felt So Alone” - Labrinth
Spotify → “Heart of Gold” - Ilsey, Bon Iver
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ENTERTAINMENT
Studios experiment (again) with film and TV release strategies
The Future. The notion of the closed-garden streaming service may be coming to an end as studios search for every way possible to squeeze money out of films and shows. From bringing back advertising to toying with premium rentals, studios may be trying to recreate the rewards of old cable and DVD systems in the era of DTC entertainment.
Reinstalling the windows
Welcome to the new ways — which are a lot like the old ways — of generating revenue from content.
Surprisingly, following in the footsteps of the rest of the industry (other than Apple), even Amazon Prime Video will introduce an ad tier.
FAST services such as Tubi, Roku, Pluto TV, and Freevee are becoming cornerstone platforms for monetizing titles after they’ve stopped getting engagement on premium streamers.
Instead of moving movies straight from theatrical to Peacock, Universal introduced a high-priced rental window (PVOD) in between — a strategy that has brought in an additional $1 billion in revenue while barely affecting the box office.
Allowing movies and shows to exist in multiple formats and move across various streamers also gives a safety net to writers, directors, and producers that their projects won’t just disappear at the drop of a hat — as has happened at Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney.
Case in point: international producers are growing increasingly nervous that much of their success relies solely on Netflix viewership. That’s a lot of eggs in one basket.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Lonely ChatGPT // Illustration by Kate Walker
ChatGPT isn’t as popular as you may think
The Future. AI chatbots may be in a hype bubble. Turns out that not many people are actually using tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. That’s not to say that adoption won’t spread, but it may be important that the tech (and more importantly, the market for that tech) is still in the early days… so it’s probably wise to not radically change society in the name of AI before society itself gets a chance to wrap its head around it.
Wanna chat?
A new study from Morgan Stanley may make some people cool their jets on the ubiquity of AI… at least currently.
Only 19% of respondents have used ChatGPT, and 9% have used Bard.
Most people said they have no plans of using either in the next six months.
For those that do use them, they’re mostly used for learning about a new topic.
But the “early adopters” are also using it for “researching new products, comparing prices, and shopping.”
To make money from average customers, not just enterprise businesses, AI will need to rely on either ad money or subscriptions. The former is the more likely scenario, and Morgan Stanley believes that the e-commerce uses — as we travel, especially for Google — will soon make that possible.
But the firm notes that while investment is pouring into AI, it’s still early days… so maybe VCs need to slow down on those proclamations of world change and endless riches. Remember how that panned out for crypto and the metaverse?
TOGETHER WITH HIMS & HERS
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ENTERTAINMENT
A 14-year-old got to animate a scene in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The Future. Minor spoilers, but an early scene in the hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is set in an animated-Lego dimension… and the team behind the movie hired a 14-year-old amateur animator in Toronto to pull it off after wowing the producers with a video of his own. The remarkable story may demonstrate that if you have real talent, social media has truly given artists of any age or background the ability to impress their heroes and launch their careers.
The real Peter Parker
Preston Mutanga is already building a career.
After painstakingly recreating the trailer for the new Spider-Man movie using Legos and posting it on Twitter, co-writers, and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller saw it and were impressed.
When the filmmaking team decided that one of the dimensions in the movie should be Lego (for one scene), they had producer Christina Steinberg reach out to Mutanga to see if he wanted to animate it.
Mutanga jumped at the opportunity, spending much of his free time (after homework, of course) animating the scene.
He also had bi-weekly meetings with Miller to go over notes.
Self-taught on YouTube videos and using the software blender on a computer he built with his dad, the Spider-Verse team said that Mutanga’s work “blew us all away, including some of the best animators in the world.”
This kid has a bright future ahead of him.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Warner Bros. is getting mighty creative marketing its upcoming Flash movie without putting its embattled star, Ezra Miller, on the publicity circuit. Read more → thr
In the wake of Hollywood assistant layoffs due to the economic fallout of the writers strike, #PayUpHollywood (founded by TV writer Liz Hsiao Lan Alper and support staffer Alex Rubin) relaunched its Hollywood Support Staff Relief Fund to provide some financial support. Read more → deadline
The Weeknd announced that he’s dropping new music with each new episode of HBO’s The Idol, which he stars in and co-created. Read more → hypebeast
Fashion & E-Commerce
Attention sneakerheads and history buffs: an original, unreleased prototype of Nike’s Air Jordan 2, which looks quite different from the shoe that was released, is on sale for $525 on Heritage Auctions. Read more → complex
You know people are returning to the office en masse when Rent the Runway is reporting that it has basically run out of workwear due to high demand. Read more → bloomberg
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature called “Channels,” which is focused on letting organizations such as NGOs, medical research institutions and fact-checking bodies broadcast messages to users. Read more → techcrunch
Tech, Web3, & AI
Adobe is doubling down on the claim that its generative-AI tool, Firefly, won’t breach copyright law by announcing that it’ll cover the legal fees of any user that is sued. Read more → fastcompany
Beijing’s Cyberspace Administration of China is cracking down on the usage of wireless forms of file sharing that don’t require internet access, such as AirDrop, which have been widely used by pro-Democracy protestors in both China and Hong Kong. Read more → wsj
Uber is not just for ridesharing but sharing rides, thanks to a new peer-to-peer car-rental feature called “Uber Carshare.” Read more → bloomberg
Creator Economy
With its sights set on Southeast Asia, TikTok is aiming for sales from its ecommerce business to top $20 billion in merch sales. Read more → businessoffashion
Any TikTok user with over 10,000 followers can now paywall their videos behind the platform’s TikTok Series feature. Read more → tubefilter
The dark side of virality: a collective of car-thieving teens, dubbed Kia Boys, are racking up views across TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat for filming themselves stealing Kias and Hyundais and taking them for joyrides. Read more → theverge
Future Forecast
One-shot learning in the financial markets provided by professionals. All in a single, free 5-minute read.
Sewprinted’s 3D fashion.
Jonesin’ for a little Americana folk in your life? Listen to Tyler Childers while you sip whiskey and watch the summer sunset.
WeHo Pride brought it last weekend! Check out Pride events in your town — here’s what’s happening in LA.
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Today's email was written by David Vendrell. Forecast by Layne Button.
Editing by Melody Song & Publishing Sara Kitnick.