For well over a century, major Hollywood studios have used the same top-down management process to create movies. This archaic system has stifled creativity and made it near-impossible to pitch good ideas for film and television products. It is still a system driven by who you know and not what may work. The internet has managed to open up the barriers somewhat to scriptwriters thanks to outlets such as Netflix and Amazon. They have posted methods online to get the producers at each company to read your script. However, that is only part of the process as Hollywood still controls the production and the purse strings. So, you may get your script read, but that’s a long way from your movie or TV show to be produced.
Basically, you need an A-list actor or director if you want Netflix to even look at your movie or show idea. Even if you have a terrific script, unless you know someone in Hollywood that can get their attention, your chances are remote to say the least.
In my case, I’ve been pitching to Hollywood studios and executive producers for the past year. That effort cost time and money and so far, has produced little in the way of results. The same is true for executive producers at studios outside of Hollywood as they have little to no money to produce a project unless the money is available.
But times are changing thanks to the development of Artificial Intelligence (A.I). The use of A.I has already impacted the Internet and now is poised to change how movies and television shows are produced.
With the decline of physical distribution markets such as DVDs and Blue Ray, digital downloads in the form of sales, rentals, and subscription services has exploded. With independent filmmakers seeing the opportunities to reach new audiences easier than ever, more of them are considering the digital platforms as their way to produce quality entertainment.
The same can be said of Hollywood studios which are now looking at this rapid change in the industry. Studios such as Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox are now incorporating A.I into the decision-making process of whether to produce new movies and television programs. This is because with the increased demand for digital downloads, finding the right materials to reach a worldwide audience requires the addition of new technology.
In other words, it’s no longer who you know, but what you know about your audience that counts. Creativity which was seemingly dead for a long time now has new life thanks to how AI is used to gauge interest in new projects. While AI cannot determine whether a film or show will be a hit, it does provide more information about audience interest. This means that creativity can now be harnessed to produce new programs and films that may garner considerable success.
While there are no guarantees, the proper use of AI makes the guesswork easier in terms of the type of programming that audiences are interested in viewing. For Hollywood and filmmakers around the world, A.I is helping to open up more creative approaches in this new digital world.