This week I completed my this thesis proposal. I had also shown it to Nigel when we had one on one station. He said it looked fine and I should submit it. The only thing he said to do is to add the page number of the references. I did the changes and this is how it looks.
This week I was forced to complete my outline chapters and draft chapter. I started off by completing my outline chapters, so I will know which draft chapter to write and have an understanding of what goes in which chapter. These were the draft chapters that I planned to write.
Content consumption.
Changing time (covid)
Does it have an economic effect?
Commercialisation
Impact on the visual effects industry.
How does this affect the outcome of the movie?
Demand for high-quality visuals ( Competition among VFX studios)
New technologies (Virtual Sets)
This is what the final version of the outline chapters looks like:
Chapter 1: Content Consumption and changing times
In this chapter, we are going to delve straight into the definition of content consumption. We will also speak about how the consumption of content has changed over a period of time, with a particular focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 on media consumption.
Chapter 2: Commercialization
This section is going to shine a light on the profits made by streaming sites before and after the pandemic. There will be a comparison of how different streaming sites compete against one another for viewership. We are going to compare this to the profits made by cinemas over the same period of time. We will also look at profits made by movies shown only at cinemas in comparison to movies showcased solely on streaming sites.
Chapter 3: Impact on the Visual Effects Industry
We will see the effect that all the information described in the previous chapters has had on the visual effects industry over time. This chapter will also describe the losses faced by the industry as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes that have taken place as a result.
Chapter 4: The End Result
This is a deep dive into the recent utilisation of visual effects in multiple streaming site originals and how it has helped the industry to gain a strong foothold in the currently trending content. We will also look at how the industry has evolved over time in order to be able to deliver content faster without compromising on quality.
Chapter 5: New Developments
A description of the latest developments in visual effects.
Content Consumption and Changing Times
Content consumption refers to how an audience listens to and views entertainment media. This includes television shows and movies. Content consumption originally began with newspapers and then branched out to radio services. Television came into the picture a few decades ago, and now there has been a shift to online streaming services as the main source of entertainment media.
A major shift was noted in the year 2020- during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several research papers indicated that there was a shift from cinemas and television to streaming platforms at the time and this change appears to be here to stay, even post-pandemic.
The statistics from the UK cinema association (2023) showed a pre-pandemic cinema attendance of 176 million which then dropped to only 44 million in the year 2020. This has now picked up to 117 million in 2022 but has not gone back to the pre-pandemic attendance. People had to be getting content from somewhere during the pandemic as this was the period of time when people spent the most time at home with not much else to do. It was found that people tended to subscribe to more online streaming services during the pandemic period. The percentage of consumers that subscribed to more than 4 streaming services went up from 4% to 10% from 2019 to 2020. (Wallenstein, A. 2021) Streaming services have broadly retained their share of viewing after achieving a surge in subscriptions in 2020.
However, time spent watching TV by broadcasters, which had already been declining over a period of time and picked up during the pandemic period, has again started to continue its decline.
A survey revealed that 87% of people had increased screen time during the pandemic. 28% of the participants reported that this was due to a lack of other entertainment options and 32% stated that it was due to the growing content availability on OTT platforms. 75% of participants preferred OTT content over Television and 54% of people felt this was due to better content availability on OTT platforms. (Garima, S.N. and Dr Surbhi, D. 2020)
Another reason stated by survey participants for preference OTT platforms over television appeared to be due to the telecasting of old and repeated episodes during the pandemic lockdown period. (Sunitha, S. Dr, Sudha, S. 2020)
Among the trends and counter-trends gathered in the study, it was noted that there was a steady increase in the importance of home (and other alternative) movie watching over movie theatres. The availability of better quality methods and devices to watch movies in the home environment (and on consumer portable devices) has caused this shift away from cinema visits. The emergence of these consumer trends and special demands had begun years ago, but due to the COVID situation, its previous slow rise turned into a rapid acceleration: while digital content providers and the movie-producing companies themselves shifted relatively smoothly (or increased their capacity) towards new broadcasting models, brick and mortar movie theatres had their operations halted in such a manner that their resumption after the pandemic also became uncertain. (Ádám, H and Balázs,G. 2021).
This week I started writing my research methodology and literature review. Last week when I was collecting my literature I wrote a paragraph about what information I the literature. I later used these paragraphs to make a literature review. Next, I started to work on the methodology. I used e-liberal to collect the data and information.
While researching this topic it was realised that there were plenty of research papers written on consumption content, but there was a lack of studies made on its effect on the visual effects industry.
Garima, S.N. and Dr Surbhi (2020) highlight the changes observed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and it was found that 87% of consumers felt that their use of streaming services increased during the pandemic and increased thereafter due to the flexibility of working from home. A few papers also pointed out that television as it telecasted old or repeated episodes during the lockdown in 2020. (Sunitha, S. and Dr Sudha, S 2020). Dr Ganesh, W., Dr Dattatrayarane and Dr Anand, K. (2022) theorized that this has altered behavioural patterns in people. The sudden change in consumers’ social activities has shifted the mode of entertainment to video streaming services rather than regular television or theatres owing to additional benefits like on-demand services and ease of access.
Allan, V. (2020) claimed how content creation has evolved over the years, and specifically how streaming services have started investing in original content creation. Prior to the pandemic, visual effects would be used mainly in cinema films. During the pandemic, content consumption shifted towards streaming services, which were far more accessible. In 2019, Netflix spent $15B on original content creation, which is the same amount as ViacomCBS, the parent of Paramount Pictures. These players are competing not just for customers, but also for content production resources and this has helped the visual effects industry to get a better foothold in content for online platforms. This has led to (Zubaida, N and Hushinaidi, A.H. 2023) implications of the new technology i.e., VR & XR immersive virtual environments in creating real-time limitless visual aesthetics for films. Animation & visual effects technologies influence global production trends & digitalization of cinema from 1990 to 2020.
Throughout the literature, it is understood that there has been a change in the way consumers view their content and the pandemic had a main role in this to play. This has made the consumer view content on streaming sites quickly access and for a wide variety of choices. This has pulled streaming companies to put out more content, both original and non-original. This has helped the Visual Effects industry to get a better foothold and helped the industry to invest in researching new technology and more rapid ways to deliver content.
The type of data that was collected was secondary and mainly qualitative. The data was collected from different research papers that had similar themes but were mainly based on how content consumption has been affected by the recent pandemic. The main tool used was Google Scholar and JSTOR where certain keywords were used to search for papers with relevant material. Some of the data used was also collected by a company called ‘Variety’, which appeared to have collected data relating to content consumption over the timeline that I was interested in. I was then able to use this data and the data from other papers to correlate it with how new developments had simultaneously taken place in the visual effects industry.
This week Nigel gave us the stretcher for the thesis proposal, so now I needed to start working on the general outline of each chapter.
This week I gathered literature and wrote a paragraph about the information in the literature so that it would be easier to know what information is on it.
Garima, S.N. and Dr Surbhi, D. (2020). Role of Covid as a Catalyst in Increasing Adoption of OTTS in India: A Study of Evolving Consumer Consumption Patterns and Future Business Scope. Available at: https://www.amity.edu/gwalior/jccc/pdf/dec_28.pdf [Accessed 12 May. 2023].
This research paper speaks about the current streaming service trends and evaluates their impact on various consumer segments.
This paper specifically highlights the changes observed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and it was found that 87% of consumers felt that their use of streaming services increased during the pandemic and increased thereafter due to the flexibility of working from home.
Sunitha, S. Dr, Sudha, S. (2020). Covid-19 Conclusion: A Media And Entertainment Sector Perspective In India. Available at:
The author claims the impact of COVID-19 on the usage of various Media and Entertainment Services. It was found that people were using online platforms more for entertainment instead of the television as it telecasted old or repeated episodes during the lockdown in 2020.
Horváth, Á and Gyenge, B. (2021) Movie Consumption Related Trends and Countertrends In Consumer Behavior. Available at:
https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/bitstream-download/123456789/83945/1/Horvath_Movie_Consumption.pdf [Accessed 12 May. 2023].
This paper highlighted the emergence of consumer trends and special demands that began years ago and accelerated during COVID times. While digital content providers and the movie-producing companies themselves shifted relatively smoothly towards new broadcasting models, brick-and-mortar movie theatres have had their operations halted in such a manner that their resumption after the pandemic also became uncertain.
Allan, V. (2020) The Future of Content Creation: Virtual Production Unlocking Creative Vision
and Business Value [Accessed 12 May. 2023]. Available at:
This paper speaks about how content creation has evolved over the years, and specifically how streaming services have started investing in original content creation. Prior to the pandemic, visual effects would be used mainly in cinema films. During the pandemic, content consumption shifted towards streaming services, which were far more accessible. In 2019, Netflix spent $15B on original content creation, which is the same amount as ViacomCBS, the parent of Paramount Pictures. These players are competing not just for customers, but also for content production resources and this has helped VFX to get a better foothold in content for online platforms.
Zubaida, N and Hushinaidi, A.H. (2023) Implication of Extended Reality in Visual Effects Industry for Virtual Production. [Accessed 20 May. 2023] Available at: https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/iccm-22/125979756
The paper highlights the implications of the latest technology i.e., VR & XR immersive virtual environments in the creation of real-time limitless visual aesthetics for films.
Animation & visual effects technologies influence global production trends & digitalization of cinema from 1990 to 2020
This paper describes in depth, the number of movies and the level of visual effects in each film, in each of the major production houses and how this has affected the revenue over the past 3 decades.
GROWTH OF OVER-THE-TOP (OTT) VIDEO SERVICES IN INDIA
The lockdown enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic has altered behavioural patterns in people. The sudden change in consumer’s social activities has shifted the mode of entertainment to video streaming services rather than regular television or theatres owing to additional benefits like on-demand services and ease of access
Next week I will start writing my proposal and structuring a few questions for the heading of the topic and subheadings under it.
This week Nigel told us to start working on the framework. He uploaded a document with a few questions and we had to fill it out, this was the framework. Next week we would have one on one with him so he can help us to answer a few questions and understand our thesis.
I have started working on the thesis proposal, I have completed the Introduction this week and this is how it looks:-
Introduction
Content consumption refers to the way the audience views, reads and listens to data created by an industry or a market. With the increasing number of platforms and devices, it is important to understand where the average consumer gets the content from.
This paper highlights the ways in which content consumption has rapidly changed over the years and how it has left a significant impact on the visual effects industry.
With the high demand for new content, the enterprise has adopted new technologies and methods of storytelling. The massive development in computer systems in the past 30 years led to the development of a common platform on which specialised software used in visual effects was developed.
I am not happy with this, but it is a good start. I felt that it lacks information and a few details. When I research more on this topic I can get a better understanding of the topic and rewrite the introduction
My thesis is going to shine a light on how the consumption of movies and tv-shows has evolved significantly over the years. Fewer people go to movie theatres and turn to watch streaming services instead. What has caused this trend? How does this affect the VFX industry?
Recently, I went to the cinema to watch Black Panther Wakanda Forever, and when I looked around only a handful of people were there. This got me thinking about what has changed over time because a few years ago with a similar movie, there would be a full house and the tickets for the show would be sold out fairly quickly.
We know that the VFX industry’s main source of income is the movies and if there are fewer people showing up to the movies now, how will this impact the VFX industry and what are the recent developments taking place in this new age?
Why it is important to research this subject?
I sense the study of content consumption and its impact on the VFX industry is crucial to understand the changes in content consumption of the masses. I feel that this has a direct effect on the VFX industry. It also has an impact on the cultural, technological and economic world. This may also help in understanding future trends.
Keywords.
Content Consumption, Trends, Technological, Economic, Commercialisation, VFX Industry, Covid.
Sources.
This paper provides how the use of VFX in Hollywood films has changed over time, and how advancements in digital technology have influenced the creative process.
Natalie Powel. (2019) “Hollywood’s Relationship with VFX: The Role of Digital Technology in Film Production” [ 28th April 2023].
This paper talks about how the rise of digital media has affected the film industry, including the increased use of VFX.
Shao-Kang Lo and Wei-Ying Huang. (2013). “The Impact of Digital Media on the Film Industry”. [ 20th April 2023]
This paper explores the changing landscape of film distribution, from the dominance of blockbuster releases to the rise of streaming services.
Scott Timcke and Katya Johanson. (2018). “The Evolution of Film Distribution: From Blockbuster to Streaming Services” [23rd April 2023]
This paper explores the growing trend of mobile movie consumption and how it is transforming the movie industry.
Vinicius Navarro (2017) “Mobile Media and the Transformation of Movies” [ 28th April 2023]