Friday, September 24, 2010

How the Internet has Improved Access to Animation

Animation is not the only artform to benefit from the best invention ever, in fact, all forms of audio-visual entertainment have benefited from it. What has brought this to my attention was the Chapter 11 filing of Blockbuster Video (click through to see the headline of the Chicago Sun Times that I can only hope was known to be satirical before it was published).

The store near us closed a couple of months ago, and I dutifully paid them a visit to see what I could salvage. I found an Irish film, the Teen Titans movie, Spirited Away and Beavis & Butthead Do America (ah , my teenage years). There was also some even more random items that I passed up on, namely some older children’s stuff and a couple of volumes of Sailor Moon.

The main reason I passed them up (besides not being interested) was that I couldn’t justify the cost nor the loss of space on my shelf. I suppose I subconsciously realized that if I really wanted, I could find them again through other means.

The growth of Netflix and Hulu has meant that for animation fans, finding older or more alternative TV shows and films is not near as difficult as it used to be. In times gone past you had to visit the Goodwill stores and car boot sales (also known as flea markets) to find them. For the slightly sketchy stuff, you might need to visit a speciality shop, or know a place with some items under the counter.

The greatest asset to all of this has, of course, been YouTube. Just on a casual search from memory, I found Astronomeus (a Felix the Cat short) from 1929, Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s Galaxy High (with character designs by John K.) and an obscure English film animated in Poland during the Cold War.

The downside to all of this is that the vast majority of stuff posted on YouTube is illegal against copyright, so there is a good chance that if you’re reading this post in a couple of months those links will be broken. Happily, folks are always re-posting things so it should just be matter of searching a bit harder or by trying another video site.

What’s the upside, well for one if people are looking for this stuff it indicates that a demand does exist. What’s even better is that said demand can be satisfied relatively easily and cheaply by using the Internet in the same way that the pirates loyal fans have done. Older, more obscure content should not be left to rot away in the archives. It would be much better to digitize them and allow anyone to view them. Despite what the detractors say, it is always possible to use free content to turn a profit.


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Disney embraces social media even more, I drool a little

If you read some of the tweets from Disney’s most hardcore (mostly Florida-dwelling) fans yesterday, you’d have thought that the company emptied a big barrel of acid over Cinderella Castle while they were forced to watch, thunderstruck. In fact, what really happened is that expectations were not managed all that well. You can argue til you’re blue in the face over whether Disney should know better than to announce a marketing campaign as if it’s a major upgrade to the parks or whether the fans should know by now that Disney always does it this way but both of those would be missing the point in a major way. In fact it is an exciting announcement for two reasons: firstly, it’s a fun addition to a holiday – something I think it’s much easier to appreciate if, like me, you can afford to go every few years, not weeks – and secondly and more importantly, it’s a major adoption of social media on a massive scale.

The campaign is called Let the Memories Begin, and it’s a two-part strategy. The new holiday element is the inclusion of a nightly slideshow projection onto Cinderella Castle (WDW) or It’s A Small World (DL) of photos of revellers taken around the parks; something that was derided as a ‘screensaver’ by some fans. The even more social element is actually an advertising campaign; users submit video, photo and text content about memories made at the parks, and Disney selects and uses these in its advertising. One TV commercial has already been constructed with submitted videos.

To find out more you can:

Read the full press release and view the video at The Disney Blog (an excellent site for considered commentary).

loading etc at www.DisneyParks.com/memories

Why were fans disappointed then? Well, there had been rumours of a Monsters, Inc. coaster at the Studios (and of all the parks, HS needs the most revamping) or the addition of Spain to the World Showcase in Epcot. But those rumours probably didn’t account for the fact that Disney is massively revamping Star Tours in two parks, building the Art of Animation resort hotel, expanding in China, re-staging much-loved attractions like Captain EO and carrying out a huge, expensive update to Fantasyland in the WDW Magic Kingdom. With wobbly visitor numbers due to the global financial problems, Disney’s already committed huge amounts of money to park updates, so it’s hardly surprising that they’re committing another chunk to tempting more people through the doors as well as keeping the existing fans happy.

I think it really is exciting to think of your picture being projected against Cinderella Castle. I’ve written before about my first Disney trip, complete with charmingly gormless photo, and you can guarantee that child would have wet herself with delight if it had happened. I would be ridiculously excited now that I have better bladder control. But what’s even more exciting is the thought of, as a dedicated fan, having those memories recognised and having them appear in Disney’s marketing. Because it’s basically taking what we’re already doing with our blogs, forums, tweets, videos etc and applying a megaphone to it. We’re already telling the world how much we love Disney, and now Disney’s realised that helping us do it makes us feel special and potentially benefits them massively (and let’s not forget, Disney making more money means those precious park expansions can continue to happen).

I understand that the annual passholders who go several times a year every year want to see something new, but when that gormless four-year-old was watching a parade in the Magic Kingdom less than 30 years ago there were just two parks there, and one (the then EPCOT Centre) was only two years old. Now, in Florida alone, there are four main parks, two water parks, swathes of shopping areas, new dedicated resorts for Disney Vacation Club members… you name it. Disneylands Anaheim and Paris have expanded massively and there are cruise liners galore.

Disney’s social media team, in particular the Disney Moms Panel (and just to be clear, you don’t have to be a parent, or even female, to apply) has an enormous job to do; it takes some time for me to go through all the messages to Dogs Trust every day and that’s 100,000 people on a Facebook page and under 15,000 on Twitter – huge, important numbers to us, but nothing like what Disney is dealing with. For us it’s absolutely essential that we reply to everyone we can and make sure they get the answers they’re looking for, because these are the people that make our work possible and they deserve the best we can be. Yet because of the scale involved it can be a disappointing experience messaging Disney in the social space unless you’re talking directly to someone like Thomas Smith or Laura Spencer, who are both excellent. Disney’s found another way to interact and reward instead; it’s less conversational – it sort of turns broadcasting on its head by broadcasting back the message to those who produce it – but no less powerful. They’ve taken the most simple route by addressing the fan’s strength in creating material and the organisation’s strength in broadcasting it.

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