Danah Boyd and the Audience Of Tomorrow

Danah Boyd is a social media scholar, youth researcher and works at Microsoft Research, New York Media Culture & Communication and the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

I believe she is one of the most influential women in technology.
In 2007, she spoke about the future is terms of many things including, youtube, remix and filming (produding, distributing and consumer : translation,).


 Introduction and General Comments

She said that there are 3 stages to how technology affects practise
1) Translation : Transference from film to digital
2) Localization : The use of digital technology
3) Co-option : Visual effects

So far Danah Boyd has been correct about her hypothesis as many films, two of them being Warner Bros. Inception and Warps Films. This Is England.
Inception had been filmed on film which is a opposite to what she has stated but was transferred onto digital computers to be edited therefore showing that some sort of analog was shown in the film process in addition Christopher Nolan did use some effects to make the film feel life like and therefore this stood by what Danah Boyd has said. In addition, after the release of the film, some people REMIXED the film and took clips that were downloadable and recreated the film to their own liking. This correlated with the third statement - Co-option - and this would be impossible without digitalisation.
This Is England has been filmed digitally with a digital camera using memory to store it. Warps Film is an exact example of the 3 stages. As they created the film digitally, used digital technology to edit it and visual effects may of lacked but probably were illegally remixed but still some visual effects were created.


Teens Today

Danah Boyd commented on teenagers and how they need education and we as adults emphasis how important doing homework and getting a good future is vital for them. But for teenagers they think school is a place where they can hang out with friend, homework is a chore and they can figure out what they want to do with their lives later on. (To be honest, she does have a point.)
But she also spoke about media playing a heavy role on their lives. How in the USA (in 2007) malls and 'movie theatre'/cinemas dominate as a desirable place to spend a weekend. But as time has gone on, teens don't go to see movies in cinemas because they are socialising on-line and talking/communication with people in social networking sites such as MySpace (2007 most popular social networking site).


Therefore, films and tv programmes needed to be online so it is more flexible to audiences (mainly teens as they consume the most) and that is an incredibly big way to boost the consumption level from a institution point of view.

Like Youtube has. Danah Boyd also made a point that 'Internet videos has replaced the TV show' like 'America's Funniest Home Videos' and for UK viewers 'Rude(ish) Tube'.
But now it is easier for individual like ourselves to go out and make a film with a low budget and create hundreds or even thousands of profit.

Danah Boyd makes a few excellent point that has now been completely right. I love watching films on-the-go when I am on a train, flying to a different country and they don't have a film that I want to watch. Therefore by allowing me to go onto a film distribution and consumption company like Apple's Itunes and download a film by paying a small fee, I can watch the film whenever I want without any advertisement or any interruptions.


Examples

Inception allowed us to view the film anywhere any time by buying the dvd or blu-ray, watching it on Netflix, Itunes or Lovefilm, watching it in the cinema where it was available to view in 26 different countries at the same time. So no matter where you were, you could view it somehow. This decreased the priacy as there was no way that you couldn't view it as Warner Bros made it certainly clear that you could view it anytime, anywhere.
But This is England, did not do the same but went the traditional route but only putting it on DVD and premièring it on TV. This probably increased the piracy as there was less access to the film. Unfortunately, they didn't have that much of a budget and therefore could not publicise it as well as Inception did.
So only now, Big global institutions are starting to stream online by working with online distribution services.

My Film

The Visitor could be an example of Danah Boyd's speech. If I were to make it all or even this small opening sequence, I used digital technology such as a camera, cables to import the footage from my camera to the computer, using digital software to edit, colour and export it. I used visual effects to colour grade the opening sequence, title and caption it and make visual transitions with a few of the clips. In addition, any of my friends could watch it and the general could watch it whenever they want because its on youtube and therefore flexible for them.