From the swift growth of AI, Metaverse and NFTs to the ever-evolving world of media and entertainment, the VFX, Virtual Production, Post-Production, and Animation industry continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
The VFX and gaming industries are buzzing with activity due to the integration of AI and gaming engines and the migration of post-production workflows to the cloud. Despite this, production companies and studios are facing numerous challenges and new obstacles in the process.
Below are several recurring pressure-points on the industry that Vitrina, as a global entertainment supply-chain specialist, is observing:
Budgetary Constraints: Many projects have tight budgets and this is especially true in the case of post-pandemic Animation projects. The expected returns on these projects are definitely lower than the earlier estimates. A lot of our business users have used the Vitrina network to connect with specialist companies in cheaper and cost-effective locations. This has helped them achieve three vital goals:
Expanding their choices
Uncovering new specialists/specializations, and
Outsourcing, offshoring to reduce costs
Competition for Talent: The entertainment industry is highly competitive, and production companies are constantly upping the game to find and retain talent, writers, and other creative professionals. Vitrina is closely tracking different companies for their new services, specializations and capabilities through talent, tech, facilities upgradation and expansion.
Limited Access to Financing: Securing financing for independent projects is challenging, as investors may be hesitant to fund projects that are perceived as risky or unproven. Whether the search is for project funding, production financing, or finding Co-Pro partners, Vitrina is always tracking the hottest dealmakers around the world, helping parties find the right partners with the exact credentials and make the connections between the parties.
Changes in Business Models: Outsourcing, offshoring of animation and Post work; new deal structures for IP and content financing; cross-border co-production deals; traditional upstream studios moving downstream into streaming and vice-versa; P&L margin or cost pressures – all these are causing changes within the supply chain and business models are constantly evolving. Vitrina is closely monitoring, observing and recording new deals, partnerships, and alliances established between companies to get an understanding of new business models and deal structures that are preferred by the industry. This helps our users gain valuable insights and make more informed business decisions.
Rapid Disruptive Technologies: Changes in VFX workflows and Virtual Production due to the emergence of gaming engines; use of AI-based automated tools for dubbing and localization; the migration of Post workflows onto cloud; the Ad-Tech choices for Freemium VoD and FAST-channel players are just some of the examples that are bringing new entrants or changing the erstwhile players. Vitrina’s approach here is quite dynamic – it is constantly updating its taxonomy with new services, technologies, methodologies, specializations and workflow refinements within specific supply-chain areas that are undergoing rapid transformations. This helps in severals ways:
Staying up-to-date
Improved accuracy in finding partners, ease of searchability
Increase competitiveness
Innovation by Competition: Intense competition is constantly causing companies to change their offerings by upgrading their talent, tech, facilities and unit-economics. Hence, the need on the Buyer-side to constantly review partners, vendors, suppliers.The noisy cacophony in industry journals, trade-shows, social media generated by companies and suppliers has become overwhelming! Vitrina is striving to decipher the significance of competitor moves, to comprehend the direction these companies are taking in terms of offerings, business models, and utilization of talent and technology, among other factors.
Demand-Supply Mismatches: High demand is constraining the availability of the best vendors, service providers, and facilities, resulting in an urgent need for options and alternatives on the buyer’s end.Vitrina is helping Sourcing/Procurement groups, Production/Post Heads in diversifying their vendor and service provider options to ensure access to the best of specialist resources, even in times of high demand. On the other hand, we are working with service providers to ensure that their latest capabilities, technologies, services and offerings are showcased to prospective customers in real-time and exactly when those buyers are in their evaluation cycle.The global entertainment value chain is massive, fragmented, and very complex to navigate! Advancements in technology, shifts in the talent landscape, changes in business models, increased competition, and evolving global demands are driving VFX, Virtual Production, and Localization companies to be more dynamic and diverse than ever before.
The entertainment industry annually spends a quarter of a trillion dollars [US $255 Billion] inside the B2B supply-chain, making it one of the Top-20 global industries measured on GDP. Vitrina’s company census shows that the Entertainment supply-chain has 600,000 companies globally that operate across content stages – from the point of creation to the point of distribution and delivery to the viewer. The 600,000 companies also have extremely varied and diverse specializations [more than a thousand including production houses, localization, streaming, animation, special effects, etc].
The entertainment industry annually spends a quarter of a trillion dollars [US $255 Billion] inside the B2B supply-chain, making it one of the Top-20 global industries measured on GDP. Vitrina’s company census shows that the Entertainment supply-chain has 600,000 companies globally that operate across content stages – from the point of creation to the point of distribution and delivery to the viewer. The 600,000 companies also have extremely varied and diverse specializations [more than a thousand including production houses, localization, streaming, animation, special effects, etc].
Stages in Entertainment Supply-Chain
Development & Pre-Production
The first step in the process is development, where the idea for the entertainment product is conceived and developed. This can involve writing a script, creating a treatment, or developing a concept for a reality show.
Next, the pre-production stage begins, where the creative team works on refining the concept, writing the script, and casting actors. They also create a budget and schedule for the production process.
Production
During this stage, the Production Houses and Studios drive the project forward. This is also the stage where the actual filming takes place. The Production supply-chain is also the most dense with close to 600+ specializations and 375,000 companies worldwide. The specializations involved include building sets, equipment rentals, location scouting, VFX, Animation, talent, and shooting the footage.
Post-Production, Localization, Marketing & Distribution
After the content has been filmed, it goes through the post-production process, which includes editing, color correction, sound design, and special effects. This is where the entertainment product is transformed into its final form.
At this stage, one of critical components of the supply-chain are Localization services. This refers to the process of adapting content, such as films, television shows, and video games, for different languages and cultural markets. In addition to translation and cultural adaptation, localization services may also include subtitling, dubbing, and voiceover work to make content more accessible to non-native speakers.
Marketing is an important part of the supply-chain, as it helps to promote the entertainment product and generate interest among potential viewers. This can involve creating trailers, posters, metadata, and other promotional materials, as well as ad campaigns.
Once the product is complete, it needs to be distributed globally to theatres, streaming services, cable or satellite TV, and Inflight Entertainment.
Finally, at the end of the B2B supply-chain are the companies that deliver content to consumers. These include streaming platforms, cinemas, TV channels or inflight services.
Overall, the entertainment supply-chain involves a number of steps and players, from the initial concept all the way to the final movie or TV show. Not only is the entertainment ecosystem extremely complex and fragmented, it is also unmapped globally, making it difficult to navigate for conducting business.
Vitrina’s Mission:
Vitrina’s founding was the result of a determined ambition to solve a large set of global problems surrounding B2B transactions within the entertainment industry. With a density of more than half a million companies [studios, platforms, service-providers] around the world, between them offering 1,000+ specializations [including, services, tech solutions, content titles, facilities, talent and infra]. Vitrina’s mission is to enable global partner and content discovery within the global entertainment value-chain.
In this article we some insights into the trends in the entertainment and media industry for 2022.
Acquisitions activity at festivals such as MIPCOM 2022 and similar trade events happening all through 2022 have shown a surge in theatrical rights distributions.
However, streaming services have a need to deliver an unending supply of new and fresh content to attract subscribers. With a three-fold growth in theatrical rights deals in 2022, exclusive/ first-windows rights acquisitions are hard to get. Investment in original content is back and the squeeze on revenue growth for streamers has been apparent to all in 2022.
Also, with the theatrical potential for medium-sized movies currently on the rise, the distributors of such titles have become increasingly selective. This in turn has prompted streamers to approach producers and sales agents directly for exclusive first-window licenses.
New Production announcements have steadily increased. But Book adaptations deals saw a dramatic increase this year. Also, theatrical distributions have significantly increased. In genres, we are seeing a drop in documentary acquisitions and also a slow decline in licensing of unscripted content. TV Formats adaptations or rights acquisitions is seeing a gradual increase. Finally, a there has been a sharp drop in licensing deals for titles older than 3 years
With Vitrina you can locate the right cross-border buyers, understand buyers’ content preferences and recent deal activities in distribution, licensing and global pre-buys and pre-sales. Acquisition teams can find content opportunities, competitive intel, potential partners in key markets as well as trends on content funding, content investments and licensing deals. Vitrina’s state-of-the-art AI provides exhaustive market intel, competitive intel, global content funding-production-distribution trends, supply-chain changes and country analysis. Corporate development execs use Vitrina to check out companies for potential acquisitions, alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures.
Book Adaptations are on the rise. Books that are popular with target audiences are picked up by commissioning networks and broadcasters because they are more likely to resonate with people.
In the last few years, TV has moved from networks and cable to online streaming platforms filling watchlists. Almost every streaming network owns multiple bingeworthy original series.
Find the latest Originals commissioned by streaming networks
Pain points in cross-border transactions – Reputation and Credentials
Popular search engines are still the default tools and, at best, their results can be cross-checked with the target’s business associates.
Ratings disparity
Algorithms apart, there is disparity in the supply chain itself that slows down the evaluation process in developing markets. In the U.S. or the U.K., for instance, services such as concept and scripts, sound effects or animation are standalone services offered by super-specialists. So, vetting is easy.
Contrast this with unorganized markets such as India or Poland, where one service provider offers all those services. Comparing companies on a specific expertise becomes complex, if not impossible.
Name-dropping
With no established processes, local service providers often resort to unprofessional means to snare contracts.
Name-dropping is one. To impress clients, they boast about their links with local celebrities and prominent persons, and claim to have made big contributions to successful shows. It is difficult to ascertain the veracity of their statements.
Lack of transparency
Another bane is the lack of transparency. Take the case of an independent producer from Jordan seeking to go west. When she reached out to distribution companies in Los Angeles, London and Amsterdam, they welcomed her content but refused to share details about buyers.Next, she learnt, her production had been screened at multiple film festivals. Accolades came, but little income.
Fixers and consultants
Hiring local fixers and consultants helps. Bigger companies also invest in local offices and operational hubs. While this could resolve some of the issues in the primary markets, problems persist in the secondary and tertiary ones.
Non-standardized forms
Adding to the verification dilemma are non-standardized forms for so-called Request for Information or Request for Proposal. Not only are they long, but are differently worded and nuanced. This prompts local vendors to devote their time and best resources on filling these forms, to bag big contracts.
The Vitrina Way
A secure marketplace provides a platform where every buyer and seller has been thoroughly vetted, eliminating chances of fraud.Vitrina ensures this by putting guard rails on its platform.
Internal team
Our team identifies bad actors or potential ones, and such companies are kept out of the platform.
The team weeds out those that mis-represent facts, or make claims not backed by demonstrable proof.
The launch, for example, will exclude all freelancers from its database. Only companies will be featured.
Official Email IDs
One primary condition to qualify for the Vitrina platform will be an official email ID. In the absence of that, a couple of other documents will be required.
Vitrina is in the process of outlining the list of documents. The documents required to prove the legitimacy of a company and its appropriate representative may vary for different countries.
Setting triggers
Even when onboard, the platform will set parameters monitoring not just the credentials but the activities undertaken by the participants.
These would trigger alarms within the system if any member makes false performance claims.In that case, they would be instantly removed from the system.
AI, the key pillar
Its proprietary AI has given Vitrina the confidence and scale to delve through massive volumes of unstructured data sets, find patterns and report anomalies.For example, if a company offers a long and convoluted explanation about its work, the AI is able to dissect and identify the exact nature of services that the company provides, compare this with competing services, and club them in a specific category.
The entertainment value-chain globally is massive, fragmented, and complex! And this global supply-chain has never been mapped for all its different specialist companies, distributors, buyers, sellers, and corporations.
As streaming and broadcast multinationals develop, produce, acquire and license content across geographical boundaries, the paucity of information about prevailing norms, local players, and regional insights is limiting them to roping in the right specialist partners. The challenge also extends to picking the right partners from a host of production houses, studios, dubbing/ localization companies, distributors, and ancillary service providers, who together constitute the content entertainment value-chain.
Changes in Business Models
Outsourcing, offshoring of animation and Post work; new deal structures for IP and content financing; cross-border Co-Pro deals; traditional upstream studios moving downstream into streaming and vice-versa; P&L margin or cost pressures – all these causing changes within the supply chain and new business models.
Data Scarcity & Antiquated Methods
There is negligible data about specialist service providers across markets. Most sellers and buyers physically visit trade shows like MIPCOM, NATPE, and DISCOP, then sift through distributed material, jot down names and contact details of potential collaborators, and then engage them individually via email to reconnect and reconfirm services, content offerings, coverage, and other transactional details. Clearly, a time-consuming, inefficient, antiquated way to work in a globalized, post-pandemic world!
Subjective Choices
Patchy, outdated information leading to faulty assessment parameters delay the process of selecting a local vendor. This tends to happen even in high-demand specialist categories such as IP Licensing, Distribution, Dubbing & Localization services, VFX, Post-Production, and Animation. Compounding these issues is also the absence of a curated list of the best and next-rung players leading to subjective, ad-hoc, and inadequate choices. Bias is common, and the risk of the same names appearing repeatedly is high. Asking your network of colleagues and peers from other offices for vendor names, again introduces bias usually referred to as ‘tribal knowledge’. The biggest danger with this tribal knowledge is the lack of discovery of newer, better, and trending prospective partners that are completely missed! By the time a new name does filter through these human systems, a rival has already taken away the vendor.
Rapid Disruptive Technologies
Changes in Virtual Production, VFX and animation due to gaming engines; use of AI in dubbing and localization; the migration of Post workflows onto cloud; the Ad-Tech choices for Freemium VoD and FAST-channel players are just some of the examples that are bringing new entrants or changing the erstwhile players.
No standardization
The lack of standard forms and questionnaires to seek information or negotiate with vendors is yet another stumbling block. Collaboration often involves long, complex questionnaires. There’s also no uniformity of keywords and vocabulary across boundaries. Often, the service and specialization names tend to be different across countries – leading to a lot of confusion and wasteful conversations that are ‘lost-in-translation’.
Innovation by Competition
Intense competition is constantly causing companies to change their offerings by upgrading their talent, tech, facilities and unit-economics. Hence, the need on the Buyer-side to constantly review partners, vendors, suppliers.
Demand-Supply Mismatches
High demand constraining the best vendors, service providers and facilities. That in turn, creating a need for options and alternatives at the Buyer-end.
Current scenario
Many streaming companies are asking their sourcing and procurement groups for the vendor, supplier, and distributor data that simply does not exist. So, they have to rely on dated industry directories and shared spreadsheets that are in private circulation. Commonly called trackers, these spreadsheets are dated that have missed all the real-world changes that have occurred with vendors including supplier upgrades, M&A activities, coverage expansions, new specializations, and competitive moves on those vendors.
The Vitrina Way
Vitrina’s primary objective as the global sourcing hub for the entertainment industry is to build the world’s best search and intel platform for this sector so as to effect smoother, faster, and secure transactions within the industry.
As a first step, we conducted a simultaneous census of all the major global markets and all companies within the content supply chain in those territories. The exercise culminated in an extensive list of 600,000 companies that include studios, production houses, post-production, localization, streamers, broadcasters, and other service providers or tech solutions. This initial companies census also traced inter-company relationships, the strength of every company’s networks, their specializations, and their corporate ownership structures. All these are critical signals for buyers and sellers to find the partners they desire to work with.
Thorough vetting
To ensure the information about the companies in its system is accurate and unbiased, Team Vitrina cross-checks facts through multiple data sets and gets past and current work profiles vetted from diverse sources. And the best part – the company profiles for each of these vendors is updated in real-time – both independently by Team Vitrina as well as by a host of the vendors and suppliers themselves!
Uniform taxonomy
The Vitrina system uses many classification models as part of its proprietary taxonomy to segment content, specialized services, and company types.
Team Vitrina has a deep understanding of this industry, along with an accumulated global experience in content and industry intelligence within the entertainment supply-chain.
The result
Vitrina is today acknowledged as the most powerful and sophisticated search-&-intel system for the video entertainment marketplace.
Get started with Vitrina AI and eliminate your company’s pain points in the global entertainment supply chain.
Lack of data is the biggest pain for the industry
Every year, the global entertainment industry spends about $255 billion buying and producing content.
Where does the money go? Which stories and genres are getting funded, and in which markets? Which are the rivals Netflix is encountering as it chases storytellers, talent and studios in different countries? Which content, originally produced for a local audience, is being picked by global streaming players?
There are simply no deals data to track the what and where, and explain the why. An information that is critical today when global content budgets are in a state of flux.
Media deals that are top of market today may not be the core focus next year
Top studios in the US, Brazil, India and other major markets are reluctant to license their best work as they plan their own streaming services.
Covid-19 has had a crushing impact on box-office launches, and has changed the traditional pattern of theatrical releases.
The economics of content production and content acquisition are not insulated from such shocks, and beg for deals tracking.
Scale of content production has been growing tremendously year-on-year
Over 100,000 TV channels, streaming platforms, studios, cable and satellite companies worldwide are furiously adding more than a million new video content titles every year to an existing basket of about 15 million.
Data on these production, acquisition or distribution deals are disaggregated and unstructured. Or, simply, unavailable.
Predicting content potential based on current trends is a challenge
There is a constant battle to predict what content is ‘in demand’ for acquisitions. Industry players have been resorting to crude methods to track patterns and trends.
Interns and new recruits are asked to tabulate last known deals by competitors, streaming companies and major studios.
Anecdotal calls to ‘experts’ for ‘signals’ is yet another means.
Incomplete information leads to incomplete conclusions
Extracting details of deals is also complex and time-consuming. The data sets are either buried in press releases or are often semi-structured, owing their origin to industry bodies that track deals only for specific markets.
Most of the information is circumstantial at best.
Unavailability of financial specifications of ongoing deals leads to non-standard pricing models
In any cross-border deal, while the bulk of the funds is spent on production and acquisition, distribution often forms a major part of the money trail.
While distributors are not shy about announcing the deals, they keep the financial specifics close to their chest. Dearth of details leaves the streaming giants at a disadvantage while negotiating.
Leakage of information via grapevine creating misinformation
Sometimes, small local studios that are already under exclusive content contracts, continue dialogues with rival streaming companies to gather intelligence, leaving parties on the other side of the table vulnerable.
The Vitrina Way
Using technology to convert unstructured information into structured data & analytics
There is a certain way that money flows into the video entertainment industry.
Vitrina aims to use its proprietary AI and analytical expertise to trace this path: from where the money is coming in, and where it is going.
A system is being created to capture data that would indicate what content is getting funded, in which markets, in which genres, and by which companies. Also, who the recipients are.
The information culled from published sources and industry experts would explain how the industry is structured, and which constituents are critical in the flow of the big bucks: the countries, studios or the distribution companies
Connecting the dots across all aspects of content funding life-cycle
What kind of stories should get funded, or the nature of content that must be created is a function of what content is being traded.
Vitrina aims to piece together the entire story. From the source of the money to what type of content is attracting more funds, which the top markets are, and the diverse choices that an entertainment company might be making in different regions.
Vitrina would also pick out the prominent dealmakers in different markets, and examine the nature of their deals.
Not limiting to specific deal makers; Vitrina is covering the longtail across regions
Vitrina would go beyond Netflix, Amazon or Disney and dig deeper in order to identify the mid-sized or still smaller players in different geographical areas.
Its pecking order would also include local, pan-regional or regional companies which might be regularly spending substantial money to produce content.
Vitrina would examine the size of such deals, genres that are drawing the funds, and regions that are seeing maximum action.
In the course of its search, Vitrina would also identify the biases, prejudices and preferences in language or genre. Were certain studios or themes being patronised more than others?
Vitrina Deal Intel’s winning formula is to deliver accurate information every time
Such deal intel, combined with an AI-powered robust supply chain search, would give Vitrina its winning formula.
At every step, Vitrina would read authentic information from appropriate indicators to improve the quality of choices in the selection of content, partners, and markets in cross-border transactions.
This would remove the ambiguity that exists in cross-border transactions today.
Typically, content services refer to all post-production work including editing, colour correction, localization, VFX, immersive experiences, and marketing, among others.
Customised post-production solutions that facilitate packaging and delivery of video and film content for broadcast, VOD, mobile and the internet. Typically, content services refer to all post-production work including editing, colour correction, localization, VFX, immersive experiences, and marketing, among others.
When are Content Services preferred?
After the pre-production and production stages, once the filming is wrapped. They embellish and enhance the visual and audio materials in the footage, according to the targeted viewership, to deliver a high-quality, ready-to-beam product across multiple platforms and in diverse languages.
The entire process including marketing and distribution could take anywhere from several months to a year, depending on the size of the project.
The art of selecting clips from a film or video shoot, and putting them in a specific order to tell the desired story. It is the most crucial step in post-production services.
Editors take raw footage of the visual content and use techniques like cutaways, crosscutting, parallel editing, continuity editing, and match cuts to reconceptualize the scripted version of a story, and make it come alive in line with the director’s vision.
The process includes both picture and sound manipulation. It could also comprise any lower thirds (such as a speaker’s title or the title of an episode), credits, foley sound, sound effects, and soundtrack
Why is editing important?
Editing makes a good film exceptional. It determines when the audience receives information. Either by holding a shot longer, or purposely withholding information to give the story a twist ending. It dictates the pacing. Slow, longer shots to build suspense, or cut an entire unnecessary scene to up the overall speed.
It times the cuts skilfully so the scenes flow smoothly. This is especially crucial when the film is shot in multiple locations that need to appear like one. It also amplifies emotions. Transitions and shot selection techniques make the viewers experience a range of emotions as they watch the movie.
Summary
Content services refer to all post-production work undertaken by production studios after a film or video shoot ends
It is the third and final phase of a production process.
Content services comprise editing, colour correction, localization of content, on-set special effects and video effects, immersive experiences, graphics, trailer and marketing, among others.
The entire process could take anywhere from several months to a year, depending on the size of the project.
It involves individual agencies and ancillary companies in the global content supply chain.
What is color correction?
A post-production process where every individual clip of a footage is altered to match the color temperature of multiple shots to a consistent technical standard of appearance.
It’s about making the whites appear whiter, blacks more black, and everything in between nice and even, to make an accurate portrayal of how the scenes would look if viewed from the human eye.
The scenes can be further enhanced by manipulating colors to create a new visual tone. Referred as color grading, cinematographers use it to emphasize certain types of moods or achieve a stylized look for the story.
Why is color correction important?
Establishes the visual aesthetic of a story and fixes any color-related anomalies that might have crept in during shooting.
Summary
Color correction is a post production process where every individual clip of a footage is altered to a consistent technical standard of appearance.
It helps make an accurate portrayal of how the scenes would look the human eye.
Often, cinematographers follow up color correction with color grading to give the story a stylized look.
What is VFX?
Visual effects, or VFX, is a term used to describe imagery created, manipulated, or enhanced for any film, or other audio visual content, after its shooting has ended.
It is a post-production process that integrates actual footage with this manipulated imagery to create realistic looking environments. These environments created are either too dangerous to actually shoot, or worlds that just don’t exist.
Studios use computer-generated imagery (CGI), and particular VFX software to make it happen.
Visual effects are different from special effects (SFX) in that they require a computer and are added in after shooting. Special effects, on the other hand, are realized on set.
An example of VFX would be the dragons flying through the sky in Game of Thrones, or a spaceship flying through space in Star Wars. The superhuman gunplay in the Matrix sequels were also a product of VFX.
When is VFX preferred?
Visual effects are used to make extraordinary additions to any movie or video production in a short time, sans an elaborate setting. They allow the content creators to envision and execute detailed and miraculous effects, worlds, and characters that are impossible to be harnessed by actors on a soundstage.
VFX highlights the minute details of an action, and illustrates how complex and nuanced a scene is. In the dog-eat-dog world of entertainment, this gives content an edge over rivals. Some of the popular VFX techniques are bullet time and doubling.
Summary
VFX is a post-production process that integrates actual footage with manipulated imagery to create realistic looking environments.
Studios use computer-generated imagery (CGI), and particular VFX software to make it happen.
VFX highlights the minute details of an action, and illustrates how complex and nuanced a scene is. In the dog-eat-dog world of entertainment, this gives content an edge over rivals..
Popular VFX techniques include bullet time and doubling.
What is an immersive experience?
Experiential content borne out of a compelling story uniquely blended with sound, visuals and technology to create an imaginary world that pulls viewers and engages them with extraordinary interactives.
Immersive experience relies on two types of technology: virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The former enables the customer to wear a VR headset and plunge into a computer-simulated world far from real life.
Augmented Reality, on the other hand, keeps the user in the real world but enables him to look through transparent smart glasses and experience a unique story, digitally augmented or enhanced in some way. Great immersive experiences make the user discover the story themselves. That’s really the key to creating a compelling immersive experience.
When is an immersive experience preferred?
When entertainment companies decide to create content that makes the viewer a part of the story, rather than just a spectator.
Summary
Immersive experience is experiential content borne out of blending a compelling story with sound, visuals and technology to create an imaginary world that pulls viewers and engages them with extraordinary interactives.
It relies on two types of technology, VR and AR.
Immersive experience is preferred when entertainment companies wish to create content that makes the viewer a part of the story, rather than just a spectator.
What is localization of content?
A process of adapting original content to a targeted market in a culturally-sensitive way so that the viewers in the new territory relate to the content as though it was primarily created for them.
Localization services focus on three main areas of content production: language, format and design, and cultural sensitivity.
The most requested languages for local adaptation include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hindi, German, Canadian French, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Korean and Japanese.
When is localization preferred?
When entertainment companies cross geographic boundaries and beam their existing content to diverse world audiences.
Demand for localization services increased manifold after the onset of the pandemic last year when viewers around the world flocked to the 100-plus streaming-service providers, and demand grew for global fare in a local form – complete with nuances.
What are the different types of localization services?
Subtitling: Written translation of spoken dialogue in an AV, simultaneously placed on screen with the audio. A textual translation, it keeps voices and sounds of the audio-visual intact. It is popular in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Greece, Croatia, Portugal and some non-European countries such as South Africa.
Dubbing: Dubbing, unlike subtitling, replaces the original dialogue with a simultaneous spoken translation. Voice actors are used as dubbers to replace the original actors’ voices. Post-production editors then try to synchronize the voice-over with the lip movements of the screen actor. Often, they have to change the translation or the word order in the target language for a better fit.
Dubbing is the norm in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Turkey, as well as India and Japan
Transcreation: In certain markets, localization of content does not end with straightforward translation. The script has to be modified in keeping with the cultural sensitivities of the target audience. Transcreation is a creative process of adapting video content from one language or region to another, while maintaining the original theme, intent, tone and style, to evoke emotional connect with target audiences in their preferred language.
Summary
Localization is a process of adapting original content to a targeted market in a culturally-sensitive way.
Localization is favored when entertainment companies cross geographic boundaries with their existing content.
Different types of localization services include subtitling, dubbing, flipping, transcreation and reversioning.
What is Content Marketing?
The San Diego University defines content marketing as a process of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and build customer loyalty among a clearly defined audience with the goal of generating profitable actions.
Infographics, webpages, podcasts, videos, books, thought leadership articles, webinars, white papers and blogs are some tools of content marketing.
When is content marketing preferred?
When there is a need to raise awareness about solutions and educate consumers about a product they may have never considered before.
Content marketing also provides additional benefits in that it supports diverse digital marketing channels. It provides additional content for social media marketing and contributes to SEO efforts by generating natural inbound links and building up good written and visual content on the product’s website that gets found in search engines.
Publishing noteworthy content is not enough. To succeed, content marketing needs a consistent publishing cadence, along with the ability to repurpose existing material across multiple platforms.
A multifaceted amplification strategy must also be in place.
Summary
Content marketing is a process of creating and distributing relevant content to attract, acquire and build customer loyalty among a clearly defined audience with the goal of generating profitable actions.
It is favored when there is a need to raise awareness about solutions and educate consumers about a product they may have never considered before.
To succeed, it needs a consistent publishing cadence and a multifaceted amplification strategy.
What is editing?