Viewing Recommendations and Streaming Service Search
Greetings all,
We are working on some programs here at the Video Fest that I can tell you about, we have not locked them in yet, but I wanted to give you a heads-up. Both of them should be happening at the end of April. The first one is the North Texas Universities Film Festival program we've been doing for a number of years. It's been over 20 years since we have the best films from SMU, UNT, and UTA, and it's a chance for people to see the best student films being made in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The second is another film in our curated film series. This is a series of films that we think you ought to see, often made by local or regional filmmakers, and in this case, we have a new film by Richard Bailey. As we get closer, I will give you way more information on this film, and I think you're going to really love both of these programs.
As for watching things at home, I have a few recommendations.
The show “Adolescence,” which is beautifully photographed in one take for each episode, is very powerful but hard to watch. Also, “100 Years of Solitude,” which many of you have read a bit ago. Both of these are on Netflix and definitely worth watching. But there's something else on Netflix I want to talk about. It's a show that has been around for quite a while, and I just started watching it. While it is from another time, 2016, I think it is relevant today. The show is “Designated Survivor.” The construct of the show is that there is a designated survivor, particularly during the State of the Union, who can be president if everything blows up. And, of course, everything blows up, and he gets to be president. But what makes this show really fascinating is that it mixes two genres. In one way, it’s an update of “The West Wing” that follows a good president with good values who is trying to do the best he can in an honest and honorable way. There are even a lot of shots of people walking around that are very reminiscent of “The West Wing.” The other element of this show is the action of tracking the people who blew up the capital. This part is reminiscent of the show “24”, which is very interesting because, of course, Kiefer Sutherland, star of “24”, is the lead here.
But the real reason I really like watching this now is to see somebody as president doing things for the right reason, who is always looking out for, as my mother used to say, doing the right thing. The difference between our current leadership is very, very powerful to experience.
This show ran for two seasons on television, and the third series was on Netflix. What struck me while watching the first two series was the difference between the narrative on TV and in streaming, the pacing of the show, and when you have commercials and when you don’t. I forgot that before the commercial break, you get this dramatic moment with this swirl of music and then a sting. I found it annoying. It reminded me of how writers, directors, and editors think of timing the narrative differently. While there are many problems with streamers, changing the pace of storytelling has been good.
There is so much great stuff in theaters. I am so happy that “No Other Land” is still playing at the Angelika. They are also showing some of the best Gene Hackman films, including “The Conversation,” “I Never Sang for My Father,””Hoosiers,” and “The Birdcage.” I also recommend “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.”
I saw “Bob Trevino Likes It” last year at SXSW, where it won the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award. I highly recommend this indie film, which is finally being shown in theaters here in Dallas and at the Modern in Fort Worth.
This week, the Texas Theatre is showing “Thank You Very Much,” a recent film about Andy Kaufman. There have been many documentaries and dramatic films about Kaufman, who was a mixture of a performance artist and comedian. We ran “I’m from Hollywood” at the fest back in 1989. I still remember that film and would love to see it playing again. Any film about Kaufman is worth seeing.
Have a great week.
-Bart
Howdy,
I think a lot about video streaming services and their interfaces, mostly lamenting how the Max app doesn't integrate the native Apple TV player. Most video streaming apps have settled on a fairly standard layout, copied from Netflix. On the left side panel, there are a few category options. The main screen is large tiles with images of the show or movie that typically auto-play a trailer when you hover over it. Recently, many of these apps, including Disney, Max, and Peacock, have started hosting live channels that start playing video streams immediately—anything to get you hooked right away. A big issue with these apps is figuring out which app has which show, an issue that Apple, Amazon, and Roku try to resolve by offering "universal search," presumably surfacing the correct app when you use their respective assistants to find it. My experience is very hit or miss.
Audio streaming services have an entirely different set of issues and challengers. Apple Music, Tidal, and others offer nearly every song in recorded history. Some, like Spotify, also integrate podcasts and audiobooks in order to differentiate themselves. They all have so much content that matching each user with songs that they will enjoy can be a challenge. I took a look at the search experience on each of these apps recently.
First, I went to search for a specific song, "Leash" by the artist Sky Ferreira from the soundtrack to the 2024 film "Babygirl." On Apple Music, the correct track surfaced right at the top along with the artist info and album. They also suggested an "As Heard at the Movies" playlist amongst a few others in a fairly standard list. YouTube Music presented the correct track with large "Play" and "Save" buttons. Tidal couldn't identify the song that I wanted. On Spotify, they offer the song right at the top, but also surfaced an episode of the Freakonomics podcast, the "Babygirl" soundtrack playlist, and a couple of audiobooks with "Leash" in the title.
Next, I tried searching for music in the Hyperpop genre. Apple Music came up with a list of genre playlists curated by music editors, along with albums from Charlie xcx and 100 gecs. YouTube Music offered to start a machine-generated radio station, with a list of songs in the genre. Tidal gave some songs with the word "hyper" in the title, along with a kind of useless "Hyperpop 101" playlist. On Spotify, they benefit from having millions of user-generated playlists that they can surface without much work. Also, with their attempts to machine-generate specific playlists for each user, they showed several "Made for You" designated lists.
Like video-first apps, most of these apps feature very similar interfaces. Unlike video streaming services, though, most of the content is the same. As Spotify tries to hold onto its lead as the most-used service, they are heavily featuring video podcasts that play in-app. The expansion into podcasts and audiobooks is not only a differentiator but also costs less to the company than music rights.
Unfortunately for video streaming services, music services, and podcast apps, there is really only one app that matters in this space at all, and it's YouTube. In the video space, the app hosts content from everyone, including indie creators up to brands like the New York Times. It's not just people watching on their phones; the Nielsen charts show that people spend over 11% of time on their TVs watching YouTube, more than even Netflix. YouTube claims that more people are watching through their smart TVs than they are on their smartphones.
This doesn't even account for their other video streaming service, YouTube TV, which acts as a virtual cable plan and offers subscriptions to Max, Paramount, and endless other niche services. They offer their music service, built on the endless music videos and covers uploaded to the main site. And on the podcast front, it turns out people aren't even using a dedicated app like Apple Podcasts or Pocket Casts; they just are listening to videos. Google announced last month that over a billion people are using YouTube to stream podcasts. It's a wonder anyone else is even trying to compete.
-Elijah