The Philip DeFranco Show - MS 6.7 How Markiplier, Bear Grylls, Kimmy Schmidt and The Fine Bros. are Changing the Future of Television

Episode Date: June 7, 2019

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Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you have a fantastic Friday. Welcome back to the Friday Philip DeFranco Show, which, a quick note if you're new to the channel, on Fridays we usually do something a little bit different. Lately we've been just kind of focusing on one story, and today that story is gonna be the future of television. But first, before we get started, I do want to thank the sponsor of today's video, EarnWithDeFranco.com, specifically Drop, earn cash rewards from your favorite brands, but more on that later. For now, first, we talk about the future of television. Because while for some of you it may

seem like TV has no future now that Game of Thrones is over, you know the universally loved ending of Game of Thrones, some entertainment executives are betting that you're ready to embrace a whole new type of content. A type of content where you're just not watching your favorite show but you're actually an active participant in it. We are talking about interactive television. This is a big shift right? Television programming has traditionally been passive. But now we're seeing interactive examples, and actually mainstream interactive examples. Right, back in December, Netflix released Black Mirror Bandersnatch. And while at the time you had some people disappointed that it wasn't a full new season of Black Mirror, you know, it had a lot of people talking and engaging. And you know, in this episode, in this interactive experience, you could make choices for the main character.

Right, and the choices were for a range of things, right? kill someone or not or just what cereal you'll want to eat How about you decide? What you want for your breakfast? And depending on those choices you make you get different experiences a different plot even a different ending Well the episode to some may have seemed like a gimmick a short-term experiment And depending on those choices you make, you get different experiences, a different plot, even a different ending. And while the episode to some may have seemed like a gimmick, a short-term experiment, that's actually far from the case. And regarding this, we spoke with Todd Spangler, the New York digital editor for Variety, who said this about the lasting power of the format. I think interactive storytelling is here to stay.

How big will it be? Will it become the predominant way that people consume video entertainment? I don't think so. I think it'll continue to be one of these kind of special event types of things that different companies use. For example, Netflix is bringing back Kimmy Schmidt for a final recap film, interactive film, if you will. And so it's's gonna be different jokes depending on how you make different choices for the different characters. Whether or not interactivity will only be used

for special events, the main thing is that more digital media companies are creating interactive shows and movies. I mean, hell, even YouTube's getting in the game. In April, YouTube announced that it had created a new role, Head of Innovation, to oversee the development of a slate of new original interactive projects. This including scripted programs and live specials and this new wave this new push

It may be surprising to some right considering that attempts at developing interactive content in the past has had mixed results I would argue that it's not really that surprising there has always been an audience that is hungered for Interaction right like the basic concept of letting an audience decide how a story plays out has been around for decades right whether it be role Playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Choose Your Own Adventure books, both of which have been extremely successful. Hell, today it is estimated there are nearly 14 million active D&D players and more than 250 million Choose Your Own Adventure books that have been sold worldwide. But obviously this is a different medium.

Translating interactivity to the screen has been more difficult. For example, back in 1987 there was a children's television show called Captain Power. It was way ahead of its time and they actually teamed up with a toy company Mattel to involve the viewer in the episode and how It worked was Mattel released toy jets that responded to light signals on the screen when an episode of Captain Power came on and if The jet was aimed at the right targets on screen you'd actually get points But those toys didn't sell well and because each episode reportedly cost more than 1 million dollars to produce the show was cancelled after just One season meanwhile you had the BBC having a little more success with their children's show from 1988 called What's Your Story? There, viewers could call into the station at the end of each episode and offer up ideas about what would happen in the next installment.

And here are the names of those involved in this episode. Now don't be surprised if only part of your idea has been used, because we wanted to use as many writers as possible in this episode. And reportedly, more than 500,000 viewers called in during the first week of the show. In fact, there were so many calls that the phone lines collapsed. But despite the initial success, the show ended up only lasting two seasons due to a hectic production schedule. An even more recent example is a 2006 black comedy show from Finland called Accidental Lovers. There, viewers sent messages into the show that were displayed on screen to impact the fate of a relationship between a 61-year-old cabaret singer and a 30-year-old pop star. 🎵

And let's never watch that again, okay? Thank you. Now beyond those examples, we've also seen YouTubers like Mark Fishbach, otherwise known as Markiplier, trying the format out. Back in 2017, he released a first-person perspective series called A Date with Markiplier. And at the end of each video, he released a first person perspective series called A Date with Markiplier. And at the end of each video, he gave you two choices on how you wanted the date to play out. Do we see the romance, love too soon, or the horror, the dark, Mark? The romance, or the horror?

And Mark's also not done testing. He's also currently developing another interactive project in conjunction with YouTube called A Heist with Markiplier. We actually got a chance to catch up with Mark who said that this new series is even more ambitious. This is way bigger than our last one, like way, way more than double the size of the last one. And it's just so broad in scope that I don't want people to know how deep the rabbit hole goes. So I just want people to get lost and have no idea how many endings there are and no idea where they're going and no idea how someone got that secret ending or this secret ending or if there even are secret endings because maybe there aren't maybe I'm lying about

That you know the more that we looked into all of this a big part of it is just the technology We're talking about whether it be a storytelling to the actual production process that it's all very complicated In fact Netflix actually had to develop an entirely new software to account for the non-linear nature of Black Mirror Bandersnatch. The proprietary script writing program called Branch Manager not only displayed all of the different individual choices a viewer could make, but also mapped the literally one trillion different ways

that a viewer could arrive at each of the five main endings. And even when you look at fan-generated flow charts, right, they're less technical, where they show all these different storylines, how they can play out, you can see that it starts to get very, very complex. And actually, on that note, here's Black Mirror's creator, Charlie Brooker, talking about the complexities. It was very challenging at every stage.

There were points where in working stuff out, it got like trying to do a Rubik's Cube in your head. And I had to literally get up from my desk and kind of walk around the house holding my head. Netflix has even reportedly applied Branch Manager to its other new interactive offerings, like Bear Gryllis' You Versus Wild, seen here. Do I go up and face the mountain lion, or do I take my chances with the abyss? My adventure is up to you. And to get an even greater sense of the other challenges

involved in creating interactive content, we got in touch with the digital media company, Echo, developing some pretty incredible music videos like Bob Dylan's like a Rolling Stone We can actually change the channel on the TV and the people on each channel lip-sync to the music They've even developed full interactive series like the comedy that moment when there the viewer makes choices for the main character Jill as she finds Herself an increasingly awkward situation that moment when you forget this guy's name at a party Accidentally confess your well, I got an ointment from the doctor to kind of clear up the scales. try to distract him by

Hold on a second. Jill, are you choking? Jamie, some sense! claim you got matching tattoos at his mom's church and end up insulting his Pre-shake!

And that company is also set to release a new series this fall called Epic Night. They're doing it in conjunction with FBE, which is the media company started by the Fine Brothers. And that show reportedly takes the audience inside the main characters last night of college and allows the viewer to make decisions for them every 60 to 90 seconds. And Alon Banery, the chief creative officer for Echo, told us that the company's software

even allows there to be up to 12 choices for each choice moment. But he also said an even bigger challenge than navigating these multiple storylines is getting writers and directors used to telling stories in a radically different way. Many of the filmmakers and the storytellers that we know, including myself, by the way,

I've grown up in linear, traditional video. And as that, all you do there is maintain the control and kind of hold the viewer by their hand. So telling a story where you give the viewer some level of agency is something that is very different than what many filmmakers and storytellers are used to. And in order to get around this challenge, you said that they have to involve creative minds from other industries in these projects.

We actually have many people with experience from the gaming world and from online interactive fiction and we team them up with people from a TV and film background and they work together to develop these shows and that Has proven to be very very effective. So given all of the challenges both logistically and creatively it begs the question Why are companies investing in interactivity? Well, it's largely because of audience retention rates simply put audience retention rates for interactive content is off the charts people watched our music videos an average of two and a half times and on some of the music videos even closer to three times. If you look at the stats on completion for music videos online on YouTube, they don't

even complete the first time. That's not only the fact these audiences are staying with the content longer, it's that these videos are leaving a lasting impression. And when you have content that sticks with people, when you have content that people are staying with while they're consuming it and they're re-consuming it, advertisers get interested. And around this, we talked to Dan Garraway, who's the co-founder of Wirewax, which is a video technology company that provides interactive tools for some of the world's biggest brands, like Nike, Disney, and Microsoft. And he told us about a 2017

study conducted by IPG Media Labs on the effectiveness of interactive ads. There was a 32% lift on the memorability, the recall. So people were more likely to remember the content because they had physically touched something in the video. That means something, there's lots of cognitive research around this now to do with touching a physical moment relating to a more impressionable thought. And it's for this reason that he sees a future where interactivity will bridge the divide between advertising and the content itself. The idea that retail sits over here, content sits over there is a bit of an antiquated

concept but also it's not useful. These days of ads being the obstructions to content will end. And that means that we can have a much more good quality relationship with the brands. And in fact, we're already seeing this play out. With some of the more creative and innovative campaigns, audiences are treating the ad like content itself. Take for example, one of Wirewax's projects

like this interactive feature at promoting the Jungle Book movie. You can draw a slider back and forth to see the difference between the CGI final version of the movie and what it actually looked like behind the scene. But with all that said, not everyone is on board. Like with anything, especially something new, there are critics.

For example, when it comes to advertising, you have people concerned that these digital studios are just gonna flood viewers with brand choices. By making the content secondary and making it more about, you know, making every piece of clothing in a TV show clickable for purchase. And there are people concerned that it's changing this entertainment medium.

In the past, it's been arguably about shared experience of something, right? It's the rise of choice-driven entertainment. Individual people are having individual custom experiences. And this is something that Spangler from Variety argues might not be the best for each individual. If you've got numerous different storylines and outcomes in a particular in a particular video

piece of video content, you know, how do you talk about that in a water cooler setting with your friends? But at the same time you have people like Benari who argue that interactive television can actually still generate the same sense of community. It's just that the conversations around the shows are different than before. You see the conversations, it's not, hey, did you see the episode last night? It's like, let me tell you about my episode and you tell me about your episode. And it becomes personalized in a way that, again, we have come to expect from everything

besides video and it's very exciting to see this type of conversation kind of moving into the video space as well. And as far as what happens next for this genre, obviously we're gonna have to wait to see. I think it's interesting to hear from the people actually making the content. And around that, here's what Markiplier told us about what he sees for the future of interactive content. It's a genre that's really fun for people to explore. And in this day and age where there's so much more interactive media going on, there's so much more consumption on a personal level for stuff like this,

and there's already an offshoot from people playing video games where it is first person or third person choice driven narrative. There's a craving for this and there's a right way to go about it and there's definitely a market to be had for it. And I think it will always kind of be a little bit in the gimmicky area, but that's fun. And so with all of that said, it's time to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on all of this? Do you think that interactive, choice-driven content is the future?

Not necessarily that it will take over, but it is here for the long term. Or do you think that this is a gimmick, a novelty? Personally, I think that there can still be a shared experience. One, that based off of these nude conversations, allows you to go back to the content again and experience it again in a different way. Right, obviously the gaming world, it's a different medium Kind of one of the the benefits of these procedurally generated worlds where everyone sometimes gets to experience something different, it's exciting. I don't know, there's just something fun about interacting with a normally passive piece of content to me. I don't

think that it replaces your normal passive experience. I think for the amount of extra effort that has to be put into it, it really needs to be monetized well. But we're living in a time where that's entirely possible, and I'm just, I'm very excited for any growth that we see. But that's my opinion, and I'd love to hear yours in those comments down below. Also, while you're leaving that comment or just appreciating how greasy I've become during the course of this video,

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But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow. No, Monday. My brain just stopped working for a second. It's been a long week.