Elena Neira: “If there is no cinema, it is not profitable to make a 200 million euro film”

Specialist for new models of audiovisual distribution Elena Neira (Ourense, 1975) visited Galicia to hold a conference at the headquarters of the production company CTV where he analyzed current trends in the sector. The expert spoke about the future streaming.

—What is the current trend in audiovisual matters?

—No big trend, but a few, especially after the end of the pandemic and after the pandemic ended streaming he began to adjust again. The reconfiguration of this system is one of the current cadences, which is no longer exclusively subscription, but opens the door to advertising. Also everything related to the battle for the viewer, because our attention is increasingly divided because we are hyperbombarded with offers. Now the challenge for the media is to be relevant in order to gain a minimum share of attention. There are many format trends, such as, for example, series, which after a period of great brilliance are now experiencing strong growth, and interesting growth is experienced by cinematography, documentaries, short films or video games.

— You are already talking about the post-war period of “streaming” and, although they have not died, theaters have been affected by this new trend. Do you think it will eventually go away? What will those who continue to worship content in these spaces do?

— I think we’re going back a bit to the same thing that happened with him. streaming, that it destroyed a whole section of distribution windows, let’s say that the various stages of commercial product research disappeared. Three quarters of the same thing happens with cinemas, but let’s say that if there are no cinemas, it is not profitable to make a film that costs 200 million euros. The main window of profitability for the film is cinemas. Whereby, if we want a certain type of cinematography to continue, theaters are fundamental behind the cycle of exploitation. What’s happening is that the seventh art is probably developing according to a very clear model where not everything will be released on the big screen because the problem is that it requires a lot of investment to be truly relevant and big. What’s happening is that there’s an indirect phenomenon of natural selection happening where some titles won’t see theaters or will see very specialized ones, and big titles will have campaigns for commercial theaters. The films most affected will be, and in fact are, socks, as they are released on the platform and gobbled up streaming. I don’t think, and I don’t want, that cinemas will disappear, but it is impossible for them not to be affected by new trends if we want some products to develop.

— Is TikTok the future of audiovisual content or is it only for social issues?

—TikTok is a very important part of content development and covers a certain type of very specific entertainment. As a concept of cycle and continuous flow of microspaces that follow one another, it is already starting to influence other types of content. Just look at the movie that won an Oscar this year, All at once everywhere, which is a product specifically designed for the Zeta, for the TikTok generation because there’s so much plot and stuff happening all the time. This is crucial for people who consume this kind of content. As the current development of audiovisual is, it does not seem that there is a medium to replace the other. They all coexist and there is a hyper-fragmentation of the audience. Today, the audiovisual diet of the average viewer consists of an infinite number of channels and screens, and TikTok is another part that helps us understand how the younger generation is developing and where it is part of the audience.

— Artificial intelligence also affects the creation of audiovisual content. It’s actually causing a lot of controversy in the sector, isn’t it?

— Yes, look at what’s happening in the United States with the writers’ strike that has paralyzed Hollywood. They are responsible for a large part of the content that is published and they want the generative artificial intelligence processes to be instrumental in relation to the work of the creators, i.e. they want the screenwriter not to be able to use the AI ​​to rewrite ideas or to be based on it, among other things project. The Artificial Intelligence It has been used for many years, especially for the purpose of increasing efficiency, which is happening now that we find examples that directly attack the work of connected people and that is dangerous. With AI, you can make the person say what you want without having to re-shoot scenes from the shoot.