Digital Hollywood, which recently concluded at the Skirball Center in Brentwood, provides a wonderful “sneak preview” of what our digital future will look like.
You get to see what all the digital gurus are doing, all in one place. It’s a real feast — impossible to take it all in.
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are still the talk of the town, as they have been for several years now.
But, unlike in previous years, when AR/VR seemed more like a dream than reality, this year there were several live demonstrations of AR/VR in action — and they looked pretty darn cool.
I tried on some goggles and earphones at the Hear360 booth. Hear360 has an outpost in Marina del Rey and a recording studio near Olympic and Bundy.
As I turned slowly in a circle, I could “see,” in 3D, several musicians who formed a big circle around me.
One was playing drums, another saxophone, another trombone, another guitar, etc.
When I was facing one musician and stepped a bit closer, the clarity of that musician’s sound became amazing.
When I turned to the next musician, his or her music became much more prominent – and the sounds from the other musicians faded a bit into the background.
In addition to music, think of how this could open up the worlds of documentary making, online gaming, virtual travel and movie viewing on one’s device.
Many who attend Digital Hollywood are into producing movies. Producing movies takes money.
At Digital Hollywood, there are lots of filmmakers, financiers and attorneys in the swirl. There is a “let’s make a deal” quality in the air.
Brian MacMahon, who runs Expert DOJO in Santa Monica, told people looking for funding to remember at all times that “investors invest in YOU.”
Every communication, every chance meeting, every email, your body language, your voice – people are sizing you up at all times, said MacMahon. People are busy. You need to get right to the point with a very clear message, he emphasized.
MacMahon’s associate Danny Montoya said the quality of the management team is key to any startup. Asher Leids, an angel investor on the panel, put it this way: “Management, management and management.”
Interestingly, Montoya said it’s often easier to find money for an incremental improvement rather than something brand new.
This might sound counter-intuitive in a startup economy that celebrates “disruption.”
Montoya, who is an angel investor, explained it this way: “If something has never been done before, some investors might consider that evidence that the idea isn’t so great in the first place.”
If you can improve upon something everybody already understands, added Montoya, you’re often ahead of the game. It’s hard, Montoya added, to explain the value of something nobody has ever seen before.
Crowdfunding, barely on anyone’s radar screen a few years ago, is now a headliner topic, as is anything having to do with promoting media projects via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other platforms.
It goes even deeper than this. There were panels that explored the neuroscience of influence. Why do some messages work better than others? Why we do “hear” certain influencers more readily than others?
And how will artificial intelligence impact us in the future? Layer in some robotics, stir in a few drones, drop in a little bitcoin and then spice things up with a new streaming video service or two, and very quickly, your head begins to spin.
Since so many from the Westside are actors, writers, directors, shooters, editors, documentarians, financiers and producers, attending Digital Hollywood once — or maybe even twice a year — seems like a bit of a no-brainer.
It’s like getting maintaining your car – once in a while you need your oil changed (and your tires rotated).
Anything having to do with digital media changes quickly; it’s good to keep up.
The conference, produced by Victor Harwood, is held at the Skirball every May and October. There is plenty of free parking directly across from the Skirball, and once you are there, there is plenty of food, water, access to wifi and the like.
It’s the opportunity to quickly connect with others working on interesting projects that makes this event such a good one. Some attendees I bump into each year and we always take a few minutes to update each other on what we’re working on.
Check out digitalhollywood.com and stay in the loop.
