Canon launches Future of Filmmaking report

Drawing on insights from seven industry leaders across Europe, as well as Canon’s own product and industry experts, the report covers everything from the role of streaming giants and virtual production, to education, diverse storytelling and sustainability standards – showcasing how future filmmakers will redefine the industry, transforming how, why and what stories are told in line with fresh priorities.

Ryuhei Kamata, European Senior Product Marketing Manager at Canon Europe, said: “Our Future of Filmmaking report offers a holistic view of what the next decade looks like based on trends and the current trajectory of filmmaking. It’s an exciting time for the industry and we’re looking forward to how it evolves, focusing on how Canon can help support the needs of filmmakers – whether it be supporting virtual production or solo shooters with our pioneering products, or championing local stories and creativity.”

Martin Raymond, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Future Laboratory, said, “Far from the industry fragmenting, due to next generation tech and the many co-creators and digi-maestros championing it, the sector now has more channels than ever to address audiences – from the metaverse to social media – while techno-collectives, and decentralised automatous organisations of creatives, technicians, and CGI specialists are all rebooting and rewriting the rules of film making 21^st century style.”

The report showcases the rise of four key types of filmmakers – spurred on by new attitudes to digital, emerging technology, collective thinking and empowerment – and how they’re transforming the industry:

1.  Empowered creators 
2.  New tech masters 
3.  Symbiotic storytellers 
4.  Conscious collectives 

Empowered Creators – The industry is waking up to the cultural and commercial power of individual creators and solo shooters, setting new standards that ensure democratisation extends to access, education and beyond. Traditional makers are increasingly being eclipsed and the boundaries between professional and amateur are blurring, allowing imaginative ideas to slowly emerge as the only precondition to successful content creation. For these new Empowered Creators, there are two key trends:

• The development of accessible apparatus:Intuitive hardware and software solutions are lowering creative barriers to entry, allowing creators to sidestep traditional educational routes to produce professional outputs.
• The rise of new social networks: Progressive creative communities and social platforms are striving to restructure hierarchies of production, offering alternative paths to the industry that facilitate access and community.  

New Tech Masters – Filmmakers who are optimising technological acceleration to enable smart efficiencies and boundary-crossing forms. They are striving for filmmaking that is agile, efficient and enhanced – the New Tech Masters are spurring the emergence of three key trends: the use of Adaptive Ecosystems, the emergence of VPOD (virtual production on demand) and the Metaverse rising:

• Adaptive Ecosystems: Artificial intelligence (AI), analytics and automation are replacing previously fragmented production supply chains with low-latency solutions able to deliver benefits to large- and small-scale productions alike.
• Virtual production on demand: More than an inter-pandemic industry lifeline, virtual production platforms are emerging as a certified, often enhanced filmmaking method as smart brands increasingly create turnkey solutions and VP studios ready for use. 
• Metaverse rising: New virtual technologies are transforming once fringe productions into coveted entertainment experiences, with the metaverse creating potential for fully immersive, customisable films and broadcasts.

Symbiotic Storytellers – Utilising data and democratisation to create audience/consumer relationships built on exchange. Canon delves into how advancements in AI, data and decentralisation allow filmmakers to create new relationships of exchange between audiences and creators. The Symbiotic Storytellers are spurring on the utilisation of data audiences, the boom of hyper-local content and the emergence of decentralised features:

• Data Audiences:Smart storytellers are resisting big data’s categorisation as a threat to creativity and independent productions, instead collaborating with anthropologically minded data initiatives that bring them closer to their audiences.
• Hyper-local content: Fuelled by the pandemic and social justice movements, a new era of filmmaking production and streaming is celebrating cultural nuance and putting regional stories on the global stage.
• Decentralised features: New technologies are empowering fresh attitudes and paths to creative production and consumption. Growing adoption of Web3 and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is revolutionising economic models, allowing filmmakers to create alongside incentivised film communities.

Conscious Collectives – Filmmakers focusing on industry standards, sustainability, and collective solutions. Alongside the disruption of the pandemic, we saw a societal-wide shift towards more progressive, responsible, and sustainable action – and the filmmaking industry has felt this. The ethics of the filmmaking industry have been thrust sharply into focus, encouraging a new consumer cohort to prioritise collective and progressive movements towards industry betterment. Spearheading these values, the Conscious Collectives are transforming mission statements into progress, leading to the expansion of three key trends: the emergence of Sustainable Screens, the call for Open Standards and the rise of People Power.

• Sustainable Screens: Collaborative initiatives are moving beyond lip service to action, coming together to offer environmentally conscious solutions that cut the seismic scale of production emissions.
• Open Standards:Established and emerging platforms alike are recognising the power of driving new standards across production, creating open-source coding and software that can be trialled and improved by the industry collectively.
• People Power: Progressive networks are offering new paths into the filmmaking industry, while opportunities abound for hardware tools and software platforms designed for diverse talent with equally diverse narratives.

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Read the full report here.