How less became a whole lot more

The Recession Renaissance is fueled by new opportunities made possible by the Internet

 

“Paranormal Activity” has gotten Internet buzz by asking viewers to compete to have it screened in their town.

 

It’s not popular to say that the recession is a good thing. But one unexpected outcome of cash-strapped times happening in the era of blogs and social networking is a spurt of grassroots creativity that is changing the game for the entertainment industry.

“In the old days — meaning pre-Internet, social networking — the entertainment industry was considered to be recession-proof because when things were bad, people still wanted to escape through television and film,” explains entertainment lawyer Darrell D. Miller. “We all grew up in an industry that was 40, 50, 60 years entrenched in a monopoly. We had three broadcast networks.

Today, social-networking sites and digital entertainment are taking people away from the film, television and music businesses and has eroded those basic blocks of the audience.”

As a result of this migration to the Internet, as Miller says, consumers “have become filmmakers by creating their own films, uploading them and broadcasting them.” In some cases, these small films can gain huge audiences — the natural reward for true innovation.

“The shift towards new media and focus on saving money has forced the entertainment industry to rethink their approach to storytelling. Entertainment properties are being shaped to fit the pace of technology; books are being written on Twitter 140 characters at a time,” says Kirsten Osolind, creator of the online soap opera “Chicago to Coronado.”

“If you look at what Will Ferrell did with Funny

OrDie.com, it may be harder to monetize in a recession, but it’s a new revenue source that didn’t exist before. Marketers are willing to pay top dollar to be integrated with brands like that,” adds Yves Darbouze, of pLot Multimedia, an integrated marketing social networking solutions group.

By being forced to do more with less, we’ve learned to accept only top quality entertainment and become creators ourselves.