Streaming
The algorithm decides what you are offered, not what is good
Streaming recommendation optimises for completion and retention. Understanding that changes how you use it.
Ramón Estévez
Industry writer, After the Trailer
Ramón covers budgets, labour and the business decisions upstream of every release.
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11 articles
On Screen
Endings fail for structural reasons long before the last scene
A disappointing ending is usually the point at which a problem set up much earlier becomes visible. The final scene is rarely the…
On Screen
Action scenes fail when you cannot tell where anyone is
The most common defect in screen action is not a lack of spectacle. It is a collapse of geography that leaves the audience unable…
Streaming
The first-episode drop-off decides more than the finale does
Streaming series are assessed on how many people who start also continue. That single measurement reshapes how pilots are written.
Streaming
Localisation is now a commissioning decision, not an afterthought
Subtitling and dubbing used to happen after a show succeeded. On a global platform they are planned from the start, and they change…
Streaming
Free ad-supported channels are quietly rebuilding the television schedule
Linear streaming channels have grown fast by solving a problem on-demand created: choosing something to watch is work, and a…
On Screen
An antagonist is a structural device before it is a person
Opposition exists to force a protagonist to make costly choices. Whether it wears a face is a design decision, not a requirement.
On Screen
Improvisation on camera is a rehearsal method, not a free-for-all
Letting actors invent dialogue produces usable material only inside tight constraints. The constraints are technical as much as…
Streaming
The picture on the tile was chosen by a test, not by a director
Streaming artwork is generated in variants and selected by response data. It is the last piece of a film that anyone designs, and…
Streaming
Defining a household turned out to be a product decision
Sharing an account was tolerated for years, then treated as leakage. The rules that followed had to invent a technical definition…
Streaming
Local content rules changed what gets commissioned across whole regions
Several jurisdictions require services to carry and invest in work made locally. The requirement shows up as production in places…