Making Stories the centerpiece again – Behind the big boom
‘Making Stories the centerpiece again – Behind the big boom’, a panel discussion at the recently held SCREENXX 2021 Summit & Awards, put the focus on the newer narratives and storytelling emerging in the OTT spaces. How OTT players are concentrating more on creating content that has greater scope for personalisation.
The panel was moderated by Siddhaarth Aalambayan, Head, Video Content, Brand Solutions & Fork Studios, and the esteemed speakers included:
Deepak Segal, Content Head, Applause Entertainment
Goldie Behl, Producer & Co-Founder, Rose Audio Visuals
Puja Rajadhyaksha, Head of Content - EROS NOW Originals
Shreyas Talpade, Actor & Founder Nine Rasa
Siddharth Anand Kumar, Vice President - Films & Events at Saregama India Ltd
Suparn Verma, Writer, Film Director
Vaibhav Vishal, Screenwriter
In his opening remarks, Siddhaarth Aalambayan said, “We live in times where we’re so distant, yet we’re using all of these mediums to connect and shoot in a manner that they never have. No matter how experienced people are, we can’t put a finger on exactly what is going to go viral; nobody can predict what’s going to take the Internet by storm. However, what is certain is that amidst all of this is that storytelling and the script – no matter how long the communication has to be – it has to be on point.”
Supar Verma explained, “There’s a structure to producing content. For example, films are a three act structure, with a start, a middle and a conclusion. You also have something called the ‘Interval’, which doesn’t exist anywhere in the world, to cater for your first half and your second half. When it comes to OTT, the structure itself is different. First of all, there are layers and arcs of various characters, there’s no insignificant character in a Web series – some might rise in the third episode, or at the end of the season, to do something in the next season. But everything that you see in an OTT series has a reason to be in it, there’s nothing tertiary. It’s a much denser world.”
According to Deepak Sehgal, “There’s one thing that has happened with the advent of OTT, and that is that language has become a bit less focused. With subtitles people can watch a wider span of content across languages. You are immersing yourself in a non-profit viewing environment, where your eyes are shifting between what is being said and likely normally end up seeing those things twice, which is good for the platform. But that’s a big shift. Since the advent of OTT, I would never watch a language that I’m not comfortable with on broadcast, even if it had subtitles. So, that is one big shift that has come about.”
Watch the complete discussion below:
Share
Facebook
YouTube
Tweet
Twitter
LinkedIn