Happy Friday! Welcome to Issue 79 of Rerun by Axonista!
This week's Top Pick is all about one of our Axonista Lab Days, where we hack the future of TV!
We also look at Twitter's present, future and potential buyers, why brands needs to budget for creative on mobile, VR storytelling, the best look yet at what the Magic Leap will be, and much more!
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Let's get to it!
Top Pick
Axonista Lab Day - hacking the future of TV!
Ever wondered about Axonista's Lab days and what happens when we don our lab coats to hack the future of TV? In this post, Jenny O'Keeffe, Axonista's wonderful Team Assistant, and one of the newest members of the team, reports on her first lab day experience.
Features
Who will buy Twitter? We ranked all the possible buyers
With the recent acquisition of Yahoo by Verizon, all eyes are now on likely buyers for the social media giant. Although Twitter has been instrumental in transforming how we watch live TV, it has struggled to build a global audience to the scale of Facebookâs. (More on this later...)
The team at Recode has put together a list of potential buyers and included for and against arguments for each one.
At Rerun, we're in the big pipe or big media camp and think that either Comcast, Verizon or Newscorp makes a lot of sense as buyers. However, the value of Twitter to its userbase as an independent source of news is one of the things that makes it great, so here's hoping Twitter can bootstrap its way through the next quarter to profitability.
Future of TV
Game Time for Twitter: Jack Dorsey's big bet on live events
It's no secret that Twitter are struggling. Long in Facebook's shadow as a social network, it's now in the process of repositioning itself as a realtime source of news, commentary and entertainment, rather than a social network. You saw this earlier in the year when the Twitter app moved categories from Social to News in the App Store. Twitter 2016 is all about what's happening in the world, right now.
At the forefront of this repositioning is media, particularly video, and artificial intelligence, which is aiming to be Twitter's master curator. This feature by Fast Company is a fascinating read into Twitter's new strategy.
As Dorsey and I wrap up one of our conversations, I lob him a question about his long-range visionâthe sort that most tech CEOs are only too happy to tackle. Maybe I shouldnât be shocked when he throws it back in my face.
"I think the present is so much more interesting," he says, politely but insistently.
NFL Thursday Night Football livestream on Twitter is a hit
The first of Twitter's 10 Thursday Night Football games was live streamed last night, and going by the tweets the reaction seemed positive, especially with regards to the streaming quality. Viewers seemed to enjoy having the game so easily accessible, but the jury is still out on whether or not it'll result in more user engagement with the rest of the Twitter platform, and whether it'll help build a bigger audience for the NFL.
Interactive Media
Why brands need to budget for beautiful creative on mobile
We have been given access to a whole new world of creative with mobile and video, and we have the opportunity to do some serious beautification and create authentic experiences through ads. But we won't know what works, or how it works, until we try.
In a heartfelt letter to an advertising industry that has grown to value efficiency over creativity, AOL's Alia Lamborghini appeals for a reset, and a prioritisation of creativity, experimentation and testing in order to create beautiful mobile video experiences that wow audiences.
We agree.
Storytelling
Why VR âstorytellingâ does not currently work. And can it ever work?
An interesting perspective on VR storytelling from @cartelmike who has personally created a lot of VR experiences. He outlines the lessons VR filmmakers can learn from the gaming industry and asks VR makers to consider the ultimate question- 'Why are you telling this story in VR in the first place?'
Of course, Virtual Reality is very different to the Internet, but not in one profound way. It DEMANDS to be interacted with. Like real life does, and indeed, demands. And this brings us to the elephant in the room with the current notion of VR Storytelling. Storytelling is a RETROSPECTIVE thing. It always has been.
Virtual Reality
This incredible 2016 NBA Finals documentary could be the future of VR video
By now, itâs a cliche to say that VR and 360-degree video make you feel like youâre there. But thatâs simply what I experienced in "Follow My Lead."
The NBA have released a mini-documentary, "Follow My Lead: The Story of the 2016 NBA Finals," which is a fantastic example of the kind of immersive experience that VR and 360 video can give. Featuring incredible camera positions, spatial audio, behind-the-scenes footage and an impressive 25-minute length, it's a true piece of innovation by the NBA.
Check it out for free in the Oculus Store or see the trailer on Facebook.
How Magic Leap works - from field of view to GPU
If you're curious about the magic behind the Magic Leap, Jono MacDougall at the GPU of the Brain blog has published a very in-depth look at what kind of technology and experience it could be. Don't take it as fact, but his research comes from talks, patents, job applications and the background of people working at the company, so it's a lot more informed than you're likely to read anywhere else.
HBOâs Westworld makes VR debut
Westworld is an upcoming HBO sci-fi series produced by J.J. Abrams and written by Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) and Lisa Joy (Pushing Daisies). HBO have created a VR experience to tie-in with the show and give viewers a chance to immersive themselves in the show universe. It's actually somewhat of a landmark as it's HBO's first internally built VR experience. It blends traditional CG content, 360 live action video, and real world object interaction, and it's a great example of a VR tie-in that has a reason to exist and doesn't feel forced.
Briefs
- Holy VR!! Batman: The Animated Series VR experience coming to View-Master
- Netflix signs deal with John Maloneâs Liberty Global
- This move says Apple is serious about a cable TV-style service
- YouTube launches Community features
Squanchtendo announces their first VR game âAccountingâ
VR studio Squanchtendo came on the scene just two weeks ago, founded by Justin Roiland (co-creator of Ricky & Morty) and Tanya Watson (formerly of Epic Games). Now they've released a trailer for their first VR experience and it looks... well like everything and nothing we expected!
NSFW warning: contains profanity, the f word đ