Largo Films, the company behind the revolutionary short film video on demand platform, Sofy.tv, is about to launch another revolution.

The company recently announced that it is to make the move into data-driven moviemaking. According to its website, Largo will “empower production companies with data-enhanced ROI uplift and reduction of risk”. This is great news for film companies and for viewers. But how exactly will this work and what will the benefits actually be?

Let’s take a look at what data-driven moviemaking is and how it is set to completely change the way we watch movies.

Big Data: The New Gold

In the information age, data has been called the new oil. The power of data is enormous.

Behind this statement lays a simple rational. The more data a company has on a particular person or group, the more efficiently it can use big data analytics to find trends that will help it get what it wants.

For most companies, this means targeted advertising or merchandising. Let’s consider one example, social media. For years, we all rushed to upload our holiday and baby snaps, create personal posts about our lives and share them with our friends. We also liked our favorite posts and pages.

As our use expanded, so did the amount of data that we gave these companies. Little did most people realize that these companies were collecting and analyzing our data for patterns that would help them tailor our advertisements to our exact tastes. And it isn’t just advertisements either.

Big data analytics have now become so sophisticated that Google can now actually predict a Flu outbreak before it actually happens. Facebook can actually tell when a relationship is about to end before it actually does!

While social media is one of the most obvious examples of how our data can be used to make incredible amounts of money from us, it is by no means the only one. Commerce sites such as Amazon are able to refine what we see based on past searches.

Sofy.tv is another example of a site that uses data to refine the user experience. The site contains sophisticated ‘movie recipe’ AI software that is able to analyze a movie’s exact contents and match it to what users enjoy watching.

One thing is for sure, big data means big returns for those who are able to get it right.

What is Data-driven moviemaking?

Data-driven moviemaking is a new term that refers to the use of big data analytics in the film industry. While it is still early days yet, data-driven moviemaking has the power to influence literally every aspect of film production and distribution, from the script to how a film is marketed.

While this might not always be a good thing, as in the case where films are actually altered simply to appease audiences to maximize profit, on the whole, the good outweighs the bad.

One such example is targeted marketing. Horror film director Eli Roth recently used “demographic data to create the most cost-efficient marketing campaigns for his new movie, The Green Inferno.” In a nutshell, this meant the films distributers using big data to specifically target advertisements at demographics that were likely to watch the film.

By doing this, Roth was able to bypass the $30 to $35 million required for marketing and distributing low end films and reduce this amount to a mere $8 million. From this one example, it is clear to see why the movie industry is scrambling to embrace data-driven filmmaking.

Largo Films Is Ready To Make a Big Splash

So how does Largo Films plan to help production companies?

In late 2018, Largo Films announced that they had developed one of the world’s first and most sophisticated film analytics tools. This piece of AI software was actually able to analyze the contents of a film and establish the proportions of comedy, drama, and action, etc. in order to better tailor its user’s film suggestions. The system was a smash hit with users.

The group behind Largo Films decided that this sophisticated technology could be used to help filmmakers refine their films while also improving their chances of success.

Consequently, the team decided to offer their sophisticated big data analytics tools to filmmakers. Largo Films is now offering to turn the power of big data onto every stage of movie production.

Largo Films state that “We make the data-driven movie-making accessible to the market through our high level film understanding technologies. Largo has developed data-driven intelligence, which can be introduced much earlier in the life of a film project, right from script choice and development, through filming, post-production and theatrical release.”

Content Analysis

Largo Films is able to use its sophisticated technology to establish a general idea regarding the audience response to a film’s script. Its model is so accurate that it can even predict how a film will be received in different countries around the world.

Actionable Insights

Once a script has been analyzed, Largo Films will present a report on which parts of the script achieve the director’s goals and which can be modified to increase the commercial viability of the final product.

Market Planning

The second part to its model involves helping identify target markets and how to reach those markets. Much like the Eli Roth example above, this will help the film’s producers maximize the returns on their marketing budget.

The Time Has Come To Go Big

Low budget filmmakers have been frustrated for years about their inability to get their films to the right audience. The kind of targeted marketing that big data analytics promises will finally rid them of this frustration.

If you are an aspiring filmmaker or have a film that you just can’t seem to get to your audience, head to the Largo Films’ website to learn how its sophisticated data-driven algorithm can help you do just that.

 

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