What NZ Entertainment Trends Do You Need To Know About?

Wednesday, 21 August 2024, 10:21 am
Press Release: Hugh Grant

With the entertainment industry becoming more diverse than ever before, it’s a good moment to see what trends are currently making waves in NZ and what might happen in the future.

Locally-Made Movies Continue to Appeal

New Zealand might have made its mark in the movie industry thanks to blockbusters like the Lord of the Ring series, but locally-made independent films are now grabbing a lot of attention. These movies are great giving viewers an insight in the country and the mindset of New Zealanders, while the creators are generally freer to explore the subjects that genuinely interest them.

The Moon is Upside Down is a film that follows three women from quite different backgrounds as they’re brought together in unlikely circumstances. Created by writer-director Loren Taylor, it’s been described as a sort of bleak romantic comedy and has gained good reviews from online critics and at film festivals.

Head South was shown during the Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2024 program and we see how the main character - would-be bass player Angus - heads to Christchurch during the post-punk era. It was directed by Jonathan Ogilvie and gives us a glimpse into his belief that music at the time was a sort of gateway to a new world of ideas.

We Were Dangerous from Madman Films tells the story of three girls sent to an institution for delinquents on a remote island. It’s the first feature film from Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu and premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival & BFI Flare before heading to various film festivals in Australia. The movie is set in 1954, with Nellie, Lou & Daisy becoming friends and trying to fight the system.

Online Casino Games Are More Varied Than Ever

The introduction of online casino games has brought a new option into our homes, as games like roulette and blackjack are now easier to play than ever before. Live human dealers are beamed onto the screen in some cases, using live-streaming technology. This has helped bring in a new genre of game shows featuring items like giant wheels that the presenters spin to see which players win.

Classic slots remain among the most popular casino games since the move online. This online casino reveals titles such as Instant Inferno, Mythic Wolf, and Candy Carnival. This wide variety of themes means that different symbols and backgrounds can be used to make each game unique. The developers of these games also add features such as free spins and bonus rounds to make the gameplay varied.

The Popularity of Social Video Keeps Growing

While some of the more traditional social media sites are showing signs of finally running out of steam, social videos are proving to be the latest huge trend that lets us communicate with others. TikTok is one of the main reasons for this immense popularity, while YouTube continues to captivate users thanks to its enormous database of diverse videos.

This area is set to face a major shake-up as the US looks to ban TikTok, mainly because of the platform’s alleged links to the Chinese authorities. TikTok has an estimated one billion global users, with 170 million Americans among them. Losing the American market would have a big impact, but the power of social videos is so strong that we can expect to see new ways of making the market carry on growing even without this platform.

New Zealander Soumil Singh graduated from Harvard after studying computer science and applied mathematics. He has gone on to develop the first artificial intelligence (AI) tool that helps creators make videos for social media based on text prompts. He created Unfaze.ai to fully automate short-form video creation, allowing users to quickly upload their ideas without having to spend hours on the editing and post-production process. His company has been heavily backed by investors in the US as well as NZ.

AI Music Generation Is Now Possible

Streaming services have dramatically changed the way we listen to music since the turn of the century, but could AI provide us with a completely new approach? We’ve already seen how making AI cover versions of classic songs using celebrity voices has become a trend. Tools like Controlla Voice and Kits AI made it relatively easy to do this, while singer Holly Herndon trained an AI model to sign in a variety of languages and styles using her voice.

We could soon use AI to create exactly the type of music we want at any time, perhaps with our own voices being used on our favorite songs. There are some major issues over intellectual rights to overcome, but for the moment AI music generation is a growing online activity that promises some fascinating possibilities. As new AI models are launched, the different ways we have of using them will also expand.

These examples let us see how the entertainment world is changing and opening up new possibilities, many of them based on classic activities with a modern twist.

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