Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Could COVID-19 Eventually Be Good For The Industry?
www.livedesignonline.com: COVID-19 has taken out the live entertainment industry at the knees. Concerts, conventions, sporting events, and festivals are all getting cancelled or postponed. My friends and colleagues have lost gigs and their jobs all around the globe due to this pandemic. Earlier today, Ellen wrote in her Monday Musings “Survival Mode,” recapping where we stand now and some resources available to help us all get through this. We also spoke at length with Bob Bonniol on the state of the industry due to COVID-19 and where freelancers can look for help during these trying times.
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5 comments:
This doesn't seem like the time to be talking about this. Right now, people are sick and dying and it doesn't really matter to me whether this will be financially beneficial for the entertainment industry. It just seems insensitive to say this. Is this really the time? Also, maybe corona will be beneficial in the long run, but right now there are a lot of people who will be wrecked financially. Perhaps companies will make profit when this pandemic is over, but many people are out of jobs and will not be making the money that their employers are. I will say I like the idea of making things accessible by streaming them for free. But again, I don't think it's very sensitive to be focusing on the capitalistic repercussions of something that is currently killing people and causing financial distress.
Frankly, I am not quite sure what the point of this article was. Sure, maybe tech cooler than what we already have will arise from the ashes of the coronavirus pandemic, but I do not think now is the time to be looking forward. Now is the time to be present, solve the problems we have now, and support each other in the moment. Perhaps new tech is developed for the future and some genius makes bank because of it; that does not matter right now. What matters is people who are not making money because their jobs got axed due to the pandemic, or they can't work because they are deathly ill. Kind of sick of such a capitalistic and materialistic take on the coronavirus. The virus is shining a horrible light on the infrastructure of America, and new entertainment tech should be the last thing on our minds.
This article is intriguing to me because while the title seems outlandish when explained it does make sense. I feel like the potential switch to online and non-live performance isn't something we should be pushing for, however. When previously live experiences are now available from the comfort of our own homes it takes away a vital part of the human experience, in person socializing. While I understand that during COVID-19 the need for entertainment in isolation and remote locations due to social distancing is strong, maybe it's not something we should be trying to further. The easier access to things such as virtual experiences could become detrimental to the live entertainment industry and thus potentially kill a very unique and colorful artform. Right now we shouldn't be using COVID-19 as a reason to digitalize the industry we should just be focused on physical wellbeing and leave VR and online events as options not replacements in future.
Hmm I’m not sure how I feel about this article. On one hand, I agree that although the coronavirus pandemic is terrible and is wreaking havoc on our country, it is sparking a lot of creativity and innovation. The coronavirus is forcing us to change the way we live our lives, therefore making us come up with new solutions to our problems. For example, having theatre company’s read plays over zoom so that people can still watch, but from the safety of their homes. Or live-streaming concerts since it is not safe for large crowds of people to gather. I agree that these circumstances allow artists to come up with creative solutions. However, I do not think that watching a play or a read through of a play from your home could ever be the same as going out to watch a live performance. It just isn’t the same to watch something in your pjs as it is to get dressed up for dinner and a show. Plus you can feel the energy when you’re in the same room as the performers.
I think that we will come out of this crisis changed. Some things will be changed for the better, others will not be. Frankly, as we urge towards the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 cases in the United States alone, I do not feel like now is the time to be discussing what the industry (or anyone, really) has to gain from a global pandemic. I know that it can be super easy to put oneself in the morally distanced footsteps of the hypercapitalist, but I can almost guarantee that what is and will be lost - human life - will assuredly outweigh whatever innovations come out of this socially stunted, homebound period. The alterations that have been made so that people can create and watch “live” forms of entertainment remotely are wonderful and a sign of the changing times but they do, in fact, fail to provide what the live experience would offer. It is very interesting to think about what may come of our current global situation but, let’s be honest, now isn’t a time when we need to be immediately solving those problems.
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