Hollywood opens TikTok – The Post

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Studios are beginning to exploit the strange habits of young people using the platform, such as watching random and out-of-context clips from films.

Experiments that US studios have been running on TikTok since 2022 to promote their works have increased in recent months, especially after a writers’ strike combined with an actors’ strike to shut down much promotional activity. Unable to produce or film new productions, and unable to use actors for events and shows, they began to try strategies that they had followed more cautiously up to that point. Production companies have also been impacted by the fact that within a few years, films and TV series on TikTok have become in-demand and popular content, albeit in unconventional ways and almost exclusively through piracy.

The appearance of the official account on October 3 Mean Girls under Paramount, which made the 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried available for free in its entirety (in 23 clips ranging from 1 to 10 minutes), was the most obvious manifestation of this new marketing strategy. The film, which can usually be seen on the Paramount+ streaming platform or rented, was on TikTok for only 24 hours a day, not chosen by chance. October 3rd is actually a date that has become a meme, mentioned in a scene from the movie, and is often quoted and celebrated by fans.

Already in August, another production studio, Universal, published the entire first episode of the second season of its series on TikTok for a limited period. Killing it, divided into 5 clips. And he did the same with the first episode of the fifth season of the reality show. Island of love. Both programs are broadcast on Universal’s streaming platform called Peacock (not in Italy). Distributing the first episodes of new seasons for free on the Internet, even using social networks or platforms such as YouTube, is not in itself a new advertising strategy and is always aimed at promoting Killing it three episodes of the series were uploaded to YouTube for a limited time. In June, Apple tweeted the pilot episode of its series for a limited time. Silagethree days before the season finale was available on Apple TV+. However, download the completely loved and therefore valuable movie catalog as Mean Girls, even if just for a day, was seen as something more radical. And this is even if the experiment Mean Girls however, this is due to a specific case: it is known that in 2024 a film based on the Broadway musical, which, in turn, was based on Mean Girls (both the film and the musical were written by comedian Tina Fey).

However, all this happened at a very sensitive moment in terms of the politics of exploitation of intellectual works in Hollywood. The Writers’ Union actually recently closed a new contract with the studios that kept it on strike for five months. One of the decisive moments of the conflict was the new system for calculating fees due to screenwriters across platforms for the films and TV series they wrote. The fact that Paramount has shown that catalog films can be successfully used on social media seems to demonstrate that there is a whole new sector in which screenwriters’ rights are not protected, since the new contract does not mention social media (and the next negotiations will take place in three of the year). In fact, many screenwriters have protested on social media against what they say could be a new way to make profits without compensating those who are entitled to it.

However, this type of operation is only possible because the way to watch movies and TV series on TikTok has been around for several years. The trend appears to have originated from Asia and has especially taken hold in 2022. Many users upload clips from famous films in a decontextualized form, without mentioning the name of the film, sometimes without reference to the plot or other possible scenes. An example of what happened with the film. Gone Girl – False Love David Fincher, in which several videos have appeared that describe the plot in a very detailed and didactic manner, leaving out the more complex and subtle aspects of the plot that made the film known and appreciated.

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The success of these videos has been particularly noticeable in China, as they often generalize or only show films that are unavailable or banned in that country. According to the site The rest of the world TikTokers who upload, cut and use software to translate, caption and then create a robotic voice to accompany the video can earn up to $342 per clip through TikTok’s rewards system called the Creator Fund.

Since 2022, movies and TV series have also become popular and watched content for Western TikTok users. The vast majority of clips watched are pirated, sometimes in cinemas, on mobile phones, sometimes by filming TV screens, and others by downloading parts of video files. In most cases, these clips are in a hybrid format that is neither the original horizontal format, since including it entirely inside a vertical screen would reduce its size too much, nor the vertical format typical of TikTok. In fact, adapting a film from horizontal to vertical format will always require careful positioning of the frame to ensure that the image is always focused on the part where the action is taking place. Typically, clips are in a square format where the side edges are cropped and there are two black bars at the top and bottom of the image. In many cases, the clips are accompanied by subtitles, which allow you to follow the scenes even without the volume.

Accounts like NiceClips have millions of followers thanks to their selection of movie clips from their catalog, rather than necessarily recent ones. Film excerpt Blonde in law (2001) with Reese Witherspoon received millions of views, about the same as scenes from the same film on YouTube, but in a very short time rather than years. Otherwise, what is happening on TikTok is no different from how pirated clips of films and TV series have been circulating on YouTube since its inception. Except that, unlike what YouTube has done since a certain point, TikTok does not have technology that identifies copyrighted videos and allows the rightful owners who want to make money from it. The only copyright protection is a system for removing copyrighted content, but at the moment it does not seem to be very effective.

For studios, having a presence on TikTok and broadcasting their films and TV series on the platform, even in parts, without communication and without much context, is a way to get closer to audiences that, due to age, are more difficult for them to reach. In fact, those under 25 watch less and less television, both regular television and streaming platforms, preferring TikTok or, at most, Instagram and YouTube.

This phenomenon has caused time spent watching digital video content to exceed time spent watching television (with or without an Internet connection) in the United States this year. To reach such an audience, Warner has already uploaded parts in 2021 Game of Thrones or Euphoria on his official TikTok account on the occasion of promoting his new streaming platform HBO Max (today known only under the name Max and not present in Italy). Warner also published a trailer for the Christopher Nolan film. Dogma and later allowed free viewing of Nolan’s film series, especially Batman, as part of the hugely popular video game Fortnite.

However, unlike what happens on YouTube, the peculiarity of watching films or series on TikTok in parts is that individual videos do not contain the name of the series (except in related hashtags and in any case not always) and in no case are special order . Who watched the series like Emily in Parismovies like Avatar 2 but also Gomorrah – series in TikTok he didn’t do it from start to finish. Even if you wanted to do this, it would be very difficult because, with the exception of a few links between clips in the comments, in most cases it is really impossible to return to the next part. Like everything on TikTok, it’s a social media algorithm that guides users and recommends the next clip. For the same reason, in the clips of the films in question, preference is usually given to the most sensational, funny episodes or those that contain moments of maximum drama.

That this type of strategy – currently still chaotic and more like attempts than precise protocols – can work has been demonstrated by how series such as Malcolm (since 2000) or The Good Doctor (2017) spontaneously documented a return of interest in their platforms after some videos about them were widely viewed and shared on TikTok.

From another point of view, releases over the past year Minions 2 AND Barbie demonstrated in a variety of ways how TikTok can drive real success. When Minions 2 A spontaneous trend called #GentleMinions prompted many people to film themselves (and then share the video on the platform) while they went to see the cartoon in the cinema, dressed in suits and ties. When Barbie The Barbicore phenomenon, that is, copying the look of Barbie dolls, pushed Warner to encourage people to go see the film dressed in pink and share it on social media. In both cases, emerging trends were considered important to the theatrical success of the respective films.

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