Tag: productions

Esports: From Hobby to Future Career

Posted on by Big City

 

You may or may not have heard the term Esports being used online a lot. It has been seen all over the world, from live talk shows to billboards all over Los Angeles. Esports has been a growing trend over the past decade. To simply define Esports, it is competitive video games. The term can be used in almost any video game, from doing the fastest play through of Super Mario to being the best shot in a first person shooter – Esports covers a lot.

A career where you play video games on stage

Esports has been discussed on ESPN, CNN, Business Insider and many other large media outlets. The main topic is the expected 2 billion dollar revenue produced by people playing video games. Many investors are rushing to this growing and prosperous industry. Investors such as Rick Fox, Mark Cuban, Rick Holdings, Disney, Stephen Curry, Madison Square Garden group to even music superstars such as Drake have all been getting into Esports. Over hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in this industry within the past 7 years. It’s no doubt as many Esports tournaments and events are costly.

Former NBA Star and Investor Rick Fox with his Esports team and brand Echo Fox

Esports is widely popular amongst Asian countries and has been noticed world wide as well. Some Koreans believe Esports is the country’s national sport as Esports players are considered celebrities.  Governments world wide have also been taking action to cater the growing industry. Many countries offer the same visa and passport permissions as regular athletes since professional players have to travel to some live tournaments or events. The Danish government recently congratulated the Danish Counter-Strike team Astralis on their championship win. The Danish government invited the team to the Parliament in Copenhagen which is considered a great honour to have.

Astralis meeting in the Copenhagen city hall

League of Legends is one of the most popular online game in the market with the largest Esports market. They recently went through franchising opportunities similar to most pro league sports. The buy in for a spot within the 10 teams is a starting price of 13 million dollars USD.  Many teams went through serious amounts of funding to ensure the spot as Disney and other large cooperations began building their own teams in the league. The franchising deal has been massively successful for the League of Legends Esports scene. Recently they went through their World Championship which had a total viewership of over 80 million people. It is estimated that Esports will overtake Superbowl viewership as Esports has already surpassed the NBA finals and many other large sporting events.

The North American League of Legends Finals from The Scotiabank Arena

Esports requires a lot of dedicated players who are willing to make playing video games their career. Most teams treat themselves as most other professional athletes do. They can have dedicated meal plans, workout routines and non stop practice time with other teams etc. A lot of Esports leagues are structured and franchised just like the ones we see on tv. The players involved have been playing their games for years and have been perfecting every aspect of it. Their dedication to the game pays off, some of that 2 billion dollar revenue comes back to them. A high ranking Esports player can make an average of 300 thousand dollars yearly and can add onto that based on tournament winnings, sponsorships etc. Saahil “Universe” Arora is a Dota 2 player who has won almost 5 million dollars based on tournament winnings alone. Esports is just not about the players, to fuel the player’s success there are coaches, psychologists and support staff with them. Some believe this is the era where the new athletes are people who just play video games.

Analysts and coaches observe the way their players play and how they can change their gameplay for the better
Pax East in 2014, over 50,000 attended the event

Esports events can take large stadiums and venues ranging from the Scotiabank Arena to the Korean Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea. These viewing areas can have thousands of people watching live while millions can be watching online as well. Other than viewing areas, events and conventions are a growing trend in the gaming sector. Enthusiast Gaming held their annual EGLX (Enthusiast Gaming Live Expo) event that had a record breaking 30,000 people attend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Other events can almost triple EGLX’s number as events suchas the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and Dreamhack have both reported attendee numbers almost reaching 100,000 people. These numbers will keep on rising along with Esports’ popularity.

Image result for lcs behind the scenes
A League of Legends broadcast team checking all the shots to see which is most needed
Image result for overwatch league behind the scenes productions
The Overwatch League records the perspective of 12 different players in game and the player’s reaction through webcam.

Many of these events require a lot of production work to go into their broadcasts. Since they are equivalent to many pro league sports – they have to excel past them in all aspects of production. Esports broadcasts can talk a lot of work especially during live games etc. An average NBA game can have over 10 cameras from a overhead view, to on court shots. An average Esports broadcasts will usually require over 20+ camera shots being recorded live. For example, each player will have to have their perspective of the game recorded on air and their webcam displaying reactions etc. There can be over 10 players on stage playing which means the broadcast team has to watch each one to have the best results. On top of that, many shots include crowd reactions, the caster area and analyst desk.

Large amounts of people playing live at Dreamhack Winter to try to be the next big Esports player

Esports is a non stop growing trend. There will always be new ways to play games and people will always strive to be the best in that field. With the estimated 2 billion dollar revenue, you will hear about this for sometime. Esports doesn’t just feature the skill and dedication the players have. It also shows the behind the scenes work that many production workers have to adapt to.

– Benson Lam

How Diversification and Inclusion Effects Films

Posted on by Big City

Social issues and many other problems change overtime. All of these changes can affect all aspects of the world. From policies, work ethic codes and much more. These changes can directly many parts of the media industry. Within the past 10 years, many films plan to make their films more inclusive and diverse to fit these social issues. From Marvel’s Black Panther having a large African American cast to Crazy Rich Asians displaying how Asian actors and film producers have what it takes. Many films now are breaking away from the norm and are trying to find ways to create film without causing controversy over social issues. Once films implement the changes, the fans do not always accept them.

Crazy Rich Asians featured a large Asian production team and cast which attracted international attention

Many issues that have been a problem within the past century are slowly being brought to light through many forms of media. Some may argue that the real life depiction of these issues should be shown fully while some believe it is too harsh to show it and should be winded down a bit. The most recent example was the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody which has gone through criticisms of its showing of lead singer Freddie Mercury. Some critics wanted to have a no filtered biopic regarding the singer’s relationship as a bisexual and his struggle with AIDS. Former bandmates of Mercury made the decision to have the film as a tribute rather than a controversial discussion about Mercury’s life. Fans of the band have supported the decision of the band. The large majority are open to the idea of bringing light to these social issues that wouldn’t have been acceptable back then.

Freddie Mercury and Queen’s featured film covers issues that the band faced whilst climbing up the music charts at the same time!

Diversity is a word being used much more frequently in the current generation. Through the past decade it is believed that diversity and inclusion in films has increased over that time. This change was not decided upon but conformed upon. Society has always been changing and most things will change along with it. Calling for more inclusive and diverse films won’t really make a difference. It can be very obvious if a show or film just places something there just for the sake of diversity. That kind of change should come naturally as society evolves. The recent surge isn’t because directors and producers have been putting diversity into play but just because it should be there naturally. Thats how the public should react as well. Romesh Ranganathan from The Guardian said for example Black Panther, should not be remembered as a step for diversity and change – but should be remembered as a great blockbuster Marvel film.

Black Panther featured a large African American cast and production team. It is also one of Marvel’s highest grossing films

There are various points to the argument on how the film industry is changing based on these social issues. USC Annenberg released a paper showing the “change” in film based on cultural and gender representation. The document shows that no or very little progress has been made in diversifying the film industry. For example, the information they gathered show that close to 70% of all actors in films are caucasian. The 30% remaining are groups such as asian, african american or latino. These numbers haven’t changed too much in the past decade. Another statistic claims that women only make around 30% of the film industry workforce. The same Annenberg paper showed that there was only 1 female music composer in over 1,400 productions. All these statistics are a lot to take in. It does show that change is required if we want to make the film industry equal. These changes will be hard to implement and there is no clear solution. All these statistics will change a little bit due to new films being released which showcase more diversity and inclusion. The only thing we can hope for is these changes will happen naturally and the rest of the world will conform to it.

 

Image graphic source – http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inequality-in-1100-popular-films.pdf

 

Overall change is something we need to acknowledge but not overdo. These social issues involving diversity and inclusion should come naturally and not be forced. It’s good that people are pushing for that change but that change shouldn’t come forced. As we keep seeing new films and productions which include non majority characters, hopefully that will be the norm in the future where we don’t acknowledge those characters being there.

– Benson Lam