In my final year of Interaction Design I was tasked with working on a thesis project with the goal of solving a problem in an area of interest to me. I knew right away that I wanted to try and tackle a problem relating to film and media.
I began this project at the height of the pandemic when the film industry was facing a unique challenge due to the closure of movie theatres around the world. This led me to researching alternatives for how movie studios could release new films digitally.
Through this research I became very interested with how Generation Z consumes media. They are the first generation born to the internet and this has led to a shift in the type of content they choose to watch.
While researching how to release new films, I learned that theatrical length films as a whole are losing ground with Generation Z. If they are sitting down to commit to a movie though, it is usually a new release.
This led me to a unique problem area that I wanted to explore. Major movie studios have a film library that spans decades with hundreds of films that currently are not being watched by Generation Z, even though they have greater access to these films than any generation prior due to streaming services. I set out to explore how these classic films could be revitalised and re-presented in a more approachable way for Generation Z.
I set out to create a new form of programming that will allow Generation Z to seek out and watch classic films that they might not normally watch.
Classic films will be re-edited into episodic content shorter than 30 minutes per episode and re-launched on Netflix as a new form of content called Quick Classics. The content will be promoted and targeted towards Generation Z.
Users will be able to watch and appreciate classic films that still hold cultural value in a way that is more familiar and accessible to them.
Originally the service was envisioned as a brand new streaming platform specially designed for classic films re-edited into episodic content.
After conducting several user tests it became clear that subscribing to an entirely new service was a hard sell for a lot of people.
This led me to the conclusion that the content would likely fit in to existing streaming platforms like Netflix.
For my prototype, I knew I was focusing on the Karate Kid. Netflix already streams all the Karate Kid films, as well as their original sequel television show, Cobra Kai.
It became clear to me that my solution would easily fit into the Netflix ecosystem as a new type of content, similar to a "Netflix Original Series"
I first started this project back in September 2020 for my final thesis project at Sheridan. With the brief allowing so many possibilities I allowed my imagination to run wild. I knew I wanted to work movies into my problem area somehow. I started with far too grand of a scale and settled on saving the theatre industry from COVID-19. I learned pretty quickly that I needed to scale down my problem and tackle a problem that was more feasible to handle as a solo project while living during a pandemic!
Learning to set reasonable expectations for myself was a valuable lesson I learned while working on this project. Working taught me to avoid scope creep by encouraging myself to narrow in on a specific problem area and idea.
If I were to take another look at the Quick Classics concept and continue my work I would want to expand upon my research more thoroughly. The pandemic provided few chances for me to engage directly with test participants in person. If given the opportunity I would have liked to screen a classic film like the Karate Kid in person with Gen Z test participants to track engagement and interest.
