Author Archives: Michael Korican

About Michael Korican

A long-time media artist, Michael’s filmmaking stretches back to 1978. Michael graduated from York University film school with Special Honours, winning the Famous Players Scholarship in his final year. The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video called Michael's first feature 'Recorded: Live!' "the first film about rock video". Michael served on the board of L.I.F.T. when he lived in Toronto during the eighties and managed the Bloor Cinema for Tom and Jerry. He has been prolific over his past eight years in Victoria, having made over thirty-five shorts, won numerous awards, produced two works for BravoFACT! and received development funding for 'Begbie’s Ghost' through the CIFVF and BC Film.

Demographics drive the Affinity Economy

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Evan Shapiro, the Media Cartographer, says that “Traditional, Streaming, and Creators” no longer nearly suffice as descriptors for what’s happening in Media today.

He says the “Affinity Economy” has supplanted that:

“It’s a complex, multi-layered, infinitely-fragmented biosphere that generates value from engagement and passion rather than reach and frequency.”

And it’s driven by demographics (and corresponding technological behaviour).

Evan points out that Boomers and Gen X account for 29% of the global population whereas Gen Z and Gen Alpha total 48%…

…which matters because younger people consume online media, whereas older folks watch legacy media. (Digital Natives will become the majority before 2035.)

He propounds that Broadcast Media should not live in the past and to remain relevant needs to “entertain and inform audiences (and fans) of all ages and generations — Boomers on The Telly, Gen Z on The YouTube, and Gen A on The TikTok.”

My take: this is kinda obvious — but nice to see someone on the inside shake the cage. I’m actually surprised that thirty years in, Big Business hasn’t locked down the Internet yet. Anyone can post to YouTube and TikTok — for now..

Netflix confirms 14 day theatrical run for Knives Out 3

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Jack Dunn in Variety reveals that ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Sets Two-Week Theatrical Release Before Netflix Rollout.

The third instalment in the ensemble mystery franchise featuring Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc will screen in selected theatres globally for 14 days starting November 26 before streaming on Netflix on December 12, 2025.

In 2022, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” played in 600 cinemas for one week one month before streaming.

My take: kudos to Rian Johnson for putting this in his Netflix contract. Could this become their new norm, after Netflix’s success with its two-day KPop Demon Hunter theatrical release?

Make features, not shorts, says distribution consultant

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Film Courage asks Zac Reeder, an Emmy-nominated producer’s rep and distribution/financing consultant, “What is it that 99% of filmmakers don’t understand about distribution?”

He says people spend too much and don’t cast recognizable actors.

And, “A lot of people would be shocked if they saw the real numbers.”

But he also says:

“I encourage people not to just make short films, but to make features because if you can make a short, I think you can make a feature, because you’re almost there. It’s a little bit more money, but a feature is much better; it has some marketability.”

Zac’s company, Lucky 27, provides Financing & Distribution Strategy, Producer’s Representation, Negotiation and Deal-Making and Marketing and Promotion services.

My take: having made over 60 short films, I totally agree. There is no money to be made making shorts. Features, technically, have a market. Of course, what’s distinctly missing here is what the market is looking for, how to attract those known actors and how to raise the money. Guess that’s where the consulting services come in.

 

Netflix scores big by going back to theatres

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65 days after releasing the animation on its worldwide streaming platform on June 20, 2025, Netflix has raked in over $19M at the box office with the KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along Event.

That’s over $11,000 for each of 1,700 theatres over two days.

Further, it has become Netflix’s most watched movie ever.

And the soundtrack has had four songs in the Hot 100’s Top 10.

My take: this is a perfect example of what I call Niche Concentration — in this case, Animation (a niche) multiplied by K-pop (a second niche) multiplied by Musical (a third niche.) You’d think that the audience would diminish each time you add a niche, but there seems to be an inverse effect as the concept becomes increasingly concentrated.

KPop Demon Hunters connections with Canada

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Netflix‘s massive global hit KPop Demon Hunters has many connections to Canada.

  1. Co-director Maggie Kang is a Korean-Canadian who grew up in Toronto.
  2. Kang studied animation at Sheridan College.
  3. Ahn Hyo-seop who voices Jinu is Canadian.
  4. KPop Demon Hunters was largely animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks in their Vancouver and Montreal studios.
  5. The film has tax credit money from Quebec, British Columbia and Canada — see the end credits.

Note there will be a KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along limited theatrical event for one weekend only in the US and Canada on August 23 and 24. See SingKPopDemonHunters.com for more.

My take: kudos to Netflix for bankrolling this production.

Over 70 Canadian Distributors!

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Telefilm Canada has just released a report titled “Exploring the Futures of Distribution – Strategic Visions for the Canadian Audiovisual Industry“.

The PDF report by La Société des demains opines, somewhat existentially:

“To resolve distribution issues in a sustainable manner, it is essential to tackle the structural problems throughout the entire value chain, both upstream and downstream of distribution.“

My take: this is a fascinating, if depressing, report on the state of film distribution in Canada. The best part, in my estimation, is the exhaustive list of (almost) every distributor in Canada, found in Appendix A on Page 25.

Microdramas coming to North America rsn?

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Microdramas are coming to North America, according to CNBC.

Blame it on TikTok, which incited the world’s addiction to vertical video, but short vertical drama revenues overtook motion pictures in China for the first time in 2024.

The BBC is all over this too.

Characteristics of microdramas:

  1. 90-120 seconds in length
  2. 20-100 episodes in total
  3. Vertical video orientation
  4. Low-cost of production
  5. Unknown actors
  6. Target audience: women between the ages of 25 to 35
  7. Lots of romantic comedy, vampire stories, tycoon stories
  8. Fast-paced, over-the-top storylines
  9. Twists or cliffhangers every minute.

The main mobile apps used to consume this content are: ReelShort, DramaBox and GoodShort.

In the CNBC report, Anne Chan, Co-Founder of AR Asia Production says:

“You cannot compare street food to Michelin. Is Michelin food going to take over street food? No, not a chance. But there is an appetite for street food. There is an appetite for Michelin dishes.”

But she forecasts:

“People keep saying, you know, ‘TV is dying.’ It’s not dying. It’s just moving to the verticals, moving to the fragmented viewing. So if people move, you have to move with them, otherwise you’ll be eliminated.”

My take: You could say that TikTok forced Meta to introduce Reels to Facebook and Instagram, and Google to introduce Shorts to YouTube. Does that mean the Chinese love of microdramas is guaranteed to play out in North America too? I hope not. (I did like six-second Vines though.)

Easy motion transfer in Runway Act-Two

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CyberJungle, the Youtube channel of Hamburg-based Senior IT Product Manager Cihan Unur, has raved about Runway’s excellent motion-capture feature, Act-Two.

He says:

“This new feature can turn you into literally any character you can imagine. We are talking about advanced motion capture now with full body face and hands tracking. Act-Two is an AI human hybrid performance acting tool. It’s full scene transformation powered by your acting and a single image. No green screen, no fancy setup, just a video of you and the one image or video clip to guide the look. It transforms you into any character, even nonhuman.”

Act-Two requires a Standard plan or higher ($15/month.)

Official Help webpage.

My take: Wow! What I find particularly impressive is the lip-sync that is the best I’ve seen and for the most part totally believable.

Moonvalley wants to be THE tool for filmmakers

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Moonvalley released Marey 1.5 to the public last week.

It promises Text to Video and Image to Video. What’s much more interesting is what else it can do — such as:

  1. Motion Transfer
  2. Pose Transfer
  3. Facial Reference
  4. Camera Motion from Image
  5. Camera Motion from Video
  6. Trajectory Control
  7. Keyframing
  8. Shot Extension

An example:

“Prompt: Cinematic shot of a chimpanzee sitting in contemplative stillness, its fingers types on a retro typewriter. Soft, diffused lighting highlights the rich textures of its fur and the intricate details of its face. Shadows fall dramatically across the dimly lit room, creating a cinematic and moody atmosphere. Captured with a shallow depth of field using warm, sharp 35mm film aesthetics. Moody low angle looking up at a close hairy chimpanzee hands raised looking at a typewriter, out of focus lunar landscape in the background dark space. Bark sky, dark void, black void, minimalist masterful, shot on 35mm, low angle, close up, black background, stark black backdrop, darkness of space on the moon valley, hyper realistic, details, cinema, rocky cracks craters dusty surface of the moon, atmospheric hazy atmosphere, out of focus lunar surface, haze, space.”

Pricing is not cheap at $14.99 for 10 videos. (Curiously, the middle tier is the best value at $1.40 per video.)

Tim at Theoretically Media takes this further by combing output from SayMotion with Moonvalley’s Motion Transfer:

My take: Finally, a company working from inside Hollywood and not just another one approaching AiGV as a technical challenge. Moonvalley seems to be our best hope yet for valuable tools that filmmakers might use to improve their projects.