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RENOVATE YOURSELF OR DIE... BUT NOT AT ANY PRICE!

2017, June 21

Some professionals working in the advertising industry may wistfully remember those phone booths, faxes or filming locations printed on triptych brochures. Some of them have clung to the past, not being able to adapt to a present that is constantly changing. Some others have been able to rise from the ashes, surviving in an ocean of new talents who are increasingly skilled in technology.

How many of us have negotiated rates on whatsapp? How many of us have been asked to organize a conference call in which participants would be from Norway, China and Brazil? How many of us have crammed pdf documents full of links to everything under the sun into ten iPads?

For the audiovisual sector, specifically for the production department, the technological advances have meant more speediness and effectiveness in the process.

It is true that we can be much more resourceful now, but technology also requires things to be done here and now. It requires a full-time commitment, because it is with us everywhere, so it is impossible to escape from the future.

The abbreviation ‘asap’ (as soon as possible) has gained strength with the use of smartphones, virus-proof computers, undreamed-of random-access memories or applications and programs that make everything be synchronized. So, nowadays, it does not matter if you are asked to send a casting while you are bathing your children because there are online servers available and no excuses to be given.

On the other hand, and even though the latest technologies can ultimately facilitate our work and thus our life, there is a constant debate to bear into mind: does technology make us smarter or dumber?

It has been shown that many technological advances boost certain areas of our brain but I am convinced that they diminish other.

Those who wistfully remember the old times when they had to get to the copy center to print out the locations may not think it twice now when using a camera that takes 10 pictures per second. What do we want to communicate? What kind of frame is the director looking for? What is our intention?  These are questions that are not formulated anymore because all we are looking for is more material. Are we changing quality for volume? Are we changing critical thinking for ‘asap’?

Of course it is necessary to be updated, adjust oneself to the changes. Renovate yourself or die! But let us not forget to think and reflect.

 

Cover Photo: Apocalypse Now On Set (1979).

Photo in Article: The Day of the Locust On Set (1975).