From Stone Age to Screen Age: The Intersection of Storytelling and Technology

This is Part 2 of "Beyond AI: Unraveling the Economic Disruptions Shaping Hollywood’s Future"

Part 1 Recap:

Overall, there is confusion as to why feature film and episodic television production starts have declined by 50% in the past two years, causing the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. The reason for this is not related to Generative AI or events like last year’s dual WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes but rather because the fundamental economics of the traditional studios have been disrupted:

• There has been a significant decline in the reliable revenue sources (box office, linear TV advertising, cable TV, DVD, etc.) that the studios thrived on for decades.?
• The studios struggle to find profitability in the monthly all-you-can-eat streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) model initialized by Netflix, prioritizing overall subscriber growth over generating profits per project.
• The abundance and consumer adoption of free content (like YouTube and TikTok) have taken away content consumption time and attracted billions of dollars of advertising revenues that the studios and networks used to earn.
• Big tech players like Apple and Amazon are creating some of the best award-winning feature and episodic content Hollywood can make, but they are doing so only as a method of more deeply engaging with their retail customers, not as a core profit center.?

Click here for "Part 1: Blueprint For Disruption"

Part 2: From Stone Age to Screen Age: The Intersection of Storytelling and Technology

While the decline in feature film and episodic television production over the past two years can be attributed to disrupted traditional economics, it is essential to recognize that Hollywood has always faced and adapted to similar challenges. To understand the current landscape, we must look more closely at the historical interplay between technological advancements and storytelling—a dynamic that has continually reshaped the industry. In this next section, we explore how these shifts have echoed through time, starting from the introduction of the printing press to the modern-day disruptions.?

We Could Just Blame The Lumière Brothers

One word describes what we do in Hollywood and why we do it: storytelling.? This is because storytelling has always been at the core of human experience, a universal form of communication that dates back to the earliest days of humankind. From ancient cave paintings to oral traditions passed down through generations, sharing stories has been one of the most fundamental ways humans make sense of the world. These stories, whether myth, history, or entertainment, were not only about connecting with others but also about leaving a mark—a narrative thread tying one generation to the next. But while storytelling has remained a constant, the methods by which we tell stories have continuously evolved with the tools and technologies developed along the way.

Since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, new technological advancements have driven how stories are told, preserved, and shared. The same is true for Hollywood’s progression since the early 20th century, as new technologies have consistently shaped the industry since the beginning of cinema. On the one hand, each major technological breakthrough in communication has expanded our storytelling capabilities but, on the other hand, also sparked intense social reactions, often met with fear and uncertainty.

Some Fun Facts:

• When the printing press was introduced, there were significant fears about its impact. Scribes and copyists worried about job loss, while religious figures feared the spread of unregulated or heretical ideas, leading to censorship efforts. Cultural resistance also arose, with some claiming that printed books lacked the spiritual value of handwritten manuscripts. Additionally, there were concerns that the press would fuel social upheaval by spreading radical ideas.
• With photography's rise in the late 1800s, there were initial fears about how this new medium might affect traditional forms of visual art. Photography was seen as a direct challenge to the traditional art of painting, especially in its role as a means of realistic representation. Some artists and critics feared that photography would render painting obsolete for capturing reality, as it could produce images with greater speed, accuracy, and detail than any painter could achieve.? Also, disputes erupted over the ownership of images (Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony )—who held the rights to a photograph: the photographer, the subject, or perhaps even the maker of the camera??
• In the 1890s, when the Lumière brothers unleashed a revolution in visual storytelling with their inventions of cinema cameras and projectors, critics feared they would replace more traditional forms of entertainment, such as live theater.
• In the early 1900s, the introduction of sound in movies raised fears that audiences would reject the “talkies” and that it would detract from the visual artistry of films.
• In the 1940s, the proliferation of television brought the same trepidation to film studios as movies did to live theater.? The cinema industry feared a loss of audience, declining box office revenue, competition for creative talent, and the erosion of cinema’s appeal as television technology advanced.

Anything sound familiar?

When we look at Hollywood, throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, technological innovations continued to reshape our industry, but rarely without pain. Cel animation giving way to digital rendering, the adoption of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the rise of Pixar and fully computerized animation, the shift from film to digital, and new media formats like DVD, cable TV, and the internet all opened new doors for storytellers and, at the same time, raising fresh concerns.?

The NeverEnding Story: Hollywood’s Tech Evolution

All these new advancements through the decades were accompanied by debates around labor, intellectual property (IP), and business impact that still resonate today. ?Looking back, it’s clear that these debates were simply the “growing pains” that were ultimately essential to the ongoing evolutionary steps that made up long-lasting growth and prosperity for Hollywood.?

If we look at the invention of the still camera, despite the concerns about it threatening the traditional art of painting, it sparked a whole new era of creativity and expression. It led to the creation of an entirely new industry, generated new jobs for photographers and technicians, the founding of numerous camera and film manufacturers, and opened up new revenue streams for existing businesses. ?Photography expanded creative and business possibilities while triggering questions about the balance between human skill and technological innovation.? Of course, it also ultimately led to the dawn of motion pictures.?

Fast forward to the 1980s, when Adobe Photoshop completely transformed how we create and manipulate images. A 1988 video promoting Photoshop’s first version demonstrated its immense potential but also raised concerns about authenticity, copyright, and the displacement of traditional roles in photography. Despite these fears, Photoshop revolutionized the creative industry, greatly impacting fields such as digital art, graphic design, and web development. Its accessibility also empowered independent creatives to start businesses, fostering entrepreneurship and innovation across multiple sectors.

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These themes are so apparent when we look at Hollywood’s history. Our industry and its technology are inextricably linked, as are its triumphs and its challenges.

Common Attributes of Hollywood’s Technological Change

All of these developments mentioned – cinema camera and projector, television, cable TV, VHS & DVD, and downloading and streaming – share some common attributes:

• Created new revenue streams and expanded existing ones: Every new format allowed creators and studios to monetize content in new ways, from theatrical releases to home video sales and digital subscriptions.
• Unlocked larger audiences: As technology advanced, content reach expanded—from local cinema audiences to global TV viewers and now to billions of internet users worldwide.
• Enabled more viewing time: Technologies like cable TV and streaming services made content available 24/7, encouraging more frequent and flexible viewing habits.
• Created demand for more content to be produced: Each new platform required fresh content, driving studios to increase production volumes to fill programming schedules or streaming libraries.
• Created more jobs: The need for more content spurred job creation across multiple sectors, from writers and actors to production and post-production roles.
• Triggered labor disputes: New technology almost always led to disputes over compensation and rights, as seen with residuals for television broadcasts, home video formats, and streaming.

This was all driven by technological innovation. At the heart of each transformation was new technology that continuously reshaped the industry’s infrastructure, business models, and creative possibilities.

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History of Hollywood Labor Strikes: A Struggle for Fairness Amid Technological Change

Hollywood’s long history of labor strikes reflects the tensions that arise when new technologies disrupt the established order. From the introduction of television to home video to streaming, each innovation has reshaped how films and TV shows are produced, distributed, and consumed, sparking conflicts over compensation for creative professionals.

Let’s take a quick look at some of Hollywood’s most significant labor strikes and how technological shifts triggered each.

1952 Screen Writers Guild Strike

• Duration: 14 weeks
• Key Issue: Defining pay scales and script ownership rights, particularly for this new consumer product called the television

1960 Writers Guild of America Strike

• Duration: 21 weeks
• Key Issue: Residuals for theatrical films that were broadcast on television

1960 Screen Actors Guild Strike

• Duration: 6 weeks
• Key Issues: Residuals for films sold to television, pension system

1973 Writers Guild of America Strike

• Duration: 16 weeks
• Key Issues: Salary increases, residuals for movies shown on video cassettes and cable TV

1980 Actors Strike (SAG/AFTRA)

• Duration: 14 weeks
• Key Issue: Compensation for shows distributed on video cassettes and cable TV

2000 Actors Strike (SAG/AFTRA)

• Duration: 26 weeks
• Key Issue: Compensation for commercials on cable TV and the internet

2007-2008 Writers Guild of America Strike

• Duration: 14 weeks
• Key Issues: Compensation for digital distribution and streaming media

A Pattern of Innovation, Disruption, and Evolution

At the heart of Hollywood’s conflicts over new technology are two recurring themes: fear of job loss and the demand for fair compensation as new revenue streams emerge. With each technological advance, Hollywood’s creative community of writers, actors, directors, and other professionals has often found itself in conflict with studios, fighting to secure a fair share of the profits generated by new platforms and formats.

The pattern is clear: technology evolves, labor adapts, and new compensation models are introduced. While some tasks are replaced by newer technologies, new roles are also created, allowing the industry to thrive. These historical examples show that technological change doesn’t eliminate creativity or jobs—it reshapes them. What initially appears as a threat to traditional roles often evolves into expanded creative possibilities and new business opportunities within the industry.

Despite the initial fear and resistance each new technology faces, these innovations have consistently broadened the horizons of storytelling. They have opened new revenue streams, expanded creative roles, and enabled more people to bring their visions to the screen. Each wave of disruption brings growth: more jobs, new creative tools, and fresh opportunities for collaboration.

Every technological leap forward has required Hollywood to adapt, evolving alongside the tools that enable storytelling in ways once unimaginable. Yet, as history shows, while technology expands long-term opportunities, it often brings short-term disruption and uncertainty. As emerging technologies reshape the landscape once again, the industry must endeavor towards new sustainable revenue models and look for new frameworks for compensation and job protection, ensuring that creativity continues to flourish in this next era of innovation.

In Part 3 we’ll take a closer look at the 2023 labor strikes, how the rise of GenAI tools further complicated this already volatile landscape and also created misconceptions, go a little deeper into how evolving economics have impacted creative and other professionals, and set the stage for how technology will be part of the solution.

Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this. -Martin Scorsese

• Part 1: Blueprint For Disruption
• Part 3 (coming soon)
• Part 4 (coming soon)