Why Hollywood has to become constant media

I love movies, but I don't love them like I used to. I no longer consider them my primary entertainment outlet. In wondering why that's so, I looked at all the media I consume, and the following facts emerged.

Five years ago, I watched about 2 hours of TV per day (Seinfeld reruns, Simpsons, Star Trek: TNG, That 70s Show), more during football season. I went to the movies at least once per week. If the entertaiment in my life were charted as a standing wave of media, this is what it would look like:

In other words, two waves of relatively constant strength. Movies premiered regularly, TV shows were on at specific times.

The movie release schedule is a year-long wave with high amplitude and low frequency. Every few weeks there's a movie "event." The second wave, television, has a lower amplitude -- a successful TV show 5-10 years ago couldn't match movie buzz -- but a higher frequency. More TV shows and more TV shows debuting more often. My emotional attachment to entertainment media (and I'm betting yours too) was regulated as a function of exposure.

But as we know, that relationship has changed. Here's my media regimen now:

• I watch 20+ YouTube or other vid-sharing site videos per day
• I download television shows from iTunes and BitTorrent
• I DVR the rest of my TV -- Battlestar Galactica, Studio 60, Heroes, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Inside the Actor's Studio, American Idol, 24, Lost, other stuff.
• I rent the occasional movie from a local video store, usually a horror flick or part of The Wire seasons.
• I go to the movies once every two weeks, but only for blockbusters (The Departed) and foreign films.
   

Obviously the way I'm exposed to media has changed. So now consider a third wave which has a lower amplitude on average but also a super-fast frequency. Sixty million videos uploaded to YouTube every single day. Some of those reach thirty, forty million views -- an amplitude that competes with Hollywood. You get this graph:

Imagine what that constant exposure does to your emotional allegiance. You're sitting in front of the computer all day long, clicking. The Internet starts meaning more to you than Hollywood and TV. Occasional media (Hollywood) can't compete with the constant media of the Internet.

Of course that's not new news. But what these amateur-ish little graphs should impart to the studios is a lesson in immediacy. We care less about Hollywood because Hollywood's products aren't always in our face (I'm talking products, not stars). Hollywood needs to embrace the rabble. More short films, smaller DVD release windows, more extra footage on the DVDs themselves. Hell, give us clips on the DVDs and tell us to upload them wherever. Or: Start making videoblogs of a movie's filming process, the way SNL is doing with their rehearsals.

Hollywood's current course -- spending more money on fewer blockbusters -- only distances it from the consumption habits of Americans. Embrace immediacy.