Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/773214
JANUARY 2017 www.postmagazine.com 32 POST JANUARY 2017 OUTLOOK 2017 O OUTLOOK 2017 O OUTLOOK 2017 Post has a long tradition of dedicating its December issue to the key trends and technologies that are making serious inroads in the post community, as well as looking at the year ahead. For the first time, Post continues its report into the start of the new year. Picking up with where we left off in a special collection of "Outlook" contributions, industry pros continue to share their views on what the post community saw over the past year and what we can expect in 2017. We also invite you to visit our Website — postmagazine.com — for a host of additional Outlook contributions (see TOC for list) from studios creating content, as well as technology developers serving the Post community. OUR CONTINUED LOOK AT INDUSTRY TRENDS AS TECHNOLOGY RAPIDLY IMPROVES, PEOPLE & STORIES STILL COME FIRST I f I can describe the state of our industry in one word, it would be compression. The high-end quality VFX once reserved primarily for feature films and TV shows is now a mainstay in other sectors, such as commercials and on-air promos. Financially, it's become cheaper, faster and easier to create a blockbuster-level VFX for smaller projects. Recent college grads and others who didn't have access to the latest technolo- gy before are now able to command top VFX jobs, while clients are demanding high-end creators to work at a lower-end pay scale. Everything is increasingly be- ing compressed into this middle ground; however, I see this as a positive. There's a push for innovation that goes above and beyond the standardization of what was once considered leading edge technolo- gy. It forces our industry to develop more practical creative processes, tools and systems, and embrace promising new means of content and platforms, such as VR, AI and data mining for design, and propel the evolution of creative culture. One major area of growth is our deeper understanding of human behav- iors, regardless of what technology we BY ISMAEL "ISH" OBREGON CCO OISHII CREATIVE LOS ANGELES OISHIICREATIVE.COM VISUAL EFFECTS