Four months ago we launched the Future of Film blog with the hope that we could attract smart contributors and encourage a robust discussion with the Tribeca community. That hope has been realized as we have now published 65 posts from 53 contributors.

Our readers have written over 500 comments, and extensively shared our posts with their friends and followers by creating thousands of tweets and Facebook shares.

Here are a few selected posts that are among our readers’ top picks.

Each post looks at the future of film through the prism of the audience. And each contributor gives us another view of how that audience is changing. Whether seeing the audience as data, as collaborator, as financier or as storyteller, these posts show us that the audience is now becoming a bigger part of the picture.

Audience As Data

Nick DeMartino asks whether Hollywood can reach out to their audience in Can Data Save The Studios in the Age of Social Media?
 

"Data is the secret sauce of social media that will empower Hollywood to take control of its own business… Social media fosters a flood of consumer interaction and generates massive streams of data, enriching companies that collect the data, and penalizing those who don’t.

This is a very different model than Hollywood (or anyone else) has ever known."

Audience As Collaborator

In 10 Big Ideas For The Future of Film, Tiffany Shlain discusses the new role of filmmakers as they engage with their audience.

"In some ways I no longer think of myself as a filmmaker but more like a conversation maker. We want to provide people a way to engage with the core ideas in the film through many entry points and experiences…whether it’s the film, physical objects to read or play with, a mobile phone app and live events.

Filmmaking to me at its core is one big collaborative interconnected idea fest."

Audience As Financier

In With A Little Help From My Friends, Melanie Schiele writes about how she raised money for her film through reaching her audience before she started production.
 

"Whenever I’ve sat in a dark theatre of anonymous faces in anticipation of what we’re about to experience, I’ve often wondered: 'Why not turn the lights on before your film hits the festival circuit? Why not seek out your future audience and humbly ask them for the help required to execute a piece of work that will ultimately speak directly to them?'

…my strongest recommendation and inclination is this: Find your audience members now; don’t wait for them to find you."

Audience As Storyteller

Jeff Gomez looks at Peruvian telenovelas and the work of Norman Lear as well as the use of cell phones in the Greek riots of 2008 to investigate how social change is created by powerful, visual storytelling in his Reawakening The Grand Narrative.
 

"We now have the technology…to empower storytellers within embattled, oppressed or isolated cultures to …discover new perspectives and voice their narratives back to their people across traditional and digital platforms in ways that can change things for the better.

Can this really work? Well, a soap opera helped enhance a million women’s lives. Imagine a tale that starts on a mobile phone, slips onto the radio, shows up in a theater, a song lyric, a Tweet, a poem, a web site and a movie."

So if you want to understand more about today’s audience and how it is changing the world of film, please read, tweet, comment (pro or con) and join the conversation that is helping to shape the Future of Film!