Christopher Milazzo, Staff Writer |
One of the current trends on TikTok is users uploading full-length movies and TV shows. Users post to their profiles a random movie or show in full but in many parts. With TikTok’s time limit on videos only going up to three minutes, users will post up to 50 clips of a full movie. Most of the movies or shows used are usually new movies, like Scream VI or The Menu, and popular shows like Shameless, South Park, and Family Guy. It’s never been easier to watch something online and not have to worry about having the right streaming service. But why is this happening? Why aren’t people watching these titles where it’s meant to be presented? Is this the most reliable source to watch entertainment? It all comes down to one thing, convenience to the viewer. Yes, it’s easy to go on TikTok, search for a title, and click play. But it’s also easy to go on your TV or laptop and go on a streaming service. When did this sudden shift happen, and when did it go from convenient to even more convenient?
Before streaming blew up, there was cable. After streaming services like Netflix and Hulu became more accessible to people, cable started to decline. The cost of cable kept rising and the quality of programming was declining. When this happened, streaming services started to improve their content. They made exclusive and desirable content and the only way to access it was by purchasing a subscription. People started slowly switching to only paying for streaming services.
In the last year, streaming took over cable and captured the most viewers. With streaming being on top, it’s essential to grab the attention of audiences. One of the ways that it’s done is through advertising on social media apps. Production companies will flood users with ads for a title, while simultaneously paying influencers to promote their title on their social media page. The advertising is working, and people are checking out these new titles. It’s great that it’s working, but the problem is that a TikTok user will often upload the full movie or show a week after it premiered. This creates a loss of views for the production company.
One of the other reasons why these TikTok videos are popular and trending would be the attention-grabbing clips that are uploaded. The clips that are more likely to go viral are the scenes with the most suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat. For example, a clip I saw on TikTok came from a movie, The Deep End of the Ocean. The clip showed a woman opening a door and there was a child at the door. You could see her face change as soon as she saw the boy. She was visibly shocked and didn’t know what to do with herself. It instantly grabbed my attention, and I went on the page to watch more.
I spoke to my peers who usually watch movies on TikTok to get an insight into why they prefer TikTok compared to a streaming service. Kyla Vigilant, an avid consumer of all things media, had this to say about watching movies and shows on TikTok, “My eyes always get caught by the first clip of a show or movie and then the video ends on a cliffhanger. Before I know it, I’ve gone through all the parts and know the whole plot of the movie.”
While watching movies and shows on TikTok might not be the most ideal way of consuming media, people seem to enjoy this new way of watching things and it doesn’t seem to be ending sometime soon.
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