2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The Future of Digital TV Is ‘Traditional Talent,' Says Adam Faze, Gymnasium Co-Founder.
Adam Faze, Co-Founder of Gymnasium, details his company's strategy of operating as a 'digital television studio' that produces high-quality, short-form, unscripted series for social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Faze identified a market opportunity to elevate the user-generated content standard on these platforms by applying traditional television formats and production values. He illustrates this success with the viral origin story of their show Keep the Meter Running, which became an overnight, hyper-local hit in New York City from an account with zero followers, proving that the 'water cooler' conversation of television has migrated to digital spaces.
Faze explains that Gymnasium's talent strategy bypasses established influencers, instead focusing on discovering 'traditional talent' from comedy clubs and other real-world settings who would have been the faces of networks like MTV two decades ago. Looking forward, he offers a counterintuitive take on artificial intelligence in entertainment. He contends that while Hollywood studios debate AI's use, a younger generation of creators is already integrating it into their workflows. The true disruption, Faze argues, is not that studios will use AI to replace filmmakers, but that AI will empower individual filmmakers to create blockbuster-level content independently, thereby bypassing the studio system entirely.