creativity

3 Ways Netflix Could Personalize Viewer Experience

July 19, 2019 Happenings Movies

Tech publisher TechCrunch reported yesterday that the world’s largest video streaming service Netflix (NLFX) has posted a loss of net subscriber base in the U.S. fixing the blame on hikes in subscription costs. Netflix’s loss of U.S. subscribers happened for the first time in eight years and it also missed its targets for overseas customers. Shares of Netflix tumbled more than 13% in after-market hours on July 18.

Netflix

Netflix’s continued subscription price hikes might finally have reached the end of some customers’ patience in the U.S., judging from an overall paid subscriber decline the company reported in its quarterly earnings for its fiscal second quarter 2019 results. The company’s overall growth for paid subscribers climbed by 2.7 million worldwide, but it actually added 2.83 million new subscribers around the world — while losing around 130,000 net in the U.S. to account for the difference.*

* Netflix reports first net subscriber loss in the US, misses global subscriber growth predictions

Last year I wrote a piece on the creative freedom currently afforded by several streaming platforms such as Netflix’s. And the plethora of critically acclaimed movies and TV series, including Oscar winners, that audiences are served on demand some of which otherwise wouldn’t have seen the light of the day being ruthlessly entangled in financial disputes, creative controversies, or sheared mercilessly under the garb of censorship laws across the globe. That creative freedom allows viewers to watch immersive content in high-definition at a nominal rate while bestowing acclaimed filmmakers like Martin Scorcese, Alfonso Querón or David Fincher a safer platform to pursue their innovative endeavours without having to think about compromising their intellectuality, least of all getting jammed in the filmmaking process due to stringent production cost controls. As always I will attempt to look at the subscriber slump from a customer’s viewpoint to analyze if the dots could be connected in innovating the viewer’s experience.

To simplify the challenge in clear terms, how might we innovate the viewing experience to keep the audiences engaged? The launch of Apple TV+ has just made the online video streaming service industry that much more interesting, it joins a bevvy of other subscription services offering loads of original content. So what could Netflix do in order to retain or enhance its customer base regardless of this slump they are facing? I have 3 creative solutions.

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LEGO NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander

The Eagle Has Landed

June 15, 2019 Design Photos

Before I begin to write about the LEGO’s Lunar Lander, I thought I’d state a couple of reasons why this commemorative NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander (Creator – 10266) has come at a crucial moment. These are exciting times for space enthusiasts like myself. Firstly, India is preparing to launch the ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission carrying an orbiter and a lunar rover (named ‘Pragyan’) to the southern pole of the Moon, making India the first nation to attempt landing a rover in that area. And also, we are closing in on the big event, the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969. So following the Apollo Saturn V here was another Apollo mission engineering masterpiece from LEGO’s creative factory!

Apollo 11 Lunar Lander (Module)

I appreciated the dexterity required in building the Saturn V just this past month from exactly 1969 bricks and right to this day, I continue to look at the 3-ft tall structure as one of the greatest most creative designs to come out of the LEGO studio, yet. Honestly, I was unaware until the Internet started buzzing with the release in the European market of the ‘Apollo Lunar Lander’, which they thankfully launched this month. And unless they’re also planning to add the Command & Service Module into the mix before the anniversary date this would signal the end of the Apollo mission series showcasing NASA’s engineering expertise and the collaborative effort in sending the first humans to the Moon. In a nutshell, the iconic Apollo 11 mission consisted of the behemoth Saturn V which transported the astronauts to the Moon whilst the Lunar Lander placed the Apollo astronauts, most notably Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the lunar surface and brought them home safely.

This ‘Creator’ Lunar Lander is also special for one more reason — LEGO has worked with NASA in developing this design to mark the historic 50th Anniversary.

I spotted the Apollo Lunar Lander on display at the LEGO Store last week and it was difficult to ignore the temptation of adding it to my growing collection. However, to my pleasant surprise, in addition to the Lunar Lander I also received a ‘Space Rocket Ride’ toy, a LEGO ‘Apollo Lunar Lander’ patch — similar in feel to the ‘Eagle’ patch of the Apollo 11 (pictures in this post), and some miscellaneous items as promo offers for a limited time. The purchase was definitely sweetened with the addition of these extra bricks and added to my fun of building more LEGOs this time.

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Saturn V

Building the LEGO NASA Apollo Saturn V

May 2, 2019 Design Photos

It so happens that every time I pick a LEGO model I cannot help but feel anxious to see how the outcome might turn out. Although, to be honest, halfway through, the process starts feeling mundane when the activity doesn’t exactly line up with my expectations of achieving the target. This one philosophy of building a LEGO — that of navigating through untenable ambiguity, always provides me with the ultimate dopamine to take up & finish LEGO creations with patience. I call it ‘Brickosophy’. By no means would I consider building a LEGO an easy task of sticking the bricks together. It might seem like a simple job of following the guide book and following the detailed illustrations, but it’s not that straightforward too. It requires perseverance and bucket loads of patience.

You may have heard about the LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V assembly and I will spare the details just to keep this concise, but I have to say, it was a fantastic experience assembling this marvellous engineering effort that transported humanity to the Moon and back to earth safely. So at one point while assembling this LEGO set and while I was completing the first stage itself the plans went awry because I fixed a single pivoting brick in the wrong hole. It sent me into a tizzy and after struggling to get it right I had to suspend my work for the day. I had to backtrack by disassembling the pieces. Such was this wonderful experience!

LEGO has put a great degree of emphasis in getting the details on the engineering elements in sync with the original Saturn design. I would like to think that the LEGO 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V is nothing less than a commemorative token celebrating the Apollo Missions and a must-have for any space enthusiast. There was so much nostalgia & pride in assembling this rocket, it’s only then that you recognize the Saturn V as a symbol of human engineering endeavour, apart from also being a reminder of the July 20, 1969 landing of the Apollo 11 on the Moon. No surprises though, but 2019 is also the 50th anniversary of the moon landing! So, in honouring the Saturn V’s contribution in Apollo missions through the moon landing, this LEGO set contains exactly 1969 pieces, which also makes it my biggest Lego assembly since the 578-brick Fire Plane that I build back in 2016. Take a look at the gorgeous images of the rocket I built, you’ll be amazed at how much LEGO has explored the details!

  • Close-up of the J-2 engine on the S-IVB stage.
  • The Lunar Module sitting atop the S-IVB in a typical Apollo-11 configuration.
  • The rugged LEGO interior of the S-1C stage. I'd the hardest time building this.
  • The Escape Tower on the (supposedly) Apollo Spacecraft (grey portion). Alaos called the "mothership". The LM Adapter is also visible.
  • The S-II stage of the Saturn V with 5 J-2 engines. It carried a combination of liquid hydrogen & liquid oxygen fuels.
  • Close-up of the S-IVB stage with the J-2 engine.
  • The gorgeous LEGO Saturn-V launch vehicle, standing at 3-feet tall! It contains 1969 pieces.
  • The 5 F-1 rocket engines on the S-1C stage.
  • The LEGO Saturn V box.
  • This isn't the engine of a rocket, primarily, just a detailed LEGO construction.
  • From L to R - Escape System, S-IVB stage, S-II stage, and S-1C stage. (front row, L to R) the Command Module & the Lunar Module.
  • Another view of the S-1C stage.
  • S-1C stage with the F-1 engines, and an actual human scale model of an astronaut figure.
  • The Lunar Module
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Share Your Gifts, And Be Creative, Says Apple

November 22, 2018 Design

With the festival season just around the corner, it’s the time of the year to ‘Share Your Gifts’ with loved ones, and you could be forgiven for considering this as just another headline for a TV commercial. This is a stupendous effort and the newest holiday spot with all the warmth & love from Apple’s creative depository, helmed by an animation studio called Buck along with the agency, TBWA\Media Arts Lab. It’s also interesting because the title song “Come out and play” was written by Los Angeles singer/songwriter Billie Eilish, a 16-year-old prodigy who, according to Wikipedia, has been writing songs on her Mac since she was 11!

Share Your Gifts - AppleIt’s an account through the eyes of a lonesome lass with a secret penchant for creativity and her companion dog as the only one who knows & values her innate talent and who eventually albeit creatively, of course, forces her to come out of her hiding. In all this, I was astonished to see how Apple has taken fancy to Pixar-inspired storytelling for the first time! The past commercials from Apple have resorted to numerous graphical treatments in making visually stylised product campaigns though animation not being a prominent theme on that list so far. While the tagline ‘Share Your Gifts’ is a beautiful wordplay for acknowledging not just the sentiment of giving in the festive season but also for energising & sharing creative material using the power of Apple’s great products. A company that has always championed the cause of the creative arts community worldwide yet again communicating its unequivocal stand with this fabulous ad, and dare I say, the folks at Pixar would be so pleased to see their artistic journey as an inspiration for the design of this spot. Also, there’s a moral for everyone that creativity is yearning to come to life only if you could use your artful imagination, so go ahead, surprise yourself and your peers. “Don’t hide” and dream on!

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]You see a piece of paper
Could be a little greater
Show me what you could make her
You’ll never know until you try it
You don’t have to keep it quiet[/perfectpullquote]

Happy Holidays, dear folks!