Goodbye 2021, hello to a new decade. We’ve seen some phenomenal strides in video production in the last ten years, and we’re now on the cusp of some major breakthroughs and changes that will bring more content to the public, more stability and efficiency to the companies and individuals who create it. Here is my prediction of the next 3 major changes in video production we’ll see in 2022.

Podcasting and Live Streaming

Podcasting’s popularity has already skyrocketed in the last few years. Listeners can’t get enough of it, which is naturally increasing podcasting’s exposure. In June 2018 Apple confirmed there were 550,000 podcasts, and since then the number has jumped to over 750,000.

The beauty of podcasting is its learning and entertainment on demand. The most successful podcasts keep their listeners entertained, educate them about a topic they love, and gives them the power to listen to it whenever they want to.

And the effect of podcasts on education goes well beyond your phone and earbuds. Universities around Australia have seen a spike in criminology enrolment in the last few years thanks to podcasts like The Teacher’s Pet, Serial and My Favourite Murder. Criminology has been the most popular social science course in the country for the last ten years. Podcasts have been a thing since 2004, but really started gaining traction in 2006 when celebrities and media stations like The US' National Public Radio jumped on the podcast bandwagon. Knowing this, I well and truly doubt the rise in criminology enrolments and the popularity in true crime podcasts is pure coincidence.

But what’s after podcasting? Are listeners going to settle for simply listening to their favourite podcasters? Absolutely not. While podcasting allows one to listen on demand, it only fuels the want and craving for more content, especially if you find a podcast that grips you and becomes an addiction.

Livecasting will fill in this gap. Up until now TV stations were the only ones with access to this technology. But with the ever-increasing demand for different content forms for any subject, it’s a no brainer that agencies should begin to offer this to their clients.

This demand is why I built a completely custom podcast studio in our head office in Parramatta. With a 5 camera set up in the podcast studio, my team can broadcast live to any social channel as well as our network liveleader.com.au, record the podcast, film and edit so that the final cut is finished by the time the podcast ends. Our clients end up getting three forms of content within one sitting, with the opportunity to create micro content off the podcast if they wish. This kind of content creation gives brands efficiency, saves them money in production, while also giving them the opportunity to tap into their audience whichever way they learn best. It’s an absolute no brainer that this type of content creation will explode.

Drones and Safety

Drones have been around for some time now, and with consumer demand they’ve risen in popularity exponentially. So too has the demand from brands to have spectacular footage filmed from drone cameras for their video content.

But with consumer demand comes safety issues. Drone flying can pose security risks to the public, commercial aircraft or even wildlife, when the device is piloted by inexperienced and unlicensed individuals.

The government body CASA is starting to catch up with drone safety after announcing new regulations for commercial pilots earlier this year, and now also requiring recreational pilots to register their drone and be accredited by CASA through an online course. Drone registration requirements apparently will help police more easily track rogue drone operators.

Will these new regulations help curb the issues that have risen with drones? Perhaps to a degree. What’s certain though is that these new changes will not curb the appetite and demand for drone footage, which can push production crews into putting drones into flight areas where they shouldn’t be. New regulations mean educating all parties, including brands, needs to happen. Whether the message is being spread effectively, we’ll see. What’s certain though is that further rules will definitely come into place over time in 2020 or later.

AI Editing

AI is a technology that exists in nearly every industry, but not yet in the editing space for video production. I can’t wait for it to happen, and I think 2022 is going to be the year that an AI editing platform comes to fruition.

The more content that’s out there the more clients want it. The most laboursome and time-consuming part of video production is the editing stage. An editor has to sift through hours of footage to create a story that makes sense and fits the client’s brief, which can take or weeks. An AI editing software would be able to cut editing time for any video production agency by 50% or more.

And we are so close to creating this technology. An iPhone can create “memories” of your photos for a given time period, or for a given theme. Your iPhone picks up if you have a lot of photos of a pet and can offer you a memory called “Furry Friends” for example. It creates a short video of your images, but what it doesn’t do is tell a story. That’s the key component that AI editing software will need to achieve. Without storytelling, it would be just another editing software. But if your phone can create a memory, it’s only a matter of time before it can create a story with a beginning, middle and end.

We’ve come a long way from bulky camera equipment and physical film editing, and we’re just getting started. 2022 is going to be a big year for media, and I’m really excited to see what is going to happen.