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Here at RecDek we solve the problem of what to watch across all the streamers, so you don’t waste your life scrolling away, irritated at the perceived lack of quality choice.
Our events around the world over the last few years at Sundance, Cannes, Berlinale, AFM, etc has meant that the vast majority of our users are indeed the indie film industry. Our industry consumes a lot of tv and film and it’s been the perfect place to grow our community and hone the platform.
It’s also meant we hear a lot about the problems filmmakers today face, as recent news reports cinema attendees at worryingly low levels, l I thought I’d take a couple of minutes from a delayed plane to give you my 2 cents on the event I just attended in Finland: Slush.
Hosted in the heart of Helsinki Slush is an incredible event for anyone interested in the cutting edge of business and technology - including entertainment. Kind of a mix between a neon themed nightclub and featuring some of the most forward thinking and exciting business folk on earth launching or accelerating their projects, discussing the future, looking for the next opportunity, networking their tits off.
Technological change across the board has never moved faster. Plenty of discussion from leading businesses, investors and ecosystems about how best to adapt to a future that is very much here. Of course, AI is on everyone’s minds with Google’s Gemini3 released during the event, there were live demo’s of the way it can facilitate the launch of entire business departments, which only a few years ago would have taken teams of people and much capital. And that was only one demo of dozens.
The news for media and filmmakers
The future of the media landscape is exciting: for creators there has never been better opportunity to tell your story with the enhancement of technology. VCs are searching for an answer too - UK based WonderStudios recently raised $12m to expand, their round was led by Atomico. Barriers which were insurmountable to filmmakers a few years ago are now at your fingertips. AI development benefits from both Moore's Law and evolutionary biology insights, contributing to its own acceleration in a feedback loop where AI development begets further AI development. The exponential age is here.
Having also worked across the VFX industry for the past 8 years on show’s like The Crown, Enola Holmes 1 and 2, Liaison, Invasion, Close Personal Friends, and more. VFX houses are becoming leaders in what tool and when but there’s also opportunity here for filmmakers to mess around with visuals which previously would have taken months of hard labour. This is something that the indie industry not only needs to be aware of, but dive into. But there are plenty of other areas where filmmaking is being streamlined. The technology will get better, leading to a democratisation of complex work, creative will lead and it can favour bold unheard voices.
Tech won’t ever take away the importance of characters, plot, storytelling, vision, pace. But it can help to enhance all of the above. It’s certainly going no where and its vital we all experiment with its limitations now in order to understand how it can help independent projects. The filmmakers of the future are already messing around with tools:
did you see this Liquid Death spec ad made wholly with AI
this isn’t something to shy away from. This is something to dive into and then decide if its right for you and the story you want to tell.
Look out for RecDek’s full list of recommended tools that you should be trying in 2026 in our December email.
And what’s on your RecDek watchlist???
It’s a very exciting week in streaming world with Stranger Things and The Beatles Anthology both being released next week. The Age of Disclosure is out today and checkout our pick of the week…
When happiness becomes horror from the creator of Breaking Bad. Imagine if everyone in the world became perfectly content and kind, except you. Sounds like a nightmare? That's the entire point.
Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul) plays Carol, a misanthropic romance novelist who's the only American immune to an alien virus that's made everyone supremely happy. The infected share thoughts, memories, knowledge - they don't even say "I" anymore, just "this individual." They're endlessly kind, completely united, desperate to help Carol join them. "We just want to help, Carol" becomes increasingly sinister.
Vince Gilligan looks at 2025 America and asks: wouldn't universal agreement be even worse than what we've got? It's audacious and deeply uncomfortable. Carol's wife Helen dies from the infection (millions do), but everyone else is too blissfully content to properly grieve. When Carol gets angry, the hive mind experiences emotional overload and 10 million people die. Should she accept assimilation to stop the deaths?
The show moves slowly - sometimes too slowly, leaving Seehorn spinning her wheels - but the questions are massive. What's lost when there's no disagreement? Are we still human without variation? It works brilliantly as an allegory for abusive relationships and middle-aged womanhood: Carol speaks and isn't heard, repeats herself and isn't believed, shouts and is told to behave better.
Not remotely the light relief you'd expect, blackly comic and a tad bleak. But a great assessment of the question: why do bad things happen?
ADD IT TO YOUR RECDEK WATCHLIST
Final call for our Streaming Calculator of SHAME too - give it a go and see how much time RecDek can give your life back!!!
shame.recdek.com
Take it easy, catch you next week.
Ed
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