Panel to discuss new media in Hollywood

Professors at UCLA as well as members of several Hollywood entertainment companies will come together today in a panel titled “Hollywood 2.0.”

The title of the panel describes a new wave in Hollywood entertainment as Web sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Hulu take over the industry, said Sunil Rajaraman, a recent UCLA Anderson School of Management alumnus who graduated in 2008.

Rajaraman is helping to organize the panel, which will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Korn Convocation Hall at the Anderson School of Management.

Shared-content Web sites are making it easier for independent producers and young people to show the world what they have produced, and they are allowing the industry to expand to new horizons, Rajaraman said.

“Even some of the big-name artists like Ashton Kutcher are using Twitter and Facebook to develop a following,” he added.

Rajaraman said he believes that eventually the “big shot” actors like Ben Stiller and Will Smith will start moving to new media as well because it is going to be the form in which people watch videos.

The panel’s discussion will center on how these increasingly popular Web sites are going to change the industry of Hollywood, according an Anderson School statement.

Sanjay Sood, an Anderson associate professor of marketing and the faculty director of the school’s Entertainment and Media Management Institute, will speak at the event. Several other CEOs and company leaders will also attend, according to the statement.

New media is a new phenomenon that is extremely effective in keeping people intrigued, said Richard Walter, professor and chair of UCLA’s screenwriting department, who will also speak at the panel.

But while the advertising, production and distribution of the Hollywood industry is changing, the one thing that remains the same is the importance of the story, Walter said.

“Whether it’s a movie or a short clip online, it has beginning, middle and end,” he said.

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