Abigail Johnson is a New York City-based writing intern, screenwriter, actor, and director. Her main focus is women in the entertainment industry and authenticity, especially advocating for diverse storytelling and new perspectives. Abigail loves discovering indie films that may not be seen in a traditional movie theatre, as well as listening to pop music and trying to find the next big artist. Abigail connects to Hollywood Insider’s values of substance over scandal and focusing on compassion and philosophy in her writing at Hollywood Insider. Utilizing writing for good is the main Hollywood Insider value that Abigail connects with, as her main goal is to use her talents for good.
May 1, 2024
On February 14, 2024, on the day of love, Grammy and Academy Award-winning composer, A.R. Rahman posted a video to his social media accounts entitled ‘Secret Mountain’. While many fans were met with confusion about what this project is or what it will soon be, ‘Secret Mountain’ just might be the future of entertainment.
‘SECRET MOUNTAIN’ FROM THE COMPOSER
A.R. Rahman is a mutli-award winning music composer and philanthropist, who has won everything from Oscars to Grammys and everything in between. He is most known for his work on different film soundtracks, including ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘127 Hours’, and his most recent film work is ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ on Netflix. His musical themes are easily recognizable, and he has worked on music in different languages, such as Tamil, Hindi, English, Persian, and Mandarin. Rahman is easily considered a versatile maestro genius in music, and each of his projects proves more innovative than the next.
The video itself has a meta feel, while also playing off of strong storylines found in television and film work. It almost feels as if this could be a future television show or maybe even video game, feeling reminiscent of the ‘Just Dance’ universe. ‘Secret Mountain’ tells the story of Luna, a young woman transported to the world of the Secret Mountain. Luna meets different musical characters, each representing a different culture and music style. Each of these characters also has their own corresponding social media handle.
The songs within the video are short, but extremely notable, as they feature complex melodies and fun beats. Each of the characters in the video has their own distinct style in their aesthetics and their music, which helps differentiate new characters. Each of these characters seem to be celebrity-like figures within the world of the video, as Luna’s reactions to meeting each of these characters demonstrates her excitement. While we don’t know exactly the motives for these characters, we do know that their songs are already notable and will be hitting our playlists soon.
Despite the video being met with rave reviews already, as fans are anticipating new music from Rahman, many people were confused as to what ‘Secret Mountain’ truly is. Is it AI? Is it a new series? After looking at the tags on the video, viewers can find out that ‘Secret Mountain’ is linked to Hedera. Hedera is a distributed ledger technology that has been described as an alternative to blockchains. What does this mean? Users can buy this asset in order to make purchases and utilize different softwares. Basically, Hedera is a part of the metaverse, working with different softwares, and even working with it’s own cryptocurrency, HBAR.
What does this mean for ‘Secret Mountain’? Hedera described ‘Secret Mountain’ as a ‘Metahumans project’ while teasing the project on Twitter. A metahuman is pretty self-explanatory based on the name-a human character that exists online, or in the metaverse. Metahumans are often used in gaming sense, where players can create their own realistic character for their game.
With new technological advancements everyday, we might just be closer to the future of entertainment than we realize. Artificial intelligence can be utilized at the click of a button, and is becoming more and more accessible for anyone to use. The metaverse might not be too far off, with cryptocurrencies, like BitCoin, becoming accessible.
With this project hitting the metaverse soon, this raises even more questions for consumers. One of these questions being what this means for the future of entertainment. While I, personally, don’t see the nature of entertainment changing too much, in the sense that audiences will always love the human nature of human performers and live performances, I do feel like these new projects could be a new addition to the entertainment industry. Metaverse performances could be a new way to access exclusive content from your favorite artists. Maybe there will be exclusive streaming services just for these projects that are for the metaverses.
The introduction of this metaverse entertainment could be compared to that of the introduction of moving pictures. While the introduction of Cinema changed the game in entertainment, a lot of audiences wondered if this would replace the theatre and live performance aspect that they loved. Some people in recent years even will argue that the concert film will replace the experience of going to a concert. However, live theatre and live performance are still extremely prominent in today’s society, and these are aspects of entertainment that can and will always be around. In terms of the metaverse, I can see something similar happening. It is almost like an addition to entertainment, rather than a replacement. Similarly today, artists such as Billie Eilish and Post Malone offer virtual concerts on the popular game, Fortnite. Even with the rise of Fortnite concerts, these artists are still able to sell out arenas and headline festivals.
I think I can speak for many artists when I say that the advancement of technology and the metaverse is a scary thing. As a screenwriter and actor myself, I found myself fearing my future employment opportunities during the SAG and WGA Strikes in regards to artificial intelligence. However, as I keep looking forward to these future advancements, I am not worried about the future of entertainment. I think that the addition of the metaverse will be a new form of entertainment, rather than a replacement. Humans will always want human connection, no matter how much they love technology. Even with the need for human connection, the advancement of entertainment technology is an exciting aspect of this industry that we are excited to see and learn more about. Perhaps the metaverse will help make entertainment more accessible for future audiences.
Clearly for Rahman, AI is another avenue through which to bring his music to the whole world, in a beautiful way, regardless of the medium. And we applaud him for that.
Though the introduction of this new project and the ins and outs of the metaverse feel vague, ‘Secret Mountain’ is undeniably a hot project. A.R. Rahman’s music mixed with the new technological advancements is going to bring a new crowd of music lovers to the metaverse. The future of entertainment is on its way.
By Abigail Johnson
Click here to read The Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase’s love letter to Cinema, TV and Media. An excerpt from the love letter: The Hollywood Insider’s CEO/editor-in-chief Pritan Ambroase affirms, “We have the space and time for all your stories, no matter who/what/where you are. Media/Cinema/TV have a responsibility to better the world and The Hollywood Insider will continue to do so. Talent, diversity and authenticity matter in Cinema/TV, media and storytelling. In fact, I reckon that we should announce “talent-diversity-authenticity-storytelling-Cinema-Oscars-Academy-Awards” as synonyms of each other. We show respect to talent and stories regardless of their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc., thus allowing authenticity into this system just by something as simple as accepting and showing respect to the human species’ factual diversity. We become greater just by respecting and appreciating talent in all its shapes, sizes, and forms. Award winners, which includes nominees, must be chosen on the greatness of their talent ALONE.
I am sure I am speaking for a multitude of Cinema lovers all over the world when I speak of the following sentiments that this medium of art has blessed me with. Cinema taught me about our world, at times in English and at times through the beautiful one-inch bar of subtitles. I learned from the stories in the global movies that we are all alike across all borders. Remember that one of the best symbols of many great civilizations and their prosperity has been the art they have left behind. This art can be in the form of paintings, sculptures, architecture, writings, inventions, etc. For our modern society, Cinema happens to be one of them. Cinema is more than just a form of entertainment, it is an integral part of society. I love the world uniting, be it for Cinema, TV, media, art, fashion, sport, etc. Please keep this going full speed.”
Abigail Johnson is a New York City-based writing intern, screenwriter, actor, and director. Her main focus is women in the entertainment industry and authenticity, especially advocating for diverse storytelling and new perspectives. Abigail loves discovering indie films that may not be seen in a traditional movie theatre, as well as listening to pop music and trying to find the next big artist. Abigail connects to Hollywood Insider’s values of substance over scandal and focusing on compassion and philosophy in her writing at Hollywood Insider. Utilizing writing for good is the main Hollywood Insider value that Abigail connects with, as her main goal is to use her talents for good.
Abigail Johnson is a New York City-based writing intern, screenwriter, actor, and director. Her main focus is women in the entertainment industry and authenticity, especially advocating for diverse storytelling and new perspectives. Abigail loves discovering indie films that may not be seen in a traditional movie theatre, as well as listening to pop music and trying to find the next big artist. Abigail connects to Hollywood Insider’s values of substance over scandal and focusing on compassion and philosophy in her writing at Hollywood Insider. Utilizing writing for good is the main Hollywood Insider value that Abigail connects with, as her main goal is to use her talents for good.
