M+E Daily

CULVER CITY, Calif. — With a bachelor of science degree in economics and finance and a stable career as a financial advisor for Ameriprise Financial Services, Ryan Riggs took a major leap of faith in 2016 when he hooked up with Los Angeles-based filmmaker Zach King and changed careers.

“Am I really going to throw all that away and go work for a YouTuber?” Riggs laughed, speaking May 23 during the closing keynote of the Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) at The Culver Theater. Today, Riggs is COO of creative production firm King Studio, home of King and his work, recognised as one of the most influential and well-known content creators in social media.

Riggs keynote — “When Stars Collide (What Hollywood Can Learn From 120 Million-Plus Followers and Billions of Views!” — looked at the success of King Studio and the operations behind the global influencer, sharing how they created a global audience with their followers, and how their love of movie-making magic has helped drive their growth in a short amount of time.

“We didn’t know what the future held, we just knew what we had was special, and we wanted to keep going with it,” Riggs said, sharing some of the more well-known videos King Studio has created. King is currently the sixth most-followed creators on TikTok, with nearly 100 million followers, and on YouTube his work has been viewed more than a billion times.

“Zack’s innovation and creativity, and the way that he pushed platform to platform, that’s what encouraged me to say ‘You know what, even if this thing doesn’t work out, I’m going to have some crazy opportunities and learn a bunch of skills here,’” Riggs said. “It’s innovate or die.”

Riggs said King is a perfect example of someone Hollywood can take lessons from.

The creator economy has transformed media and entertainment since YouTube was launched nearly 20 years ago, and the pandemic only solidified their approach to eyeballs and engagement. The “stars” of this space — the influencers who leverage content creation and creativity into their brand and audience — have grown into massive brands and companies dedicated to driving their direct-to-consumer relationship through platforms (Vine, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, etc.).

“It’s analogous to what Hollywood creates,” Riggs said. “Most of our team were film students, and passionate about filmmaking. I think there’s a world in the future where Hollywood and [online] creators co-exist.”

King Studio is already making that a reality, with completed projects featuring Jeff Goldblum, Terry Crews, Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, and other top names in Hollywood. “More and more, creators and Hollywood stars are realising ‘We’re in this together, we’re creating entertainment,’” Riggs said.

The Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit event was produced by MESA in association with the Hollywood IT Society (HITS) and presented by Amazon Studios Technology, with sponsorship by Fortinet, Genpact, Prime Focus Technologies, Signiant, Softtek, Convergent, Gracenote, Altman Solon, AppTek, Ascendion, Coresite, EPAM, MicroStrategy, Veritone, CDSA, EIDR and PDG Consulting.