If the US wants to retain its place as a major exporter of culture, our government is going to have to start funding the film industry. $100M/year - for 25-50 indie films/year and 1-3 higher-budget movies/year. No money for agents,or bloated Hollywood producers or actors. With a festival week each year at chain movie theaters, where audiences pick their favorites. Or we can just let the film industry die.
I think if we concentrate on working together and we make films that the public wants to see, we become our own sales agents and will have our films pretty much presold. We will be able to skip by all the gatekeepers and movie moguls who are becoming less and less relevant and the industry will really be turned on its head as the talented filmmakers, and their casts and crews will rule. No, it's not a fairytale, we can do it, if we learn to work together.
Agreed agreed agreed. That's the rub, isn't it? Reminds of the quote from the movie, "Patton" as George C Scott as Patton walks through a battlefield strewn with smoldering tanks, clouds of smoke, and dead bodies:
"I love it. God help me I do love it so. I love it more than my life."
Incredible read. True that. FYI, my 14 year old daughter just watched and analyzed “I, Robot” in school. Hmmm. Even non-film people are seeing big problems coming.
Wondering what your thoughts are on green-light AI tools (predicting ROI) that are now available to indies… like Largo.AI. If we never had the ability to utilize focus groups in order to gauge if films would be profitable.. is utilizing AI to measure distribution profitability a mechanism to utilize to attract financiers?
I’ve created a nonprofit Comity Creative to investigate a BTL residual system… but I have tremendous guilt even considering AI tools for analysis.
At the core of it, I want to do whatever I can to keep us working, doing what we love, and I would love to hear your thoughts .
Yep. it's bleak. JUST had this conversation on the street with a line producer friend of mine I ran into a couple of days ago. As a storyboard artist for hire (my day job to support my habit of wanting to direct films), my current storyboarding gig on a well know TV show has been relegated to TWO days per episode. TWO days, every two or three weeks, despite the director having a ton of action sequences to deal with. I don't know what the solution is.
From Yahoo News - In 2016, Hope talked about his transition at the Seattle International Film Festival. “Back as an independent producer, I ran about 25 projects at a time,” he said. “At Amazon, it’s significantly more than that. Films are competing for slots. I have to ask myself, each time, ‘Why is this specific film important? Why am I going to spend time on it this week, this month?’ If I keep picking at that question, it starts to move the film forward.”
So...how is what you speak of any different?
Honestly, this all seems like too little too late. And it's quite disingenuous for any producer to act as though they were unaware that it's been a gig economy for MANY below-the-line crew members for decades. Yes, it's just performative karaoke, and yes, you're out of tune.
If the US wants to retain its place as a major exporter of culture, our government is going to have to start funding the film industry. $100M/year - for 25-50 indie films/year and 1-3 higher-budget movies/year. No money for agents,or bloated Hollywood producers or actors. With a festival week each year at chain movie theaters, where audiences pick their favorites. Or we can just let the film industry die.
I think if we concentrate on working together and we make films that the public wants to see, we become our own sales agents and will have our films pretty much presold. We will be able to skip by all the gatekeepers and movie moguls who are becoming less and less relevant and the industry will really be turned on its head as the talented filmmakers, and their casts and crews will rule. No, it's not a fairytale, we can do it, if we learn to work together.
Your quote: "Tis a pity we love it so!"
Agreed agreed agreed. That's the rub, isn't it? Reminds of the quote from the movie, "Patton" as George C Scott as Patton walks through a battlefield strewn with smoldering tanks, clouds of smoke, and dead bodies:
"I love it. God help me I do love it so. I love it more than my life."
Here's the link: https://youtu.be/hKWprtKwv74?feature=shared
🙏❤️👊
Incredible read. True that. FYI, my 14 year old daughter just watched and analyzed “I, Robot” in school. Hmmm. Even non-film people are seeing big problems coming.
Wondering what your thoughts are on green-light AI tools (predicting ROI) that are now available to indies… like Largo.AI. If we never had the ability to utilize focus groups in order to gauge if films would be profitable.. is utilizing AI to measure distribution profitability a mechanism to utilize to attract financiers?
I’ve created a nonprofit Comity Creative to investigate a BTL residual system… but I have tremendous guilt even considering AI tools for analysis.
At the core of it, I want to do whatever I can to keep us working, doing what we love, and I would love to hear your thoughts .
it's so right it's what it isn't - funny.
Yep. it's bleak. JUST had this conversation on the street with a line producer friend of mine I ran into a couple of days ago. As a storyboard artist for hire (my day job to support my habit of wanting to direct films), my current storyboarding gig on a well know TV show has been relegated to TWO days per episode. TWO days, every two or three weeks, despite the director having a ton of action sequences to deal with. I don't know what the solution is.
From Yahoo News - In 2016, Hope talked about his transition at the Seattle International Film Festival. “Back as an independent producer, I ran about 25 projects at a time,” he said. “At Amazon, it’s significantly more than that. Films are competing for slots. I have to ask myself, each time, ‘Why is this specific film important? Why am I going to spend time on it this week, this month?’ If I keep picking at that question, it starts to move the film forward.”
So...how is what you speak of any different?
Honestly, this all seems like too little too late. And it's quite disingenuous for any producer to act as though they were unaware that it's been a gig economy for MANY below-the-line crew members for decades. Yes, it's just performative karaoke, and yes, you're out of tune.