Let's Build A Film Ecosystem Prioritizing The Artist

What would it look like? I have 30 suggestions...

can we just put the artist and filmmakers on the pedestal please?

A while back I brainstormed what it would like if a studio or financier really wanted to be “talent friendly”. I came up with 31 ideas (and you can read them all on this link). But what would it look like if we broke up Hollywood, and built something that actually was focused on the creative community? Sure, that would take a bit of government intervention, and as unlikely as that currently seems, we still should strategize what that might look like. You need to first see the North Star, if you want to walk towards it, right?

But what direction is it that we really want to walk towards? Is it one that prioritizes the artist? Or one that is truly independent? I am sure a lot of you are asking “can’t it be one and the same?”. Perhaps, but I think each will have different tenets and different attributes. I think they will also have different First Principles. Ultimately, we need to consider each from these different angles — and I plan to, but it will take awhile. Perhaps we should have a forum and truly discuss this. Doesn’t someone somewhere have a job to organize such things?

This still needs work, but brainstorming the list on my walk the other day was exhausting so this is all I have for now, but I really would like to have a longer conversation. If I spent more time on this now, I don’t think I’d get any of my real work done. Maybe we can use my list to have a real brainstorm somewhere soon?

I owe – we all owe – Matt Stoller a great big wheel barrel full of thanks for clarifying some of the key points in this (see the “broke up Hollywood” link above if you need more thoughts on this).

---

A Film Ecosystem Prioritizing The Artist: What’s Needed To Help It Prosper?

1. Government support for the arts.

2. Government intervention to reset the rules, particularly anti-trust.

3. UBI, free education, public transportation, & health care, child care, elder care.

4. Significantly limit vertical integration in the entertainment industry.

5. Return to Paramount Decree

6. Return to Fin Syn rules

7. Prohibit consumer platforms (like Streamers) from making or distributing the content they offer (beyond the marketplace)

8. Require “equal time” for independent work on Streamers (25%) (This is why Indies flourish in UK)

9. Require public television to have a mandatory minimum license fee for any film that plays an “A” list festival — with variable fees in relation to what window they take.

10. Institute Award campaign finance limits.

11. Outlaw predatory pricing in pursuit of market share and dominance.

12. Partial public funding for a Think Tank on the future of Cinéma & storytelling

13. Require transparency of data each project generates.

14. Require reporting of admissions (not just box office).

15. Require corporate funders to pay for preservation.

16. Free touring screening series for high schoolers.

17. Arts education in all high schools.

18. Incentivize overhead deals.

19. Incentivize development deals.

20. Incentivize multi-film and slate strategy

21. Public funded lobbyists for the Arts.

22. Like the French, require authors to be the copyright holders (in whole or in part).

23. Proclaim an artist a living national treasure annually .

24. Revive the WPA projects where different artists are funded to document America every year.

25. Fund Artists to teach arts to public high school students each year.

26. Check box on taxes each year if you do not want money going to the arts (otherwise a specific amount goest to “the arts”).

27. Check box on Frequent Flyer statement if you don’t want 1% of miles to go to artists in need.

28. Public housing & rent control for artists

29. Greater national & regional celebration of artists

30. Gov’t funded artists’ retreats

What else? Let’s use this list as starting point and truly examine this. You in?