There's A Lot We Can Do In The Year To Come

Part Five Of All The Good & Bad In Our Current Cinema Ecosystem

Today finds us at Part Five of All The Good & Bad Things In Our 2024 version of The Cinema Ecosystem. But know what? Tomorrow will be a new year! Kind of obvious, sure, but have you made your resolutions yet? Perhaps it could be to fix some of these “challenges”? Do you have a plan for addressing any one of them yet? Let me know if you want to brainstorm further. I am here to help. These only look like negative things we are spotting. They truly are opportunities. Think what life would be like next year if we could just improve 5% of them!

Let’s find the spark wherever we can, okay?

Or perhaps you want to use this link to get 20% off an annual subscription at 2024 prices. Time is running out!

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Problems With The FKATheFilmBiz, 2024, #76-100 (E-F)

76. Editorial Discipline: Oh where did it go? And to be clear, it is not about length. For instance, although I have only seen it once, The Brutalist — at 3.5 hours — felt to me like one of the more editorial disciplined films of the year. Such discipline requires finding a language that blends pace, tone, sensitivity, thematic and aesthetic resonance, narrative revelation, and comprehension of the complexity. Most Hollywood films are bloated by spectacle and kinetic intensity. Many international arthouse don’t seem to have much of a concern for the audience’s side of the equation and what we may be tracking or not. A great deal of the American non-corporate work lacks the means to elevate many such concerns. When I attend a film festival, particularly stateside, 90% of the films could have benefited significantly by having access to those that have made films and released films for decades, and thus the learnings they gathered. Absent of a marketplace to get those notes, we owe to ourselves to bring a little discipline to our art and business.

77. Education For Filmmakers: although information is abundant, we often stop learning once we get established. Do we fail to provide the right incentives for a life of learning? Or the right context and environment? Do we need to find new ways to always be learning?

78. Emergency Financial Assistance for Filmmakers: When disaster strikes is there anywhere we can turn to? Not that I know of. Without something of the sort, we lose many great artists and leaders who have fallen into desperate straits.

79. Employment: Everything is a part-time gig now. Even the allure of stability that came with working for a major corporation is gone. You know you will get fired eventually, unless you quit before they get the chance. Maybe that should be plan?

80. Enhancement: we have little training in how to make better films. — at least I encounter few who have a clue as to what that may be. And how do we get that information. Besides subscribing to HFF, what can we do? There are plenty of books to read. Nonetheless, we lack a marketplace that can offer such services.