For awhile now, 99% of the films generated have essentially gone unseen. The film industry is finally waking up to this overall change.
Are we now prepared for the next step? And the appropriate one at that?
Manohla Dargis got things going by suggesting this be solved by having the distributors acquire less films. Anne Thompson rebutted (and I contributed my thoughts to her). Sharon Waxman in The Wrap then echoed the sentiment with “too many films, not enough distribution.” It is important conversation to have, and it is exciting to watch it ripple. But are we getting it any closer to solutions?
Kentucker Audley contributed a bit of brilliant humor to it all yesterday. As much it was needed, no one is truly talking about what must be done, but Kentucker does get something right: we are going to keep making movies and curtailing creativity in any way whatsoever.
In his public letter to his daughter Martin Scorsese defined our era as “extremely low budget movies have always been the exception rather than the rule. Now, it’s the reverse”.
Salon.com has had Beanie Barnes take a look, and she found many factors and reprecussions to the over saturation issue, as well how the current thunder is really a series alarms as Mark Gill and others cried out long before Manohla and Marty threw some further gasoline on the fire.
The response to the tidal wave of films from the very same film community that creates it is simply a wish that it could be otherwise, as long as they themselves can’t be stopped. I get it. I wish I could make the movies I believe in, get paid decently, and have those movies seen and appreciated; there’s also a lot more about the world that I wish wasn’t the way it is too.
The first step is accepting the truth, and I think we now have. That is what we have so far achieved in 2014. Not bad for two months in!
There are some things that when they can’t be cured, they must be endured. Turgenev’s sentiments made sense to me in high school, just as they do to this day. Enduring them does not mean doing nothing though. We need to start to build a system that deals with the abundance.
This is how it is now: we have more films than we can consume. We have more good films too than we will ever discover. This is also how it will be forever going forward in all likelihood. It’s not so bad a situation to be in; you can fill your days with pleasure. For some that is even a reason to live.
There will always be too many movies because it is human nature to try to make sense of our world and to find ways to express what we feel. And we now live in a time where it is economically feasible for virtually anyone to make and distribute films (provided you exploit your collaborators and keep your vision constrained). Even that may well change, particularly if we allow media consolidation to continue (sign this petition if you want to voice some opposition) and for net neutrality to vanish (hopefully these actions by the FCC will preserve it), but for now, abundance is our world.
The recognition of abundance is the first step. Abundance does not mean too many, although there are certainly more than you will ever find the time to enjoy. It is not just an excess of crap or even mediocre work, but there is a huge surplus of the good stuff too. People may not complain about a plethora of the pleasurable but it does create challenges for effectively managed or maximized consumption.
The recognition of associated factors is the next necessary step. And hopefully that is followed by an identification of the resultant problems. From there, we start on the solutions. Step by step, we move forward. For those that currently have power and are making money, it helps tremendously for the rest of us to think of it as too complex a series of problems for any of us to solve. Such thinking paralyzes us and prevent forward movement, but like everything else the process of change is simple and starts with putting one foot in front of the other. One recognition, then another, and another, and then another, and soon we have walked miles.
Here in the so-called First World, it is also our current state that time is now our most precious resource and we must focus more on how to manage it (that’s why I am so thankful you choose to read this blog!). The answer to the problem of too much is to make educated choices about how we spend what little time we have. And that requires a fundamentally different entertainment ecosystem than the one we currently have. The good news is that recently it has become possible to design an entire infrastructure based on the world we currently live in, and no longer do we have to rely on what was built before us.
The next question is whether we are up for the undertaking. Indie film may not be an industry unto itself, but hopefully we can be proven to be a community.
The powers that be are only too happy to just exploit the current situation, after all it is good business for them. When we look at what we want and what we need, we generally recognize we want quality as well as that which brings us closer to the things we prefer. The latter aspect often drifts into the attempt to acquire prestige, social capital, and popularity as they feel like short cuts to securing our suspected preferences. We follow others hoping the wisdom of crowds is true, and that more contact will help us discover the filters that are right for us. For those with tremendous capital, the Blockbuster model makes tremendous sense. I can’t fault Hollywood for their current abandonment of the middle and lower budget ground — as much as I would like it to be otherwise.
If you are an artist and hope to have a creative life, it is time to look at who is on your side or not. If you too are a lover of ambitious and diverse culture, you better team up with whomever else is truly committed to it. Today determines tomorrow, and potentially more so than it ever has before. On one hand, it is time to pick sides; on the other hand, it’s hard when we are standing on an apeirogon with infinite sides.
We have the potential to create massive audiences of audiences, where the strength of the niches free us from the dominance of the mass market. Most continue to chase the money, climbing in bed with the enemy out of a confused survival instinct. The time has come to think through the big picture and recognize what must be done if we want to preserve a diverse, open, and ambitious culture. We can reach higher. We don’t need to allow everything to sink to the lowest common denominator. We don’t need to allow those with first mover advantage to rule all that follows. We need to take responsibility for our choices and actions. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Let’s take responsibility for what comes next. It is our world to create.
Let’s accept a world of abundance, stop complaining, and build an ecosystem that accepts that as a given. The choice of how, what, where, and why we consume is a profoundly political act — and we must make that choice and accept responsibility. In a world of abundance, what are the problems we face? Let’s identify those and from there we can build solutions. Solutions do exist. I have changed my practice to help advance them. It is a process. It is not as fast a process as I would like, but there is progress nonetheless. Onward!
