There are many ways I could answer this question. The one thing I know for sure though, is that if you work in the film business, and you don’t have at least one answer to that question, you are being irresponsible. I have a few other thoughts that stem from that same point, but I will leave those alone for now too…
We need to be able to have some answers to our industry to work in the same way we should be able to answer it regarding our government, or your kid’s education — we should have an opinion on how we’d like them all to work. Okay maybe the film biz is not as important as either of those things, but don’t you think we all should have an opinion on all of these? I do.
We just shouldn’t accept the way things are. We should try to move things forward.
One of the things I most want the film biz to be able to do is make films available when I most want to see them.
There are at least four times a year that there is a film festival that successfully makes me want to see their prize winners, particularly when I can not attend them. The festival buzz peaks my interest in certain titles. Thing is, there are at least four of these festivals, maybe more. By the time the next festival happens, I have lost some of my interest in seeing the films from the prior one. This cycle repeats and repeats and repeats. Movies I wanted desperately to see two Sundances ago sit unwatched on DVD or in my streaming queue.
I want the film biz to be able to capitalize on the desire they manufacture.
I wish that in my city, and every other major city, the six or so festival prize winners would play in a theater the weekend after they won. As long as they sold out, they’d keep playing, in some sort of alternating rotation at that theater. I wish this would be true with the prize winners from Cannes, Venice, Sundance, and Berlin. I could easily throw Toronto into this mix too, although the fact that it coincides with Venice and doesn’t have a juried selection, makes it a little more difficult so maybe we have to feature a bit more of Europe instead. And of course there are other festivals too, like SXSW and Locarno and so on and so on, but the point is there is a time I really want to see the prize winners up on a big screen and would gladly pay extra for it. But I don’t get to and then my desire diminishes.
If the films played at the point cinema fans’ desire is the highest, the interest in the films would spread. The folks that came out that first weekend would be the type of people most likely to respond to the films to begin with anyway , they being cinema fans and all. They would presumably would spread good word of mouth around the film, increasing the audience for the film when it came back again. It would help bust these titles out of their niches a bit.
I also would then like the rule to be that the film has a two month screening moratorium after the next festival screening in each city — unless it gets regular theatrical distribution. Basically this is to let film fans know that if they don’t make it to the next festival screening in that city, they won’t likely get another chance. We have to motivate people more to get out at the house. Yet at that next festival screening, the films again would be guaranteed to keep playing, provided they sold out. Hopefully films fan would then recognize that their ability to see a film is directly related to their commitment to see the film. Selling out the house is a community act. If people don’t vote with their feet and their wallets, they will lose the opportunity to see what they want. Simple math.
Now this doesn’t happen because a handful of these titles will get licensed for some small amount for a very long period. Maybe one or two will even get a tidy sum. The sales agent’s hope that will be a nice little deal to do, prevents a system to launch that might actually make the audience grow. And in the end we know no one’s getting something significant. Maybe it’s time we tried something completely different instead…
Yes, the distributors who pick up the films at Cannes and other festivals are providing the audience with a great service. They bring the films to us and work to raise the recognition level. We want the distributors to license our films. They add value. But the method is not without flaws. As an avid film fan I have more films I want to see than I am able to see. We live in a culture of content abundance but our methods are based on scarcity. I go years without seeing movies I have selected to watch because they are unavailable to screen when I want to see them, and thus they lose the ability to gain momentum and enter the public discourse. Many of the films that just screened at Cannes will suffer a similar fate and never get off my list and before my eyes.
And don’t get me wrong, issues ranging from greater diversity, sustainability, funding, crew safety, and the like abound. This is not a post written in order of importance. It is just one of the things I am thinking about right now. I know I would watch those Cannes winners if I could, and I know that when the time comes, I won’t. It’s a pet peeve. You have any?
How would YOU like the movie business to work?
