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Truly Free Film

30 Really Bad Things In FilmBiz 2014

IMG_9903It is now time for my complete list of The Suck In Today’s Film Biz. Earlier this week, I’ve dropped some bits on Keyframe and Filmmaker Mag. IndieWire picked it up. There’s so much that is wrong, it is easy to share the wealth. But here is all of those combined lists  plus many more. Can’t you hear everyone screaming “OMG, there is so much too fix! It is time we made this really work for ambitious and diverse film once and for all!”?  We wish, right?

I have been chronicling the negative in our film industry for sometime now — six years in these type of posts, but my original rant goes back to 1995 for Filmmaker Magazine.  Much of what I have stated in years’ passed remains still in need of getting done. Dig in to my past lists and when you combine them you will have well over 100 things that we could be doing better.  You’d think with so much wrong, more people would stand up and say “this has got to change!”. Where is the film industry’s national leadership? For the first time I believe we are capable of conceptualizing what an entire systems reboot could be — and one that looks out for ALL the stakeholders.  Isn’t it time for a international summit on this?

I have been also chronicling the good too, but today that’s for another day. Come back tomorrow for my comprehensive list of 30 Good Things In The Film Biz 2014.

By detailing what we have failed to do, done wrong, or continue to ignore, we build a road map of how we can improve things for the future. Here’s my contribution to that map for 2014.  Let’s build this better together.

  1. The “Winners Take All” Blockbuster Model Has Stomped “The Long Tail” Flat (in Hollywood). And as much as I hoped people would try to resist
Categories
Issues and Actions

How Much Data And Content Is Being Generated Right Now?

The Internet In Real Time” is a must see for anyone who has pondered this question.  If there is any doubt that making films NOW is something entirely different from THEN (aka before the internet), “The Internet In Real Time” should demonstrate that we are in the Era Of Distraction.  Or  is the Time Of Abundance Culture? Whatever we refer to it, it demonstrates the challenge is now one of time allocation and prioritization.  With so many things coming at everyone, how do we get them to watch our work?  Maybe a good start is to stop reading this post and watch a movie instead.

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Truly Free Film

2014: The Year The Film Biz Recognized Our Era Of Abundance

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?

Categories
Issues and Actions

Is Indie Film The New Wal-Mart?

Beanie Barnes has a MUST READ post up on Salon “America’s Next Wal-Mart: The Indie Film Industry“. Although Beanie primarily focuses on over-supply/grand abundance as the primary problem, the link-filled post captures many of the challenges we all now face — especially sustainability on a personal level. And the article is not just

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Truly Free Film

Abundance Does NOT Mean TOO Many

The film industry is having difficulty grappling with reality.  Globally, we generate far more films than we currently consume.  Many industry thought leaders respond by saying we make too many films.  Such statements obscure the truth.

The entertainment economy is

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Truly Free Film

Say Goodbye To Bizarro World: Time To Make Business Of Art

This is my recent FERA Keynote speech (London, UK  BFI South Bank,September 27, 2013 145PM):

Our strength is now our weakness

Children love playing “The Opposite Game” where “yes” means “no”, and “no” means “yes”.  Politicians seem to love to play that game too…

This backwards world has infected many of our cultural fields,taking hold as an everyday concept reflected in our every action.  In comics, it is known as the “Bizarro” World, a common plot scenario where our strength becomes our weakness.  That is of course a fictional conceit, but in the world of cinema, we all now too truly inhabit a similar land of opposites, where what we say we love to do is not what we do at all.

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Truly Free Film

STOP Believing “Build It And They Will Come”

The Field Of Dreams Is Filled With Plenty Of Corn

Jon Kilick and I have a fair amount in common — but we also seem to see the state of the world, or at least our film culture and industry,  in a very different way.

We both also recognize — and encourage others to recognize — some really important things about the film world, namely that this is a great time to be a creator.  We have