Archives for May 2020

Reimagining Film Fests Panel

Posted on by in brands, festivals, film, film art future | Comments Off on Reimagining Film Fests Panel

After I published my recent piece on film festivals (which also ran in IndieWire), I started having a discussion with Rebecca Green of the Dear Producer newsletter about many things, including what the film fest of the future might look like. She invited me to a panel she’s hosting on the subject – this Friday at 2pm ET – and you can register for it here. I’ll be joining a few people I think are among the smartest in the biz – Karin Chien, Marilyn Ness and Rebecca (moderating) to imagine what it would look like to re-imagine festivals in a way that helps everyone – the festivals, filmmakers and audiences.

One of the ways I’ve been thinking about this panel is – if festivals didn’t exist at all, what would we create from scratch? I think that helps frame the discussion in a different manner than usual. It’s also a question I asked in a post back in 2013 – and that I return to often- “The question should be, what do filmmakers need most now? And is what they need something that a festival can help with, or do we need to start something different to solve this need? If filmmakers got together in the same spirit that led them to create film co-ops and festivals (and filmmaker organizations, and magazines, and…) then what would they make together today?” Of course, festivals also must serve audiences, and they’re all trying to survive a global pandemic. But the hope is by asking what would be build that would be most helpful for filmmakers (all of whom are coming with different needs, too, btw), then maybe we can add these ideas to what gets built out of this crisis. It is one of many different conversations being had right now – I’ve been on two other zoom panels about it this week alone, and know of two more (at least), but it’s one I hope will be interesting. 

Join us for the discussion on Friday.

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Amc_Azon…but, which AMC?

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The big media news this week was that Amazon might buy AMC, but the problem was – no one was sure whether that meant AMC Theaters or AMC Networks. For an entire day, Wall Street and Hollywood were prognosticating on what it meant for Amazon to buy one of the biggest theater chains, and then…whoops, it might be that a reporter made a mistake on whether it was the stock ticker of AMC (theaters) or AMCX (Networks) about which they were reporting. (!!!) What’s even crazier is that both moves would make perfect sense, and that shows just how seismic are the potential changes coming to the media industry – neither case would be surprising, and we all expect deals like this to happen almost daily as the economy rearranges the business.

I’ve been predicting that Amazon or Netflix would buy one of the major chains for awhile now, and in that same linked post, I also predicted that IFC – which is part of the AMC Network – would be acquired soon, too – and that was BC. If you look back at what happened after the 1918 flu, it was a lot of consolidation, with the big studios getting bigger and the little guys disappearing. I suspect we’ll see the same as a result of this pandemic, and in addition to one or both of these AMC’s getting bought, I predict a lot more mergers and acquisitions soon.

Some of this will be bad for indies, and consumers, but when it comes to the situation in the world of theatrical, I can see some silver linings. The first reaction to any consolidation is negative, because it would mean Amazon (or some other conglomerate, but Amazon is the biggest one) would be swallowing another part of the world. But while I’m not usually an Amazon-apologist, I don’t think their taking over AMC Theaters would be half-bad, and it might even be good for both makers and consumers of film. Sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me.

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Innovation vs. Inertia

Posted on by in art, brands, crowdfunding, festivals, film, film art future | Comments Off on Innovation vs. Inertia

Innovation vs. Inertia. That’s the tug of war I’m feeling most during these crazy times. If you know me and read this newsletter, you can guess which one I prefer. I want to see more innovation coming out of this crisis. But while everyone says they’re innovating, I feel that inertia is winning out. It often does. It’s always easier to maintain the status quo, and during a time of crisis, just getting back to the status quo can seem like a big win.

I admit – it would be nice to go back to the world I was living in around early March. But in actuality, we’re learning that in early-March, we just thought we were living in the BC. In actuality, the virus was probably already in Europe as early as November, and in the US by January, if not earlier. Underneath the calm, we were already in the middle of the crisis. Inertia was killing us, and we didn’t even know it.

Likewise, the film business wasn’t all hunky-dory before this crisis hit. I don’t care what part of the film business you work in – if you are honest with yourself, I’m pretty sure you’d admit that the old system wasn’t working all that great. Whether you’re a filmmaker, or a festival programmer, a sales agent, a brand film marketer, or a studio mogul, the status quo hasn’t been great for awhile. Heck, even Netflix and Amazon were dealing with debt, competition, standing out in an attention economy and runaway costs. Wherever you sat in the film world BC, things were shaky. There’s a reason Netflix’s break-out show was called House of Cards. 

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