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.