Jan 20, 2021
The money is falling from the sky like rain these days, and if you aren’t catching it (with your idea), you need a new one.
Yesterday, the folks at A16Z poured $6.8MM into FilmHub. Good for them, but if you read the Deadline story it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. You could substitute FilmHub’s name in the release for any aggregator in the business, especially ones with their own dashboards such as Quiver, and every word would remain true. Seriously – do this, and every time you see FilmHub, replace it with Quiver, or FilmBuff, or Vimeo, or VHX, or… you’ll get the point. And that was a business model that had pretty much peaked around 2015. Not to be too hard on the folks, but doesn’t A16Z use some of their billions to vet the projects that come through and make sure we aren’t just talking about the same old idea in a new wrapper?
But that’s not the only déjà vu funding that’s happened lately. Every time I turn around, I trip over some new company that is revolutionizing film for the creator economy. You know, like the aforementioned did seven+ years ago, before they realized there was no financial, or creative, riches there, and switched to “enterprise solutions" (see Vimeo again). We’ll see a lot more of this before we see the end of it, which won’t be pretty. While there are exceptions, most of the crypto/blockchain/NFT solutions I see for film are either outright scams, or a rehash of things we tried in the early aughts, and could still accomplish without any chains. All of the current Meta ideas were a not-necessarily-fun distraction called Second Life, which has settled into about a million users (about the same number as those who still get discs from Netflix, which includes me…Mister cutting edge).
And of course in “content” land, you have a shit-ton of money going into a handful of companies buying up every production company with a name attached (see Hello Sunshine), or ready to drop major coin at Sundance for a lot of titles that few will hear of again outside of the arthouse bubble (which is contracting quite rapidly), or is busy merging two foreign, auteur-driven engines to make a bigger machine (you know, because those titles make so much money). I could go on and on, but I’ve got a virtual Sundance to attend (it starts today).
The dirty secret behind most of these deals is that they are always saving an idea that wasn’t working before it dies. Lucky place to be, of course. But the reason we need mega mergers in the film and streaming world is because nothing short of aggregation seems to be working. There’s a guess going on that 1+1=3, but the math is more likely 1+1=…less than zero (<0).
Distributors will spend a ton of money on new films because they just had two years of less new, quality stuff to put out, and too few theaters to put them in. But they are pre-supposing that the avoidance of theaters will change, and we’ll all rush to them. This ignores the fact that we have Billions invested in new series and shows that are enticing consumers/audiences to just stay home. 1+1= <0. Equity investors are being told to invest in these films, even though that game ended as the streamers switched to originals and commissions. 1+1=<0. Everyone betting on the creator economy is forgetting that this always leads to a few successes from those with a huge fan base (the stars, even newly minted ones), and a long-tail of minor catastrophes, which entice someone to aggregate them all together, until they re-read Anita Elberse (from 2008!) and realize the long-tail also is 1+1+1+1= <0.
Well, that’s some depressing shit to think about. But don’t. Because the money is falling like rain and you’d better put all the fears aside and catch some. Rain doesn’t last forever, and it tends to pool and then dissipate. Take advantage now, however, and just maybe you’ll end up on a cloudless beach in the future.
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Film
Mubi Buys MatchFactory in Major Arthouse/Foreign Deal: Long-time auteur SVOD Mubi, actually once called The Auteurs, has bought the international powerhouse sales agency and production company The Match Factory, in a deal that could be one of the smarter pairings in the arthouse sector, if done right. Screen International has the story. I've been predicting more M&A activity in the arthouse space, and am pleasantly surprised to see it kicked off by Mubi. My reservations mentioned in the main piece above aside, this is the only path forward in this space. (BN)
Public Media at a Precipice: A Call for Commitment to Transformative Change: Donald Young, Director of Programs at Center for Asian American Media and public television veteran writes a piece for the IDA's Documentary Magazine where he calls upon public media leadership to self-investigate and consider its structural flaws so as to responsibly and effectively engage with societal issues. And what “if public media cannot confront openly the challenges it has to better serve society at-large, can it stay relevant, lead in meaningful ways, and truly succeed in the future?” he asks. And perhaps more importantly, “might the inability to envision a different future be limiting [leaders in public media] from garnering more federal, corporate and philanthropic support that we’ve never seen before?” (GSH)
Color Congress, a National Collective, Launches, Announces Funding and Support for POC-Led and Supporting Documentary Organizations: The Color Congress, launched days before Sundance 2022, is a national collective of POC-led organizations committed to nonfiction storytelling by, for and about people of color. Their website informs us that they “aim to support [POC-led documentary-serving] organizations with the smallest budgets that have not benefited from national funding, but which offer critical support to the documentary field and to their communities.” Scott Macaulay for Filmmaker magazine brings us the news. (GSH)
The film changing how we see the internet: Tired of hearing how the internet and social media are corrupting our lives and hurtling us toward dystopia? Then go check out Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda’s animated film, Belle, released in the U.S on Jan 14. A modern/digital retelling of The Beauty and the Beast, Belle presents a utopian vision of the internet. Hosada’s optimism surrounding the digital age extend beyond this film, explains BBC contributor Kambole Campbell: the “motif of children seeking guidance and refuge in fantastical digital realms is perhaps the most striking element of his work – even in his films that don't explicitly deal with the internet like Mirai, where the young protagonist's family tree is presented as a sort of traversable web space.” Give Campbell’s piece a read for a comparative analysis of Hosada’s filmography, for the director’s thoughts on child development in the digital age, and for some beautiful stills pulled from Belle. (GSH)
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Branded Content
 London Department Store to Stage Massive Victor Vasarely Exhibition with Metaverse Twist: In a somewhat novel form of branded content, Selfridges, a London department store partnered with fashion brand Paco Rabnanne and Fondation Vasarely to put on “Universe”, an exhibition that brings technology, art and fashion together. From now ‘till March 31, the dept. store will display the work of Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) alongside a collection of Paco Rabanne’s Vasarely-inspired NFTs. Furthermore, shoppers can interact with Vasarely’s work in a VR environment, an appropriate setting considering his work is riddled with optical illusions. Give Shanti Escalante-de Mattei’s piece on ArtNews a read for a brief history of the French-Hungarian artist and for details about the exhibition. (GSH)
DCM makes move into branded content with new offering: Digital Cinema (DCM), a cinema advertising company is using movie theaters in a new way to connect brands with consumers. Charlotte Rawlings for Campaign explains that their new arm, DCM Studios Presents, “will allow brands to make three-to four-minute films that will appear [on the big screen] before trailers.” Her takeaway: Brands going through DCM will be able to prioritize storytelling and get more cinematic with their ads. (GSH)
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Miscellany:
Talking Point: What Could NFTs Mean For Gaming, And Why Are They So Divisive? The emergence of NFTs have sparked incredible debate in diverse communities, from environmentalists to economists. The gaming community, in particular, has a lot to say. NintendoLife contributor, Thomas Whitehead unpacks what this complicated debate means for gamers through interviews with experts in the field: On the one hand, and as former game journalist Kenneth Barnes puts it, NFTs allow for “ownership and the transferability of content… [and] could lead to entire new career paths being forged.” The presence of NFTs in games opens up an economy that transcends the game itself. But on the other hand, “the crypto community has demonstrated it's more interested in profit than providing any useful service or improvements and to see this mindset turned towards video games makes me fearful that my peers, both gamers and developers, will be taken advantage of'' (Tim Dawson, Witch Bean Games). Where experts on the for and against sides can agree is that “the lack of regulation… has led to the emergence of scams and abusive practices as individuals and companies try to cash in.” If you’re interested in learning more about the gamer perspective, check out a relatively digestible New York Times piece called Crypto Enthusiasts Meet Their Match: Angry Gamers. The bottom line is that gamers tend to feel taken advantage of by the emerging crypto practices in the games they cherish most. (GSH)
Steven Soderbergh Doesn’t Believe In VR Movies, Cites “Huge Technical Obstacles”: American filmmaker Steven Soderbergh doesn’t see VR movies working for long-form narrative. Why? He has a few compelling points: (1) “The inability to show the face of the protagonist in a VR space…There’s no POV and reverse angle on a character who’s experiencing this is hugely limiting. That is how we engage with visual stories, is to watch the expressions of the characters so that we can read the emotions of what we’re experiencing.” (2) No one will want to wear a headset for 2+ hours. (3) Movie watching tends to be a social experience. Does VR eliminate those couch conversations? Matt Kim for IGN has the story. (GSH)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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