February 10, 2022
The Oscar nominations were just announced early Tuesday morning, and opinions started flying about the choices from both inside and outside of the industry. Ok, let’s be honest - everyone outside of the industry just slept through it all (like Benedict Cumberbatch, apparently), because… who has seen any of these films? Most people seemed to feel, like Jimmy Kimmel, that maybe 12 people had watched these things.
But while I agree that we need more popular films in the mix, I believe the collective yawn is due more to the fact that these films are getting lost in a sea of content, and it’s damned near impossible to find the films even if you wanted to see them. Just imagine the mental cost of your lost time as you try to find all of the movies within a sea of crap you don’t even want to watch. Or maybe it’s wading through the stuff you want to watch for the crap the Academy’s telling you to watch (for most people).
I was emailing with a friend about all of this yesterday… and we’ve both seen and loved a lot (most?) of these films – and I decided to pretend for a second that you actually wanted to see all of these movies before the Oscars. How hard would that be?
Well, this isn’t scientific, but from my calculations, using Indiewire's list of where to find all of the Academy nominated 37 feature films (not counting any shorts), you'd need to do the following in order to see them all before the show:
- Subscribe to a minimum of 6 streaming services for at least one month;
- Plus add HBO Max for 7 total, OR you can pay for their 4 nominated movies and skip that service (but it might be the only one worth having);
- Rent at least 5 movies online, most of which are PVOD (average $20) or 6 if you can't get to the movie theater (and make that 10 if you skip HBO);
- See at least 7 of them in theaters only, but some are NY/LA only for the near future, so you may have to travel far if you don’t live there already;
This is already crazy making, before you start to look at the costs. The cost isn’t the point here, but just for shits and giggles, you’d end up paying anywhere between $238 and close to a Thousand bucks to see all of these, depending on whether you cancel all the subscriptions after a month and skip HBO Max, or if you had to pay for movie tickets in NYC and kept all of your subscriptions.
But no one in their right mind would think of doing any of this...
That’s because the Oscars are broken, windows are broken, and the way the entire industry is set up is broken because it’s predicated on what works for a particular distributor (either getting a license fee or trying to get/keep a subscriber), but no one is thinking about how do we actually get any average movie lover to see these movies.
We’ve lost the audience – which will become clear when we get the ratings for this debacle. Of course, if you happen to be an Oscar voter, you can just watch them from the convenience of your home for free – which is why no one involved in this crap understands what a nightmare this is for everyone else – because the industry doesn’t watch the movies like anyone else does. If they did, or if they really cared about the future of the movies, they’d go one step further than Michael Shamberg’s prescription in The Ankler to mandate that every movie be available for streaming in advance of the Oscars – they’d mandate that they be available at a low-cost rental in one location – maybe try Oscars.org because there’s nothing else to see there - before moving to their respective services.
I’d go a step further and make a deal directly with sponsors to make the films available completely for free maybe (for the cost of an email address) to the public via a major sponsor or two, and have a category that’s completely voted upon by the average viewer, just to add some excitement into this thing. But hell, I’d settle for anything less than the seven services and multiple trips to a theater that I’d need now.
Look, I have a few friends with films that have been nominated, and I’m happy for them. And I’m friendly with Will Packer who is producing the show (hell, we both went to the same high school, so I want him to succeed here), and lord knows, he may be the only producer on the planet who knows how to attract a wide, diverse audience, so I also wish him well. But this whole windowing and streaming exclusivity situation is not helping save the movies for anyone, nor is it helping to “fix” the Oscars. Pretty soon, we’re gonna have an award show that’s only watched by the nominees and their mothers. If that isn’t the case already. Someone should make a movie about a comet coming to wipe out the Oscars, so maybe the Academy will wake up and make some changes.
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Film
Why Netflix (and others) Will Falter: Ted Gioia argues in his Honest Broker newsletter that Netflix and other major streamers will falter due to their exclusivity/originals strategy. His argument is that all closed systems end up being beaten by more open ones, using examples from ATM machines to VHS vs, Beta, but it also boils down to the plain stupidity of needing to subscribe to so many damned services to watch less and less of what you really like. I think it will take longer than he thinks, but agree with the underlying premise, as should be evident from my main article above. (BN, h/t Redef)
Black representation in film, TV still needed behind the scenes: While “networks and production studios [are] paying a lot more attention… to front-facing representation… the behind-the-scenes representation has always lagged behind”, explains ASU film professor Aveva Dove-Viebahn in an interview. ASU news’ Scott Bordow shows us the numbers. While Black actors comprise 12.9% of leading roles in cable shows — which proportionately reflects the overall Black population of 13.4% — only 6% of writers, directors, and producers of U.S films are Black. Another central point she makes is that directors and producers must be careful about whether they’re normalizing Black tokenization rather than representation. (GSH)
The Jihad Rehab Debacle Continues at Sundance, with Resignations: This new news from the ongoing Jihad Rehab debacle hit as I was finalizing the newsletter. Eric Kohn of IndieWire reports on the resignations of two important staff members from Sundance in the wake of the decision to program the film. Knowing the two who resigned, I'm sad to see them go, but not surprised. Eric's article links to the back-story if you haven't been following it here. See also this piece from Anthony Kaufman, and this one from Farihah Zaman. From what I've heard on the virtual streets, there's a lot more news coming related to this story, so stay tuned. (BN)
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Branded Content
New Purpose Podcast : Saville Productions (the producer behind films like 5B and Own the Room, among others) has launched the new Purpose Podcast. His first guest is quite a get - S4 Capital Founder, Sir Martin Sorrell. You can listen to the episode at this link, or on Spotify, iTunes, and Stitcher. Rupert and Sir Martin chat about the digital media landscape, the importance of agility in advertising, and the key to successful brand purpose. (BN)
What’s Next For Roblox Brand Partnerships In The Metaverse: Roblox, the gaming platform and creation system has been an incredible entry point for brands looking to enter the metaverse. Brands seeking to reach younger audiences (namely Gen Zers) are flocking to Roblox. Ralph Lauren started their Roblox experience by launching Bitmoji wear on Snapchat and a fashion line on Zepeto. Later, and following in Nike’s footsteps with Nikeland, they developed the Ralph Lauren Winter Escape, “a ski mountain and chalet themed world…[where players can ice skate and drink hot chocolate and] buy Ralph Lauren items for their avatar. Reaching younger crowds hasn’t been an issue for brands making moves through Roblox. The challenge will be getting slightly older customers (ages 17+) engaged in these virtual worlds. While the open-world building aspect that Roblox offers is it’s greatest strength, it also presents challenges: “That same freedom to allow brands to interact with customers in a new way, also means that bad actors can erect sex clubs and create pole-dancing avatars… players can simulate lewd acts and remove their avatar’s clothing.” While these violate Roblox guidelines, they certainly threaten brand and customer safety. Give Erika Wheless’ piece for Adage a read for the latest on what brands are doing with Roblox, and learn how a few brands’ metaversal activity has shaped their behavior IRL. (GSH)
How Advertisers Are Approaching A Difficult Olympics: This is a rough Winter Olympics for advertisers. It’s coinciding with the Super Bowl, it’s taking place just a few months after the Tokyo Olympics (because it was delayed by the Pandemic), and most importantly, brands must navigate geopolitics. “To go to Beijing, to support the games financially, is an endorsement [of the Chinese government and of their treatment of Uyghur people]”, explains Teng Biao, a human rights lawyer. Most brands, including Coca-Cola, have remained silent on the issue (though they are forgoing a global campaign). Participating brand sponsors are expected to stay silent for the most part, with most focusing on individual athletes and their backstories, though their silence certainly doesn’t go unheard. Jade Yan for Adage brings us the news. (GSH)
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Miscellany:
Xbox Marks Black History Month By Celebrating Black Game Designers And Content Creators: Xbox was a little slow to honor Black history month (they began Black history month programming for the first time in 2020), though this time around it seems like they’re putting in some effort. Here’s some of what they’re up to: (1) Xbox is featuring black content creators on their Twitch channel; (2) Minecraft and “Minecraft: Education Edition are now offering… "a collection of eight interactive Minecraft worlds and lessons on social movements throughout history including the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter as well as lessons about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the origins of Juneteenth’"; (3) Age of Empires, another Xbox game “has updated its site with information on Black figures in American history, including Peter Salem, Crisps Attucks, and Harriet Tubman”; and (4) are hosting a presentation which features “a diverse group of game developers at Xbox Studios'' including a senior program manager, a software engineer and a marketing manager. Sean Murray for TheGamer brings us the news. (GSH)
An Unsung Hero of Gaming History Deserves a Higher Profile: Wired contributor Alex Miller brings us the story of Jerry Lawson, a Black genius, inventor, and unsung hero of the videogame world who’s been left out of the history books. If you grew up on cartridge games like Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, or Madden NFL, you have Lawson to thank, though only White creators were credited for his work. Check out this important read on Jerry Lawson’s life-story and path to revolutionizing the videogame industry, and if you’re really interested, there’s a podcast about it too! (GSH)
Meta’s AR/VR business is a deepening money pit: Reality Labs, Meta’s (Facebook’s) Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality research and development division isn't looking so hot these days. The lab lost over $10 billion in 2021 namely due to operating expenses and employee-related costs. What’s more, experts believe Reality Labs will hit over $100 billion in cumulative losses over the next 5 years. Media analyst Michael Nathanson “believe[s] the market will reward Facebook’s stock if management can prove that Facebook Reality Labs is not value destructive or change course to moderate these losses.” Though it’s not looking great yet — Meta’s stock fell a whopping 25%, probably due to the Reality Labs losses in Q4. The quick takeaway: For now, Reality Labs will be a huge money sink. Fierce Videos’ Ben Munson has the news. (GSH)
GSH = Articles written by Sub-Genre's Gabriel Schillinger-Hyman, not Brian Newman (BN)
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