As we come to the end of 2020, I join the legions of writers taking stock of all we’ve learned in this crazy year. Mainly, we’ve learned that the Republican-led agenda of killing the State in service of “liberty” (read: tax/regulation-free, reckless abandon) has more than succeeded. But now that we have Joe, will we enter a new era, as if waking from a fugue state, and find everything back to normal? Nope, the world has changed. But leaving that raging, racist, burning orange dumpster fire we call American democracy in 2020 aside, let's take a look at some of what we've learned in the film and media world.
Déjà Vu
At the beginning of all of this, I had a hunch that to understand 2020, we ‘d have to look back to 1918, and I’m now even more sure that’s true. As the film world entered 1918, pre-flu, the film world was ordered one way, and when looking towards its future, there were multiple possible roads ahead. But by the end of 1918, the flu had acted as a world-changer and all of those possibilities were subsumed into one main path – the Hollywood Studio system.
It was a once in a lifetime kind of reordering of the world, and we’re in one of those moments again. Everyone knew that we were moving towards a world where movies would go direct to the home, and where theaters would be less important. Everyone also knew that the streamers were becoming the new Studio system. We all knew that no one in the business was addressing systemic racism and exclusion and that a reckoning would someday come. We had a hunch that maybe a lot of things we take for granted in the film world would be exposed as a fraud someday, but Covid-19 was the great accelerator of many trends that were already in motion.
Ripping Band-Aids
That’s what we did with windows in 2020. As I wrote here on Feb. 28th (!), the virus led to “an irreversible impact on film windowing practices.” People will talk about this one for another whole year, but the conversation is over. Sure, there will be negotiations over who gets paid for what, and there will be more griping and gnashing of teeth. But let’s face it – those fighting this change are like the climate-deniers on the right with their heads buried in the sand, which will soon swallow their bodies. If they would just stop fighting reality, we could have a meaningful debate about what path we might take towards the future. But if you keep denying reality for too long, it will be too late for you to become part of the solution, because everyone will be light years ahead of you.
This is the case with the windowers, aka the streaming-deniers. AMC and Cineworld will spend the next year raising billions to cover their debt, and to rage against the machine. By the time they wake up and realize they could have spent that money joining forces, consolidating their footprint, modernizing their offerings and maybe investing in their natural allies (like Christopher Nolan) who value the theatrical experience, it will be too late. Come 2021, cinephiles could have been subscribed to AMC+, hopping between their home theater and the actual cinema at will, but instead we’ll gussy up a few times a year (read, putting on the new sweatpants) and head to the cinema for the latest opera blockbuster a few weeks after it premieres on Disney+. Of course, that cinema might also be owned by Disney, AT&T or Netflix by that time, and then we will hop back and forth at will, and wonder what people were arguing about way back when (...dows).
The better arthouses – those who have been members of the AHC are shining examples – will come out of this just fine; but let’s face it, they’ve been serving the opera audience for quite some time, and as much as I love them, they too could take this trial by fire as an opportunity to “phoenix” – and make radical changes to leverage their curatorial power and street cred to make something entirely new – where they own the future instead of just participating in it. Now that the band-aid has been ripped off – maybe we can stop debating it and build that future?
Who’s Your Daddy?
We figured that out this year, too. And the answer is – the streamers stock market. If the market wants streaming, that’s what it will get. As far as the streamers are concerned, all of their films and shows are just so much branded content, designed to increase subscriber counts, decrease churn and push up their share prices to keep activist investors off their backs.
Jason Kilar can talk about the fans being their focus all day – and I actually agree with him that anyone who doesn’t think about their consumer first is toast – but let’s be honest, his smashing of windows had much more to do with helping AT&T’s stock price after a disastrous merger with Time-Warner (thus far) than it did with fans.
But the reality is, we’ve entered a new era where (once again) a few major conglomerates own the market, dictate the terms and own the entire value chain of the movies (and shows). And dictate they will, as we learned this week in the NYT - if the Boss don't like what you're making, it won't see the light of day. That's a problem, as my friend Ted Hope (who knows well of what he speaks here) pointed out in the tweet-thread on the right.
But wait, there's more. As I mentioned last week (which caused quite a stir), the streamers aren’t very interested in indie or arthouse cinema anymore, and an entire ecosystem we’ve built around how we make , distribute and watch this cinema has been exposed as a house of cards (pun intended). All the hullabaloo these past few weeks has been more about what this shift means for folks like Christopher Nolan and Denzel Washington, but its impact on indies is inversely proportional to the amount of press this topic has received (none; huge). Oh, and by the way, that lack of press is because they’re all owned by a handful of companies as well.
Keep On The Sunny Side
But don’t let me get you down; nope, remember these lyrics?
The storm and its fury broke today
Crushing hopes that we cherish so dear
The clouds and storms will, in time, pass away
The sun again will shine bright and clear.
There are three reasons I’m pretty damned bullish on the future (really, I am an optimist). First, there are more places in need of content than ever before. It’s a great time to be a creator, so long as you focus on the future and not the past. You have to embrace some new models, and maybe work for some new patrons, but there’s a there, there. Second, all of those places – and the old/traditional ones – are finally waking up to the systemic racism and lack of inclusion in the space, and it’s being addressed. No, things aren’t perfect yet, but the conversations this time feel genuinely different. I’m convinced we’ll finally start seeing a film/content world that looks more like the real world, and that keeps improving. That's one of the best things that happened - albeit by way of tragedy - this year.
But that’s not all. Thinking back to the end of 1918, one other thing happened that was pretty important – Mary Pickford, recovering from the flu but quite possibly still feeling feverish, got pissed off at how the changes to the film system were impacting her income. Working with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith (yes, he's a problematic one), as well as William Hart who soon dropped out of the venture, she helped found United Artists in early 1919. And while the story is more nuanced, you could say it came down to established artists saying, hey, wait a minute – we bring the fans, we make the art, why can’t we control our destinies, including how our films get distributed and seen? (I recommend reading Gaylyn Studlar’s summary of this here).
Mind you, this wasn’t a rebellion from outside – the founders were some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and they were doing pretty fine playing within the system. They were part of the establishment. But they didn’t want the suits to own it all, so they rebelled. The equivalent today would be kinda like Ava Duvernay, Michael B Jordan, Viola Davis, Kevin Hart, and let’s say, Christopher Nolan (since he’s pissed off right now), all getting together and starting their own vertically integrated company that also helped other indie auteurs and artists to bypass the system (I know, I know, take your pick of some other names, I was in a rush here).
Now, not everything worked out with United Artists, and I don’t think the UA of today will look much like the one from 1919, but it doesn’t take much imagination to dream up a united group of artists (probably with some technologists) who could build us the future we deserve. And fantasizing about that is what will keep me joyful as we hurtle towards the New Year. That, and the promise of these vaccines, of course.
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Film
The Film Festival Database Needs a New Home: For the past couple of years, I've used one website/resource perhaps more than any other - the Film Festival Database, an almost completely volunteer effort by a filmmaker to create and maintain a simple resource that helps you find American film festivals by date/calendar, type, and location/map. Believe it or not, you can't find most of this info in one place anywhere else. Not even on the main platform for fest submissions- Film Freeway. I would send links to this database to indie filmmakers and to brand clients almost every week, and we used it in my office constantly when we're helping clients with their festival planning. It's also useful for those running film fests- that's one of the reasons Michael Forstein created it, as he was asked to help start a festival and he didn't want to overlap with any friendly competitors. But in a recent newsletter, he announced that he can no longer donate his time to maintaining this database, and he's essentially saying - someone, please, anyone, take up this database and keep it going. I can think of more than one nonprofit that says they support filmmakers, and more than one for-profit that makes money from them, that could do worse than taking this on as a program. In fact, I'd argue that it's been a project that should shame a few organizations for not having taken it under their wings earlier. I don't have the capacity or talents to run it, but someone should make a deal to take it over, modernize it, expand it internationally, and keep it going.
How to make sustainable (Green) Indie Films: GreenBiz takes a look at the recent film Black Bear by Tandem Pictures and its efforts to make a sustainable production. Short summary - it's do-able, but you have to plan for it. Producer Julie Christeas (a friend) explains how the crew went above and beyond the Green Production Guide's protocols, and what it meant for a tiny indie crew, and budget. A good summary on what both indie and Hollywood is doing on the path towards going green.
Disney Finally Unveiled Disney+: The Verge reports on the big reveal at the Disney show, where they finally unveiled a future where every week brings a new major launch on Disney+ of a Star Wars or Marvel level movie or spinoff. That, and a Disney+ where there's so much on offer that they didn't even mention half of what's coming soon (I would bet), yet still filled up a four-hour presentation that looked like one long action-movie (as one movie-friend quipped). Sure, it was a lot of sequels, but them's bring the eyeballs.
Lefsetz on WarnerMax - You should really be reading Lefsetz weekly - he publishes almost daily, and while a lot of his reports are on music, a fair bit overlap with film and/or are directly about it - and this week, he gave his take on the WB/Max controversies. Predictably, he tells everyone to get their heads out of the sand and get with the program, but it's worth the long-read.
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Miscellany:
Controversial Copyright Shenanigans in Congress - TorrentFreak reports that a couple of very controversial copyright laws are being added to the "must-pass" spending bill in Congress. One regards the CASE act, which sets up a small-claims court for copyright violations - which could lead to frivolous lawsuits against ordinary internet users, and the second sets up major financial penalties for streaming piracy, making it a felony instead of a misdemeanor. You can be against piracy and still see that these would be overreaching, and are also punishing consumers for faults in the business model (ones that are of course getting worse in our exclusive "original content" environment). Regardless, they shouldn't be rushed or added to must-pass legislation without a debate. You can take action on this via the EFF here.
The Real Reason Local Newspapers are Dying - It's not the net, and it's not private equity either, argues Allison Hantschel in an interview with the great SubStack newsletter Men Yell at Me. Hantschel argues that they were doing just fine killing themselves for quite some time, which jibes with my memory of what was happening to local news back in the 90s. Most of what she says applies to the movie world today - especially cinemas, especially her best quote: "Never ascribe to malice what stupidity will adequately explain." (h/t Redef)
FCC Gives $9Billion to Subsidize Broadband for the Rich, claims it's for Rural poor - You may have seen numerous reports this past week (like this one) that the FCC had awarded $9-Billion to companies like SpaceX to bring high-speed internet to the disconnected in rural areas - but don't believe the hype. FreePress (among others) dug into the announcement and found out that most of this money is going to subsidize broadband where it isn't needed (parking lots outside the Pentagon), and in rich areas that don't need the help. Meanwhile, plenty of disconnected folks are gathering in parking lots - in both urban areas and rural - that do need support, so let's hope we get some change at the FCC under Biden, and that it isn't blocked by the Right. And can we get some real journalism on this subject, please?!
60+ Interactive Art Things - interactive media pioneer, and head of the Columbia Digital Story Lab (DSL) Lance Weiler makes a list every year of exciting "Immersive things that mix storytelling, performance, play, design & code." This year's list is 60+ items long, and all of them look awesome. My personal fave is a simple one - the NYT's "close read" of the famous Thomas Eakin's painting The Gross Clinic, but check them all out.
Social Status Anxiety is Killing Us: Thomas Edsall writes a NYT Op-Ed piece that I think best explains the problems we're having in the US and around the world with folks supporting right-wing extremism and magical thinking (aka Q, and other conspiracy theories). It all boils down to class/status resentment, not from those on the lowest rungs, but those afraid they'll end up there and/or those taking advantage of that fear.
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