The big news this week was that Britain is Investing £1.57 billion in the Arts (about $2-B USD), showing that even a dysfunctional government can figure out a way to save culture (wouldn't that be nice here?...). Boris Johnson announced major grants and loans (predominantly grants) "to protect Britain’s world-class cultural, arts and heritage institutions." Read about it from the UK gov’s website here.
But as the NYT reports, Germany is giving 1 Billion Euros, France is giving 5 Billion and even smaller countries like the Netherlands have given 600 million. Looking at this can make a US citizen cry because we'll never see something like this here. But here’s the thing – Britain’s investment came after a concerted effort, and was never a sure thing. From the NYT: “The British package was met with surprise by the country’s theater industry, which had been running a coordinated, celebrity-led campaign for weeks in a bid for support as theaters announced major layoffs.”
Over here in the US? We get Gal Gadot’s disastrous video of Imagine. Where’s our movement to save the arts? Pretty much nowhere to be found. Jesse Green, again at the NYT, wrote a scathing piece about the lack of activism by the American Theater world, saying its leaders have been clueless and absent, adding: "But the American theater’s biggest failure is the one that renders it helpless in an existential crisis like this. In allowing itself to be cast as just another industry — a role it does not even play very well — it has disowned its true identity as a public entitlement." But he should be calling out the entire field of the arts. In America, there hasn't been any real/concerted effort to galvanize the public to support the arts. In fact, most arts leaders gave up, before even trying.
I know, I know – other countries have always supported the arts better than we do in the US. But crazy times call for crazy ideas, and gathering together ALL the arts and coupling them with a push by not just film celebrities, but also musicians, theater actors, artists of all types - and personalities, TikTok stars (and on and on) and making a concerted effort to save culture in America is needed. Because otherwise, we’re in trouble. The NYT piece above does a good job of laying out the disaster facing theater. But IndieWire has shown the impact on film creatives, with at least 70% unemployed. And also the impact on creatives of color. I'm sure every sector has similar surveys, but perhaps the most comprehensive is Americans For the Arts who has a survey that estimates over a $8.4 Billion in losses to the entire arts sector! And we all know it’s only going to get worse.
 No, I don’t expect much from this dumpster fire of an administration, but that doesn’t mean we give up. The National Independent Venue Association is working with legislators to support independent stages (like City Winery, who emailed me about it). The American Association of Museums has an advocacy guide for that sector. Americans for the Arts is also doing field-advocacy. Film folks are pushing our need for insurance with Congress (PRIA). These are just a few efforts, but there’s no real coordinated field-wide push for arts support that is gaining anything near the traction that Britain’s movement tried – and they succeeded, much to their surprise.
I don’t have time to lead this effort – as the Ankler says – I point out the problems and possible solutions, but I’d join the cause if someone starts putting it together. I hope someone does, too. Sure, Netflix will survive, and people can create cool stuff on TikTok all day (until the US bans it). But our culture is more than Hollywood and UGC. Don’t get me wrong, those are part of it, but we need to save ALL of it. And that will likely only come from collaboration across all sectors, and with amplification from lots of people. Yes, it should also address inequity, and all the other things we’re talking about too. But the Covid-19 crisis has also shown us how much culture matters. It’s one of the few positive things to help us pull through the crisis, in fact. We crave it so much that we’ll watch streams of dancers, or actors, or anything on Zoom. So let’s get a movement started to save the sector, and just maybe something will come of it.
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TikTok users propel Gasper Noe's Love (2015) to Top of Netflix - without doing much more than watching the first ten seconds. Variety reports, and you can watch the reactions on TikTok here. Does anything else exist online right now other than TikTok? Well, leading European film marketer Gruvi is noticing that TikTok ads are working better for films than Instagram Stories now - check out their data here. What's crazy is, from what I can tell, the only arthouse distributor with any presence on TikTok is (of course) A24 - the #a24 has almost 50M views, and it's mainly fans contributing UGC about their films, showing they've built a brand people love, too. Where's everyone else?
This is kinda film news, but it speaks to a larger cultural change, so I'm putting it in the "misc" section because it applies to multiple art forms.
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The Documentary Future, a call for Accountability - Sonya Childress and Natalie Bullock Brown have written a great piece calling for a new movement in the doc community, focused on changing practices to be more accountable. From the piece: “Recently, a group of documentary professionals have come together to accelerate a shift in nonfiction film, where accountability practices are integrated into the work of all stakeholders - the artists, protagonists, funders, festival curators, critics and programmers, etc; where ethics are not sacrificed for expediency, commercial viability or entertainment.” You can read the entire piece over at Documentary mag, and you should. And you can find tools for spreading the word here.
How can Distributors, Exhibitors and VOD Platforms Work Together to Grow Their Audiences? By using data more smartly, is pretty much the summary of this Gruvi presentation at Cannes, now available on their website and for download. I recommend watching the video and downloading the materials, as they did a great job of showing how to use audience data in a smart way to push transactions, and in the group discussion they float many successful marketing strategies, as well as the need for a neutral third party data gatherer/provider to increase revenue for everyone. I couldn't agree more.
Film-Loving France fears the loss of a generation to coronavirus - Its not just the United States, but all over the world: It's particularly the young actors who have yet to establish themselves," according to Nicolas Naegelen. "The same is true of technicians. Those who are just coming out of film school and who will be looking for work after the vacation period are in for a very, very tough time."
What's the Future Of Storytelling?: Alex Stolz has Eight Lessons from his recent online conference in this LinkedIn article, here. And you can watch the videos for free - they are the real deal.
The NYT Asked Four Documentarians How Does Film Shape the Fight for Racial Justice - Ava DuVernay, Stanley Nelson, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis have all made movies that help explain our nation’s current efforts to face hundreds of years of inequity. Here’s what they said.
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Want to Speak Out Like Ben & Jerry's? Here's how to Earn It: Adam Fetcher runs another great piece, this time in FastCo, about how brands can move to making real impact - in their business, in their messaging and films, and... for real.
The FB Boycott is only a Stunt if it Fails: Joy Howard of Dashlane pens another great piece about why the #StopHateForProfit campaign is so important.
Vox Media's branded content play during lock down - Since Covid most places have been downsizing their content departments, but not VOX. Vox has invested in their creators and it has paid off in millions of views.
Disney Media Networks Strikes Product Reveal Branded Content Deal with Ford Motor - and they have Jimmy Chin (Free Solo) signed to direct three shorts that will coincide with the release of the new Ford Bronco
Why Retail Businesses Need more Motion Content Than Ever - Here's why:
1. As of 2019, up to 87% of businesses were using some form of motion content to promote their services. The positive return of investment for visual marketing is reported to be successful for 83% of businesses that use video content, which is up from 78% reported in 2018.
2. Motion content lasts in the memory.
3. People love to share videos.
4. Audiences are growing
5. Motion content adds kudos
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Pokemon Go' and 'Sleep No More' Creators are Teaming Up on AR - (From Wired) Very exciting collaboration. This could be the measuring stick of how immersive AR can become, because it's quite a team.
Why China's Race for AI Dominance Depends on Math - National Interest covers. In the 50s, to compete with Russia, the United States accelerated and fortified the education system to get more students equipped in math and science, so we can build better nuclear weapons and go to the moon. Today, we look for any reason to send students back home if they're not American, and then we have the complete gutting of public education and the simultaneous rise in student debt. And very little STEM innovation. So China's beating us at AI because they teach math, which is the basis of a lot of AI. Bottom line. We need to retool our crumbling education system.
Facebook is out of control. If it were a country it would be North Korea - OpEd from Carole Cadwalladr writing for the Guardian about how outrageous Facebook has been acting and how much control and influence it currently has over the world. Meanwhile, Bob Lefsetz points out that broadcasters used to do anything to appease advertisers, but not the FB - they are too big to care.
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