Should I stay or should I go?
“You ain’t alive and kicking unless you’re fighting.” Joe Strummer
The title of this piece might have you thinking I’m debating whether to stay or leave the film biz, that’s not the case. I couldn’t be more all in on it. The recent post “My declaration of independence” from Rebecca Green at Dear Producer resonated 100%, it’s all about adapting.
“I have always figured it out, not by digging in my heels and refusing to evolve, but by meeting the moment where it is and adapting. Are we in unprecedented times? Perhaps. Is it the end of my career? Definitely not. Do I have to shape shift again? Absolutely.” Rebecca Green
So what does “should I stay or should I go” refer to? Well it’s me doing some thinking about what should our energies go towards? Do we work on correcting prior ways and structures of our industry or do we forge new directions that break new ground and rethink through the past structures and push through them rather than trying to mold ourselves to get a seat at the table? I could write a bunch about this and inevitably come to the conclusion that it’s really a hybrid. So let’s just get right to it and pick things up from there.
Taking a step back I journey through the rumblings and tumblings around us since the mid 2010s and find myself at a place now where I’m swimming in an ecosystem that has been shifting for a while and it’s never been more advantageous to go against the prevailing tides of old. Yes really. Did you know in Southern California there are 20-30 earthquakes daily with most of these too small to be felt? Also I didn’t know California is the 2nd (not 1st) seismically active state in the United States. Alaska take a bow. In a similar way to California, our film industry has probably had many small imperceptible quakes that happened I didn’t register prior to the first wave I noticed. Together those waves brought us to where we are today in 2024.
It starts with the #metoo movement in the wake of Harvey Weinstein. Many men fell soon after and it moved from sexual abuse to the other types of mental and verbal abuse that also existed in our industry. There was a new dawn where abuse was not going to be the status quo. You had to treat each other well and eventually we had to treat ourselves well too.
Then came the pandemic. From an industry perspective the biggest shake up was where you could work from. Remote working pushed us to see you didn’t have to be confined to LA and NYC to succeed. The barriers to entry changed. Geography mattered less. Sure getting a foot in the door probably helps to be in LA/NYC but I work with people across so many time zones. A quick detour. Maybe when mobile phone providers in the US started easily allowing people to keep their cell phone number when you moved between providers and states was a minor precursor. In the 90s/00s in LA you needed to have a 310 or 323 phone number to be “accepted”. 818 was a no no and 213 was tough. Same with New York, you’re not a true New Yorker if your cell phone didn’t start with 917. But things changed and other area codes started to populate my contacts list. You weren’t treated as an outsider if you didn’t have the right phone number. It’s the same now with where you live. Some folks work from Tahoe, Denver, Atlanta, Kansas City, Seattle, Oakland, Lake Arrowhead, Ojai, Santa Barbara, Ashville, upstate New York, Copenhagen, Mumbai, the list is long. It just makes sense to move out of the big city to more affordable and supportive communities. For the record I’m still in LA. My version is no longer traveling across town from east side to Venice everyday to an office. The other major factor of the pandemic is better consideration of work/life balance, not being in the office 9-7, reorganizing the work day/week to how you function best and not conforming to any rigid system that “the man” wants to control us with.
The third shift became clear in 2022 when with the Netflix Correction. The rot was building for a while but that moment was when the bus went off the cliff. Much has been written about this. I say this too often, if you’re not making a project in true crime, sports, celebrity or music (or better a combination of those verticels) then you’re competing for a very narrow slice of what these buyers and funders will pay for. Each year those streamers and distributors have like one slot each for that unicorn project, the one that says something AND can live comfortably on the balance sheets of these corporations without pissing off someone of note. The end of Fin-Syn and Paramount Decrees fed into this.
The fourth shift showed up in the 148 day WGA strike in 2023 together with the SAG 118 days of work stoppage. People had enough of the corporation and there has been in and around the strikes a clear shift where protections for the workers against the corps is prevalent. In the documentary space we’ve seen individual shops unionizing. The Producers Union formed, then Producers United took that lead and achieved measurable changes with the studios this month. The Documentary Producers Association has been researching how unionizing can protect folks in the doc space.
Basically in 2024 a lot of enough is enough is going around on so many different levels that mean change has to come. It’s in the hands of the creatives.
A little over 10 years ago in early 2010s spurred on by what was happening in the music industry some folks in the film side became aware and interested in how to create a direct relationship with the audience and bypass the gatekeepers. It was driven either because a project wasn’t getting through the gates to meet its audience or the projects that did get through weren’t valued enough or the gatekeepers just didn’t do a good enough job distributing. We had people like VHX to work with and even did something with Bittorrent. This was just before Netflix brought forth the streaming paradigm shift and once they did that entrepreneurial experiment faded away. A few filmmakers kept going and built healthy direct relationships with their fans and audience. People like Gary Hustwit did it and is now touring his highly successful film ENO without a traditional distributor on board. Prior to the 2010s there have been other eras of innovation brought on by circumstance. What I’m getting at is we’ve had cycles of the outsiders pushing up against the system before and we’re living through that moment now.
A lot of great thinking and action is happening across the film ecosystem and there’s a lot to be excited about. The future is bright. Jemma Desai has done a lot of great thinking for us. The Distribution Advocates are taking action and bringing funders to the table to support new distribution experiments. The DISCO Network are out there shining light where it was dim. There’s much more going on.
As you’ll read I’m an advocate for filmmaker-led direct distribution where we are in connection with the audience. It’s not the only thing to do but it is a key tool in your toolkit that you have to be doing something about. That’s a big thing to get our collective heads around. I’ll continue to link out to others who are shining examples.
While that big picture is happening there’s room for some micro-innovations and micro-experiments. I’m part of three completed films that are approaching this filmmaker-led direct distribution paradigm in their own ways. In one of the films I’m producing, TRUE BELIEVER, an evangelical filmmaker reckons with the ‘pro-life’ political identity she built her life on, and that threatens our very Democracy. We’re in the beginning of our festival and community screening phase and one of the things I’ve pushed for in this phase is to put our resources in publicity away from seeking traditional film coverage and reviews and instead to use those dollars towards grassroots awareness that translate into word of mouth and ticket sales at our events. We’re not the first to do this. It is nice though to feel intentional in not seeking reviews and film press that have little connection with the audience who at this phase will see the film. Those folks aren’t reading Variety, IndieWire and so forth. In fact our audience might be turned off by media like that.
Let me rewind a second here. Every film I’ve produced before this one I’ve hardcore chased film publicity. At the festival premiere we needed a good review the night after the screening to build momentum for sales. I constantly refreshed my google search terms needing to be the first to catch that review. It’s quite addicting. It’s also of course validating to get a good review, right? It was what the system trained me to look for. This can still be a good strategy for the right film but it’s not Plan-A for everyone. Basically I’m saying it’s a big deal for me to not be doing this.
Nothing against publicists, I’ve worked with many great folks. The two other films in release phase have publicists working an almost traditional approach with some slight twists that I’ll get to in the coming weeks.
Like a good filmmaker, I like a bookend and so before bringing this piece home, I’ll circle back to Rebecca Green’s piece I tagged at the beginning where she gives a nod to the journalism challenges we face in the film world right now. The lack of coverage in traditional media is very real. We need to look beyond.
“We have seen a loss of journalism in the independent space with little coverage of our films or our stories. It’s vital to the growth of the field that we spotlight the people making original and daring work and continue to challenge old systems that no longer serve us. I don’t believe there is one answer to fixing the existential issues independent film has always faced, as even the Hulk can’t crush capitalism. However, I do believe making space for smart and talented people to gather and share new ideas is the strongest support for challenging the Hollywood status quo and how important stories will continue to get told.” Rebecca Green
So back to TRUE BELIEVER. We haven’t hired a publicist and instead put the funds towards an impact producer with reach in the communities we want to engage with and we’re building the grassroots support and awareness directly. We partnered with an author on Substack who has a strong audience base and within 48 hours she gathered 350+ people for a sneak preview virtual screening of the film. As we continue on our approach we’ll learn and evolve. And you’ll find out here how it all goes! This is the micro-experiment we’re trying. Next week we have a virtual impact screening in the final legs of the US election. We’ve partnered with a trio of organizations to help promote. Come join. Tickets are here. If you know someone or an organization who would want to promote the screening with a rev-share affiliate link, let me know.
What are the micro-experiments you’re working on?
p.s. yeah I should probably link out to The Clash singing the title of this post 👋