68
Brandon Sanderson's theory on why the film industry is floundering (YouTube Short)
(www.youtube.com)
Warning: If the community is empty, make sure you have "English" selected in your languages in your account settings.
A community focused on discussions on movies. Besides usual movie news, the following threads are welcome
Related communities:
Show communities:
Discussion communities:
RULES
Spoilers are strictly forbidden in post titles.
Posts soliciting spoilers (endings, plot elements, twists, etc.) should contain [spoilers] in their title. Comments in these posts do not need to be hidden in spoiler MarkDown if they pertain to the title’s subject matter.
Otherwise, spoilers but must be contained in MarkDown.
2024 discussion threads
I don’t disagree with him on the point that the old model has been broken but I think it’s more complex. I think it was Matt Damon that said steaming has hurt the creative side of the industry because dvd sales can’t make the budget back for risky project anymore. That’s not the full issue either though. Theater experience has been going down and there’s a billion other ways to get entertainment in a social way now. This all leads to studios desperate to keep the spice flowing to only back what they believe are sure returns on investment while simultaneously trying to cut costs by reducing or at least limiting the compensation to creatives. There aren’t as many risks getting taken and producers are reclaiming the power that had long been surrendered to directors and writers.
We’re almost back to the old studio system, if we ain’t already there
Another factor I’ve heard is that investment types and thinking have taken root in the film industry and established a baseline gross profit margin as an expectation compared to the past that was more happy to break even.
It makes sense because it’s also the story of the times I suspect, and there’s likely a lesson to be learnt that how we useful market dynamics can be some aspects of civilised life may be best left effectively non-profit.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all, that thinking has infected everything.
Yea. A basic heuristic I picked up a while ago was “was this better before the accountants got involved”. I got it from someone telling me their profession was clearly better before accountants ruined it.
I think it's always been a fight by producers to reign in the power. Right now there's a huge shakeup to the industry and almost no one has figured it out so the industry falls back on "safe" money tied up in producers and companies. If anything this shift should be better for independent creators as the Internet allows for more of a democratization of resources so it will probably swing back.
Also, I think this is probably a classic problem of confirmation bias, cause we have plenty of studios producing cheaper movies, A24 comes to mind. A lot of great directors and writers are taking risks on high-budget streaming series, people like Apple, Amazon, and HBO are throwing wads of cash at 1/2 season flops that are cool ideas, some of which hit big.
On top of that, we look back with rose-tinted glasses at the "glory days" of film when directors had more power than studios etc, but I would bet a lot that pound for pound the industry wasn't nearly as proportionately experimental as it is today. Maybe we're in a lull compared to recent years (maybe) but overall the trajectory is pretty steadily upwards.