I deeply appreciate this article. I suppose you could call me an aspiring creator of motion picture content. I have many ideas I hope to have the opportunity to pursue. Currently I’m working on a project that looks like it might get funded-I’ll let youknow if it does-which I hope to leverage into future opportunities.
I have no interest in saving Hollywood, per se. What I want is for great motion pictures to be made and available to audiences that are interested. Distribution appears to be where the biggest challenge lies, but also where opportunities abound. Funding is also a challenge, but more accessible than it was ten years ago, it seems to me.
Your overall plan is bold and well argued. Hollywood as a business model sounds like it’s just fine according to your description. But, as you’ve pointed out, it’s in the business of laundering money not producing great content. Let them keep their washing machine, those of us interested in telling good stories can build something new.
I hope to contribute in some way to this effort, and maybe in the next year or two I might have some coattails upon which people with that same hope can ride. If so, I’ll be sure to hit you up. In the meantime, let’s keep in contact via substack.
I’d like to take a moment to expand upon a point you touched on. You mentioned that we need to be willing to forego short term profits for long term trust and sustainability. I would take that further and say that the goal of becoming a “rich and famous filmmaker” ought to be abandoned altogether. That’s useful in the Hollywood economy for the leverage it brings in the money laundering operation, but doesn’t necessarily have as much value in the new economy you’re proposing.
Those who are content with a reasonably comfortable working or middle class income can thrive as creatives in this new dispensation, and a handful of patrons can support the creative process. This, I’d point out, is how art has been funded in all other eras of human history, and it produced some truly remarkable work.
Thank you for taking the time to lay all this out and share with us. The field may lay fallow, but the soil remains rich. The time is at hand for artists to come together to, dare I say, make film great again! (To be clear, That’s not to be read as an endorsement of any kind of politics, just thought it was a funny way to put it).
Cheers to you, and I look forward to following you here on Substack, and elsewhere should you get the funding you need.
And I deeply appreciate someone who takes the time to write such a thoughtful comment. 🙏
To be clear though, about the short term dip in profits. That's what I mean, a dip, and not no profit altogether. What we do as filmmakers requires a tremendous amount of effort, and is quite valuable. The contracts should reflect that. That being said, I believe we should be more generous to our benefactors than what would normally be required.
I wish you the best of luck with your project. By all means, yes, let's stay in touch.
As for distribution, have you considered Loor? They already have an audience. Perhaps get in touch with either @Marcus Pittman or @Jason Farley and see if it's a good match, for both parties.
Thank you, sir. It was my pleasure to take the time to comment on a post so valuable and well thought out. Regarding the profit element, I don’t wish to suggest creators and labor/performers should be left out of the financial benefits, only that we should be prepared to recognize that, given the costs associated with making a film, we should all be prepared to be comfortable with a smaller pie (including the benefactors ROI). My point is more that we should be focused on creating good content, making a reasonable living, and letting the art be the motivation. Hollywood is driven by profit, and the content creators have to be oriented towards being a valuable product in order to do anything.
The new dispensation towards which you (and others like you and I) aspire shouldn’t be motivated by profit alone. Let everyone get their fair share, but recognize that the windfall we’ve associated with the film business will be smaller, but the caliber of the content can return to a level of excellence.
As for LOOR, I have their website permanently opened on my browser, lol. I hope to have something to bring to their table soon. Projects such as theirs are of great interest to me and I want to support in any way I can.
Once again, thank you for your efforts, and we will indeed stay in touch. These are uncertain but potentially exciting times. Let us hope the right people can come together and harness the opportunities!
Ha, I joke in emails with industry colleagues on meeting agendas that we will “warm our hands on the flames of Hollywood” sort of gallows humor but very true. Well written, I think you under rate the competition aspect, there is real competition between studios and some leaderships have genuine dislike of others and really try to beat them quarter on quarter.
I do agree that it’s a bit of a rigged game though and the mask is well and truly off.
Oh there is competition, and given the level of narcissism present in Hollywood, it is the dick-measuring kind. The mask may be off, but oh so few are aware, and this here essay was my contribution to help spread the word. I've been meaning to write this for a long time, and I'm glad it is off my chest. Thanks for reading!
I have friends that produce tik tok videos and YouTube bits for “creators” and the rates are horrible, even for extremely successful creators. That’s not great!
The economy that is coming next for rank and file crew just seems worse in almost every way.
Well, I stand by my "no-standing on the fence" policy proposed in the essay, and I strongly recommend you have a chat with your buds and insist they bring the grift to light.
I agree but people have signed NDA’s and also have mortgages and kids. It’s very hard to ask them to break relationships for a greater cause. I think the dam will break at some point though.
I may not look like it, but I've been directly, and heavily involved in the anti-woke fight for almost 5 years now. I've had dealings or am one degree away from all the major figureheads this movement has produced. On the cultural end of the fight let me tell you, it's not pretty.
Grift, and controlled opposition are rampant, and networking is close to non-existent, unless you happen to be connected with a few think tanks.
Hopefully, the dewokification of the NEA will help, but whatever efforts we are producing, they are but a few drops in the pond that's next to the Pacific. I've had my share of conversation with artists who quit, and that includes myself. Despite this article, I am almost out the door because I have to secure a future for myself, and so I'm doing something else. At this point, I'm simply keeping the door open.
At the end of the day, we all have decisions to make, and consequences to face. As far as I am concerned, and at the pace things are going, the dam is not going to break anytime soon.
I would categorize them as “personalities” they do different things including pop culture stuff. Though one is a legit celebrity and I was surprised to hear how low his rates were for crew on his videos.
Realized some time ago it's all tricks, they're all on the same side and there's no competition within the Anglosphere film industry.
I think what we need is for some good alternatives, for people to support indie creatives, and for us indie authors to support one another (in my case I write fantasy so I support fellow fantasy authors by restacking their stuff and collecting them on Wednesdays & Saturdays).
We all have to pitch in and work together as a team against the entrenched studio/publishing industry.
Here's the thing. I've also put out a means to greatly help in spreading non-woke culture almost 5 years ago, and have been promoting it relentlessly until last year. Nobody on our side gave a damn, and what I mean by nobody I mean academics, intellectuals, the free media, and, not surprisingly artists. However, the countless consumers I spoke with during that time were all onboard, especially after learning it's entirely free, and not just for them but for artists too. So what does that tell you?
There's also the case of Creado, a platform that would be a God send. They pitch it to all conservatives that matters, but they were met with close to complete indifference.
Looks like we'll have to do this ourselves my friend. Keep hustling, redouble your efforts, and keep supporting your fellow free-thinking creators by spreading their work. What goes around as they say...✌️
I deeply appreciate this article. I suppose you could call me an aspiring creator of motion picture content. I have many ideas I hope to have the opportunity to pursue. Currently I’m working on a project that looks like it might get funded-I’ll let youknow if it does-which I hope to leverage into future opportunities.
I have no interest in saving Hollywood, per se. What I want is for great motion pictures to be made and available to audiences that are interested. Distribution appears to be where the biggest challenge lies, but also where opportunities abound. Funding is also a challenge, but more accessible than it was ten years ago, it seems to me.
Your overall plan is bold and well argued. Hollywood as a business model sounds like it’s just fine according to your description. But, as you’ve pointed out, it’s in the business of laundering money not producing great content. Let them keep their washing machine, those of us interested in telling good stories can build something new.
I hope to contribute in some way to this effort, and maybe in the next year or two I might have some coattails upon which people with that same hope can ride. If so, I’ll be sure to hit you up. In the meantime, let’s keep in contact via substack.
I’d like to take a moment to expand upon a point you touched on. You mentioned that we need to be willing to forego short term profits for long term trust and sustainability. I would take that further and say that the goal of becoming a “rich and famous filmmaker” ought to be abandoned altogether. That’s useful in the Hollywood economy for the leverage it brings in the money laundering operation, but doesn’t necessarily have as much value in the new economy you’re proposing.
Those who are content with a reasonably comfortable working or middle class income can thrive as creatives in this new dispensation, and a handful of patrons can support the creative process. This, I’d point out, is how art has been funded in all other eras of human history, and it produced some truly remarkable work.
Thank you for taking the time to lay all this out and share with us. The field may lay fallow, but the soil remains rich. The time is at hand for artists to come together to, dare I say, make film great again! (To be clear, That’s not to be read as an endorsement of any kind of politics, just thought it was a funny way to put it).
Cheers to you, and I look forward to following you here on Substack, and elsewhere should you get the funding you need.
And I deeply appreciate someone who takes the time to write such a thoughtful comment. 🙏
To be clear though, about the short term dip in profits. That's what I mean, a dip, and not no profit altogether. What we do as filmmakers requires a tremendous amount of effort, and is quite valuable. The contracts should reflect that. That being said, I believe we should be more generous to our benefactors than what would normally be required.
I wish you the best of luck with your project. By all means, yes, let's stay in touch.
As for distribution, have you considered Loor? They already have an audience. Perhaps get in touch with either @Marcus Pittman or @Jason Farley and see if it's a good match, for both parties.
✌️
Thank you, sir. It was my pleasure to take the time to comment on a post so valuable and well thought out. Regarding the profit element, I don’t wish to suggest creators and labor/performers should be left out of the financial benefits, only that we should be prepared to recognize that, given the costs associated with making a film, we should all be prepared to be comfortable with a smaller pie (including the benefactors ROI). My point is more that we should be focused on creating good content, making a reasonable living, and letting the art be the motivation. Hollywood is driven by profit, and the content creators have to be oriented towards being a valuable product in order to do anything.
The new dispensation towards which you (and others like you and I) aspire shouldn’t be motivated by profit alone. Let everyone get their fair share, but recognize that the windfall we’ve associated with the film business will be smaller, but the caliber of the content can return to a level of excellence.
As for LOOR, I have their website permanently opened on my browser, lol. I hope to have something to bring to their table soon. Projects such as theirs are of great interest to me and I want to support in any way I can.
Once again, thank you for your efforts, and we will indeed stay in touch. These are uncertain but potentially exciting times. Let us hope the right people can come together and harness the opportunities!
Ha, I joke in emails with industry colleagues on meeting agendas that we will “warm our hands on the flames of Hollywood” sort of gallows humor but very true. Well written, I think you under rate the competition aspect, there is real competition between studios and some leaderships have genuine dislike of others and really try to beat them quarter on quarter.
I do agree that it’s a bit of a rigged game though and the mask is well and truly off.
Oh there is competition, and given the level of narcissism present in Hollywood, it is the dick-measuring kind. The mask may be off, but oh so few are aware, and this here essay was my contribution to help spread the word. I've been meaning to write this for a long time, and I'm glad it is off my chest. Thanks for reading!
I’m glad you wrote it!
I have friends that produce tik tok videos and YouTube bits for “creators” and the rates are horrible, even for extremely successful creators. That’s not great!
The economy that is coming next for rank and file crew just seems worse in almost every way.
Well, I stand by my "no-standing on the fence" policy proposed in the essay, and I strongly recommend you have a chat with your buds and insist they bring the grift to light.
Isn't time we start taking things seriously?
I agree but people have signed NDA’s and also have mortgages and kids. It’s very hard to ask them to break relationships for a greater cause. I think the dam will break at some point though.
I may not look like it, but I've been directly, and heavily involved in the anti-woke fight for almost 5 years now. I've had dealings or am one degree away from all the major figureheads this movement has produced. On the cultural end of the fight let me tell you, it's not pretty.
Grift, and controlled opposition are rampant, and networking is close to non-existent, unless you happen to be connected with a few think tanks.
Hopefully, the dewokification of the NEA will help, but whatever efforts we are producing, they are but a few drops in the pond that's next to the Pacific. I've had my share of conversation with artists who quit, and that includes myself. Despite this article, I am almost out the door because I have to secure a future for myself, and so I'm doing something else. At this point, I'm simply keeping the door open.
At the end of the day, we all have decisions to make, and consequences to face. As far as I am concerned, and at the pace things are going, the dam is not going to break anytime soon.
When you say "creators" do you mean pop culture critics and/or others?
I would categorize them as “personalities” they do different things including pop culture stuff. Though one is a legit celebrity and I was surprised to hear how low his rates were for crew on his videos.
Realized some time ago it's all tricks, they're all on the same side and there's no competition within the Anglosphere film industry.
I think what we need is for some good alternatives, for people to support indie creatives, and for us indie authors to support one another (in my case I write fantasy so I support fellow fantasy authors by restacking their stuff and collecting them on Wednesdays & Saturdays).
We all have to pitch in and work together as a team against the entrenched studio/publishing industry.
Here's the thing. I've also put out a means to greatly help in spreading non-woke culture almost 5 years ago, and have been promoting it relentlessly until last year. Nobody on our side gave a damn, and what I mean by nobody I mean academics, intellectuals, the free media, and, not surprisingly artists. However, the countless consumers I spoke with during that time were all onboard, especially after learning it's entirely free, and not just for them but for artists too. So what does that tell you?
There's also the case of Creado, a platform that would be a God send. They pitch it to all conservatives that matters, but they were met with close to complete indifference.
Looks like we'll have to do this ourselves my friend. Keep hustling, redouble your efforts, and keep supporting your fellow free-thinking creators by spreading their work. What goes around as they say...✌️
Agreed been hustling since 2023 still gotta keep expanding our projects, our works and our efforts to reach the consumers.
Never heard of Creado before gonna have to look it up, thanks.