Recognize The Time We Are Living In

This entry was originally published at Hope For Film

If you didn’t notice this is a new year.  It is also a new age.  My resolution is to help all filmmakers and members of the film industry to understand it.  Hopefully we can also all get started on adapting for this Age too.

This is The Age of Access & Surplus.

This is no longer the Age of Control & Shortages (that was last decade).

These times require New Rules & New Emphasis:

1. Discovery
2. Participation
3. Demystification

We need to conceive of both our creative and business practices in terms of how they incorporate these three elements.

When 45,000 films are made globally each year and the film work of all time is instantly available at a very attractive price point (how does free grab you?), how will your work be discovered?  How will an audience value it over all the other content competing for their attention?  Since the films of Godard and Kurosowa are far better than yours, why will someone watch yours?  It no longer is enough to be new.  It no longer is enough to simply be playing at the local theater (although that still helps a great deal).

The one thing that today’s filmmakers have over all the past masters, is that the past masters are dead.  Their work is not going to change.  Today’s filmmakers can build relationships with audiences and communities.  They can offer a deeper relationship with them than Stanley Kubrick can.  Audiences have changed.  Communities are not passive.  As much as people like to be directed, they also want to participate.

The truth is out there.  They may sell us a bunch of lies, but people are smart and they figure it out.  We know how the tricks are done.  We also know how art is made.  The curtain has come down and those that don’t provide access to the process risk the wrath of the hungry.  Is there any reason to keep any of it hidden?