About your comment about "having a good fight in you" -- brings to mind the profound last lines of "Ulysses" by Lord Tennyson and "Tis not too late to seek a newer world":
**
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
For me, the Big Dumb Fucking Move that I watch happen over and over and over in film, comics and books is to aggressively focus output on established nostalgia plays while ignoring the need to build new audiences... to get the NEXT generation of audience members engaged and loving the experience of film/comics/TV.
We have never worked to BUILD audiences. And now we lost them. It's not just every generation wants their own reboot. Every generation wants their own awesome director and handful of stars they can grow old with. We all need cultural guides but we fail to give the a launch or any speed rails to keep them from driving off the bridge.
And this is the perfect time to build an audience with free social media. Why aren’t more independent filmmakers distributing their films independently in theaters? Not in a thousand theaters at once but a couple? Grow. It’s never been cheaper to do so.
I'm hoping a lot of the mistakes along the way can be addressed by revisiting the way we take definitions going forward. Like, I hope the industry begins to consider "Global Streaming" as a descriptor of the technological access and not the experiential perspective of a singular, imagined "audience". I see inklings of this shift in definition in the recent discussion of Netflix spending $2.5B in the next couple of years for Korean Dramatic content creation and distribution. I know most of my friends (with a few exceptions,) aren't going to seek out K-Drama to binge, but, I'm glad that I can sit in my living room and watch the unique style of Korean cinema roll out on my home screen. I wouldn't have had a chance to be exposed to it otherwise in the past and certainly don't fit the "demographic" it's aimed at, but, I've found it quite entertaining and look forward to seeing more. I couldn't do that without Global access and Self-selected audience experiences.
Just as long as we're not tripped up by too many Industry leaders following in the Jack Valenti, home video will be the death of Hollywood, hand-wringing, we'll have a chance to re-define where our industry can go next and not be scared off by changes afoot.
Sooo how do we get the subscribers to join the strike, that would be a gut punch if a viral moment jumps from industry to consumers and a large enough segment just cancelled their streaming subscriptions in support of the artists and craftspeople. Now that would be a story, have impact and scare the crap out of them. It happens in Europe, Greece is know for their consumer strikes that basically stop the national economy for days...it's terrifying to the power elites. Let people go to theaters and watch cable or linear TV but cut the direct fiscal relationship with their expensive streaming infrastructure..... Yeah this is how angry I am at the Studio/Streaming industrial complex right now.
I love this quote, "For instance, how did the agents and artists let the Global Streamers get away with not sharing their data for so long? Oh yeah, they were bought off. They were getting good money fast, so why bother looking out for what comes next. Why? Because it is going to hurt you if you don’t. We need data so that we can share in what is rightfully ours – the upside that comes with success. When artists don’t have a part of that upside, they lose many incentives to make the work better and to make sure it has its rightful impact." Yet, somehow, it's a lesson we humans keep having to learn. It's the cause of U.S. imperialism and global warming. It was even the cause of the Cambridge 5 (fictionalized in the show and amazing movie TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.
I love your list. And I love that you started with two profoundly powerful and necessary points.
One item I would add to your list is the rapid decline and seeming abandonment of physical media as a means of distribution. The convenience of streaming (see: above) blinded us to the reality that not everything listed on the streamers is "everything" there is. Now, it's harder to find blu-rays and when I do, they're usually more expensive (see: rules of mass production). Netflix doesn't even put them out for their shows or movies!
Just ran this through Quillbot.com for a free grammar check. It found 125 things it recommends changing to provide a better read. In one click I could have looked at a draft with all the corrections in place. I, however, didn't write this. Brilliant and caring Ted Hope did. I know I am a PITA, but, IMHO you need to use this or a similar app before posting. If I were a new subscriber I'd expect a great filmmaker, and author of books, to write grammatically tight prose.
There is nothing to worry about. You won't scare away your muse, or diffuse your spontaneity mojo. You will simply put out a better blog.
Better is always better, or BIAB, is an acronym to consider, especially when writing.
About your comment about "having a good fight in you" -- brings to mind the profound last lines of "Ulysses" by Lord Tennyson and "Tis not too late to seek a newer world":
**
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
For me, the Big Dumb Fucking Move that I watch happen over and over and over in film, comics and books is to aggressively focus output on established nostalgia plays while ignoring the need to build new audiences... to get the NEXT generation of audience members engaged and loving the experience of film/comics/TV.
We have never worked to BUILD audiences. And now we lost them. It's not just every generation wants their own reboot. Every generation wants their own awesome director and handful of stars they can grow old with. We all need cultural guides but we fail to give the a launch or any speed rails to keep them from driving off the bridge.
And this is the perfect time to build an audience with free social media. Why aren’t more independent filmmakers distributing their films independently in theaters? Not in a thousand theaters at once but a couple? Grow. It’s never been cheaper to do so.
Some are doing this. But, you're right in that it's rare.
“Rome Wasn’t Burned In A Day” by ESCAPE-ISM (Ian Svenonius)
https://youtu.be/PDomSeWAUPs
I'm hoping a lot of the mistakes along the way can be addressed by revisiting the way we take definitions going forward. Like, I hope the industry begins to consider "Global Streaming" as a descriptor of the technological access and not the experiential perspective of a singular, imagined "audience". I see inklings of this shift in definition in the recent discussion of Netflix spending $2.5B in the next couple of years for Korean Dramatic content creation and distribution. I know most of my friends (with a few exceptions,) aren't going to seek out K-Drama to binge, but, I'm glad that I can sit in my living room and watch the unique style of Korean cinema roll out on my home screen. I wouldn't have had a chance to be exposed to it otherwise in the past and certainly don't fit the "demographic" it's aimed at, but, I've found it quite entertaining and look forward to seeing more. I couldn't do that without Global access and Self-selected audience experiences.
Just as long as we're not tripped up by too many Industry leaders following in the Jack Valenti, home video will be the death of Hollywood, hand-wringing, we'll have a chance to re-define where our industry can go next and not be scared off by changes afoot.
Sooo how do we get the subscribers to join the strike, that would be a gut punch if a viral moment jumps from industry to consumers and a large enough segment just cancelled their streaming subscriptions in support of the artists and craftspeople. Now that would be a story, have impact and scare the crap out of them. It happens in Europe, Greece is know for their consumer strikes that basically stop the national economy for days...it's terrifying to the power elites. Let people go to theaters and watch cable or linear TV but cut the direct fiscal relationship with their expensive streaming infrastructure..... Yeah this is how angry I am at the Studio/Streaming industrial complex right now.
great post by the way Ted !
I love this quote, "For instance, how did the agents and artists let the Global Streamers get away with not sharing their data for so long? Oh yeah, they were bought off. They were getting good money fast, so why bother looking out for what comes next. Why? Because it is going to hurt you if you don’t. We need data so that we can share in what is rightfully ours – the upside that comes with success. When artists don’t have a part of that upside, they lose many incentives to make the work better and to make sure it has its rightful impact." Yet, somehow, it's a lesson we humans keep having to learn. It's the cause of U.S. imperialism and global warming. It was even the cause of the Cambridge 5 (fictionalized in the show and amazing movie TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.
I love your list. And I love that you started with two profoundly powerful and necessary points.
One item I would add to your list is the rapid decline and seeming abandonment of physical media as a means of distribution. The convenience of streaming (see: above) blinded us to the reality that not everything listed on the streamers is "everything" there is. Now, it's harder to find blu-rays and when I do, they're usually more expensive (see: rules of mass production). Netflix doesn't even put them out for their shows or movies!
Just ran this through Quillbot.com for a free grammar check. It found 125 things it recommends changing to provide a better read. In one click I could have looked at a draft with all the corrections in place. I, however, didn't write this. Brilliant and caring Ted Hope did. I know I am a PITA, but, IMHO you need to use this or a similar app before posting. If I were a new subscriber I'd expect a great filmmaker, and author of books, to write grammatically tight prose.
There is nothing to worry about. You won't scare away your muse, or diffuse your spontaneity mojo. You will simply put out a better blog.
Better is always better, or BIAB, is an acronym to consider, especially when writing.