Why Did The Old Indie Model Fail?
Ecosystem Reboot Analysis # ?
I gave a talk in Locarno earlier this year. I actually gave two. One created a bit of a stir, but this is sort of a follow up to the other one… the masterclass. It was pulled from three posts I had shared here on HFF intitially, but there was another aspect too: a 4th post that I never got around to writing. This is what you now are reading — the missing post on the factors that caused the old indie film model to up and die. Or rather this is the work-in-progress version. It’s monday after all. Monday is for morning movie musings, right? MMMM indeed!
Okay, I don’t think the old indie film model really failed. It is more like it was roadkill. Can you blame the animal just because it was… well… standing there like a deer caught in the headlights? We didn’t evolve it fast enough. We didn’t improve it with the necessary speed. We thought it was good enough, but it wasn’t close. We could have improved the process. We could have filled in the gaps. We could have elevated the product. Yeah, it didn’t fail; we failed IT. But regardless, how did that happen?
If we can capture enough of the mitigating circumstances of Indie Film’s Fifty Years Of Doing The Wrong Thing, maybe this next time when we build the non-dependent independent indie ecosystem, we can escape the pot before the water gets too hot. Let’s save our little froggy skin.
To determine what went wrong, as well as how to not fall into the traps, we need to look at our situation then and now from all directions. We need to look at it from different perspectives. We ultimately need to examine it from each of our tribes’ POV, but for now let’s get started by something simpler. Let’s look at it as consumers, artists, business people, and yes, as regular old human beings. Let’s see if we can find the flies in the ointment, the dirt in the gears that each of those buckets contributed.
Guess what? I’ve got over 20 points to share. Let me know what you have to add. If you’ve been reading along this year, I think you see how I work and want to encourage others to try. Ask a question. Capture as many factors, aspects, and maybe answers as you can. Share. Engage. Rinse. Repeat. And then there it is: a better mousetrap! Right?
Why Did Indie Film Become “Fifty Years Of Doing The Wrong Thing?”
1. We fell into the consumer’s trap: the white hare dilemma — where we learn to like what we get, not get what we like.
2. We didn’t adopt the 1st rule of artists: reject the status quo.
3. Never adopted The Artists’ 2nd rule: imagine Utopia. We need a North Star to drive to.
4. We fell into the most obvious business trap: do what has worked before — comps —(and we neglected the need for constant innovation).
5. We neglected principles of wise business people everywhere, including working backwards from our goals.
6. We failed to set First Principles to keep in focus so we didn’t deviate from our goals.
7. By failing to set First Principles, our priorities deviated from our goals.
8. We did not set the tenets to base our tactics on, so ultimate we strayed from that path too.
9. We forget the DADTBABTMPAWDOARB (Dumb Ass Decisions The Best And Brightest, The Most Powerful And Wealthy, Do On A Regular Basis) and thus repeatedly follow them on a long walk off the short pier.
10. We allowed certain entities to amass too much power & wealth and things grew anti-competitive. You know whom I am talking about… the GSPs!
11. Typical human trap #1: We forgot we always make a difference. The Big Lie is we don’t. Whether in elections or our actions we DO.
12. Typical human trap #2: We only looked at the near term — and did not develop the pattern recognition for what is coming.
13. Typical human trap #3: We have been selfish, looking at individual projects and not the ecosystem — this is the work for the now: the next decade.
14. THT #4: we don’t act until the pain of the present is greater than the fear of the future — but in the modern post capitalist era, we have inoculated ourselves from all pain.
15. THT #5: we fail to acknowledge the system we are in, and the system that is in us.
16. THT #6: Not examining how our success may limit that of others.
17. THT #7: Although this is very similar to #1 THT — it is more specific about agency: Believing YOU can’t change anything. Each and every one of us can change anything. YOU are power. We are connected. All of us is a tremendous power.
18. THT #8: We fell in love with power and did not learn to manage ourselves out of leadership, holding on to positions, long after we could recognize the truth of why we were there.
19. THT #9: We did not develop new generations; we did not teach our children well. We assured our own obsolescence with no plan for succession.
20. We neglected the First Rule Of Drug Dealing: Do not get high on your own supply (or hype).
21. We had no true stewardship of our industry or ecosystem. The corporate leaders look out for themselves. The top artists are no longer concerned with the arts. The nonprofit sector has too much on their plate to pay attention. We’ve let it go to waste. We need to form a thinktank for the future of film. We need to build a map of the global film ecosystem. We need to consistently ask the dangerous questions.
These are the reasons we failed. They are all understandable. They are what people do. But we also evaluate and improve; or at least we can. We don’t have to walk this way again. We can say IAMAHAIANGTTIAM. We just need to make that commitment. Let’s do it better. I am in. You?
PS. This year has been a tough one for all in the FKATheFilmBiz. Strikes. Corporate Greed. War. Anti-competitive Practices. But it also had a profound effect in helping everyone recognize we need to build something better: a non-dependent independent ecosystem that prioritizes the artist. It has been your passion for this that has fueled this newsletter. It will be that passion that keeps it going. I will continue to offer free “paid” subscriptions to anyone with financial hardship going forward. I will continue to offer free “paid” subscriptions to any student or retiree. It is those of you who can pay for a subscription and do that actually allows me to do this, so this is a special extra thanks for those that contribute and allow me to keep this going. Thank you.
You cannot produce an alternative eco system while living in a dominant one (American capitalist-imperial-militarism), and imagine it is going to work. And no, a little mouse-trap that works is not going to set an example that then will change all the rest, and customers/people will knock down your door. Or you can imagine it, but there is a wall, and there is your head. Have at it.
I did not over 60 years of filmmaking now, break your list of "mistakes" like making work aimed at being popular, lowest common denominator. I've made 46 or is it 47 long-form films. I wouldn't show them if I didn't think they were good. Most of them are functionally unseen as I decline to play hustler in a system that has completely other interests than I do. It wants to "make money/profit" be popular/famous. I want to make perhaps "art." I live by US standards in poverty, have no home, and that is all OK, it is the real world in which I live.
https://vimeo.com/jonjost/vod_pages
I would also add that the indie community leaned heavily towards being competitive and petty, instead of being inclusive and supportive (or even just curious!). I screened in twenty festivals all over the world, and kept coming back from them sad and disappointed. People did not go to talk or network or meet like-minded people, they went to glorify their egos and were about THEIR movie and nothing else. The indie community evolved to model the madness of celebrity-driven mainstream films, all cult of personality and shaming.