Roger,
For someone who is involved with new media, you are very backward thinking when it comes to the future of Hollywood. We both know that Hollywood is losing buckets of money yearly. Before the strike it was losing 6 billion a year alone in piracy and who knows how much in declining ticket sales. And while you are right about who controls distribution controls the industry as it stands, you have to admit, that like the music industry, the film and tv industry are losing control.
“Now, to be clear, when I say “easy,” I am speaking of the (relatively) “easy life.” I am not saying television and movie writing is easy. It clearly is not. Very few people can do it. The Writers Guild has only 12,000 members not because it is a difficult union to get into – it isn’t – but because few people are good enough to get hired by a signatory company, the minimum requirement for membership.”
If this were the case, then every movie and every tv show should be a classic. Funny, the example you, yourself give of great movies that can’t be made at home, are films that are over 30 years old. But there are no hacks in Hollywood, are there? Air Bud indeed…
“But from the inside it is obvious that senior studio executives are better business people than most writers and other creative types.”
Really? Obvious to whom? Are you aware of the profit margins of studios? The internal rate of return of these studio units on average are in the single digits and sometimes not even that. They have no vision on how to handle piracy and no future vision. I know of a few who don’t think Hollywood studios will be around in 10 years. They are as clueless as the music industry execs. Look at production costs for most major motion pictures, the more technology makes post production easier and cheaper, the more these great business minds spend on films. It’s like a big junket party for the producers, directors, and their friends. Go try pitching an effects film with a constrained budget (ie if you say you can do more for less with technology), they look at you like you just told them that Bush was the greatest human on earth.
Look to the music industry to see which way the wind is blowing and ask yourself how many A&R guys felt the same way you do now 5 years ago.
I think the unions and agency system have stifled any entrepreneurial tendencies in the rank and file, but as younger people start wanting to get in the business how many of them will by pass this process and start making films on their own? The Red Camera is a 4k digital camera that is about $16k, something that anyone with decent credit can obtain. Some one will figure out a smart way to distribute product over the internet using smart software to match viewers to product that will interest them. The theater experience is so dismal for most people that this will be a much preferred way to get entertainment. And don’t get me started on the future of gaming, cause I could write for hours about that and how that will develop.
But Roger, you hang on to the old way of thinking and the old model and see how well that works out for you.
