Physical media continues to make a comeback

Natalie Stechyson reports on CBC News about When everything is digital, why we long for media we can hold in our hands.

Her claim:

“After years of digitizing everything, people are rediscovering the value of physical assets. DVDs, vinyl records and film cameras are all experiencing a renaissance. Even cassette tapes are making a comeback.”

She interviews owner Tom Ivison of Classic Video in Kingston, Ontario, who rents more than 50,000 DVDs and Blu-rays.

She outlines growing interest in vinyl records, CDs and cassette tapes.

She quotes Richard Lachman, associate professor in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University:

“‘More people are spending a lot more time consuming media at home. And they’re building rooms, or are collecting in some way. And DVDs are physical objects. They look nice in a room. The physicality of it is part of the joy you’re getting from the fandom.'”

My take: True, not everything is available to stream. But frankly I can’t remember the last time I watched something on physical media. Oh, it was an obscure British crime drama on DVD from the library last year! I think physical media is very much a secondary market and can’t be a viable means of distribution again; it’s merch. The value for collectors should not be underestimated, though.

More on ad-supported movie distribution

Brian Welk, reports on IndieWire, about Inside the Strange and Prickly World of Ad-Supported Indie Film Distribution.

He writes:

AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) streamers often license unknown or obscure movies in bulk from distributors like FilmRise, Gravitas Ventures, Shout! Factory, Cinedigm, and… Homestead Entertainment, a tiny distributor in Laguna Beach, California that specializes in working with filmmakers to access non-exclusive AVOD deals on dozens of services.”

He adds:

“Also in the game are self-service film aggregators. FilmHub cofounder Alan s’Escragnolle said his company has distributed more than 17,000 movies since January 2020, supplying as much as 15 percent of Tubi’s 50,000-film library. He said FilmHub works with upward of 100 services and claimed distributors have started leaning on them to reach more niche or international streamers.”

Note that at pennies per view, millions of streams are required to make serious money.

My take: this is empowering. It kinda hearkens back to the Roger Corman days when cheaply-made “B” movies connected with their audiences and launched the careers of many directors and actors. The key is to start with the audience, reverse-engineer a riveting story for them and then make the film reasonably. And to stomach ads… gulp!

FilmRise knows what you want to watch

Scott Roxborough reports in The Hollywood Reporter how FilmRise Built an Indie, Free Streaming Network From Unearthing Under-the-Radar Titles.

FilmRise is a New York City film and television studio and streaming network launched by Danny Fisher, Jack Fisher, and Alan Klingenstein ten years ago.

As quoted in the article, Fisher specializes in discovering existing content viewers still yearn to watch:

“‘If I could identify and measure the viewer demand to see content, irrespective of what the industry thinks the demand is, I could find that disconnect between demand and market evaluation…. It really comes down to our algorithms. We’ve found a way to measure audience demand and see where demand for a piece of content is much higher than what that content is being valued for in the market.'”

FilmRise, and companies like it, are fuelling SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand,) AVOD (Advertising Video on Demand,) ASVOD (Ad-Supported Video on Demand) and FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) digital media outlets.

This company is on the ball! Not only are they internationalizing their content for the rest of the world, they’re also repackaging shorter web content into more standard half-hour TV length shows.

My take: Wow! Anyone who’s picked up The Kids in the Hall is all right by me!

JustWatchMe.tv launches in Canada

There’s a new streamer in Canada: JustWatchMe.tv

As reported by Jordan Pinto on C21Media, Michael Dobbin‘s Capital Motion Picture Group has launched Canadian streamer JustWatchMe.tv offering indie films.

He quotes Dobbin:

“If big streamers are like a shiny fast-food chain, where you always know what you’re getting, we’re the food truck parked across the street with daily specials and better ingredients. We’re hoping that JustWatchMe.tv can grow to feel like home for Canadian producers and their content, which we all love but rarely get to see.”

Most content on the service will be free. A premium tier will be $4.99 per month.

My take: Hey Michael, let’s talk about doing a web series!

DGC releases stats: nearly 6 in 10 productions directed by non-Canadians

Late last year, the Directors Guild of Canada released it’s first Director Statistics Report.

This comprehensive study on the engagement of Canadian directors by both Canadian and international producers, studios and networks for 2021, focuses in on region, gender, production type and the entities commissioning film and television production.

Some highlights:

  • 75% of all Episodic work in Canada was from US-based studios and networks.
  • Together, Warner Media and Netflix shot more television in Canada than all Canadian networks combined.
  • Canadian Directors directed on average 41% of the US-financed TV episodes across the country.
  • Across all the DGC Episodes, women directed 43%.
  • In 2021, BC shot almost half of the 1,256 Episodes produced in English Canada, with BC accounting for 43%, Ontario shooting 40% and the remaining provinces and territories accounting for 17% of the episodic work shot.
  • Only 4% of all productions in BC were funded by a Canadian studio or network.
  • Nearly 70% of the CBC’s English language shows are shot in Ontario.
  • Only 39% of the features shot in English Canada were directed by Canadians. Of these, 31% were directed by women members.

My take: this makes fascinating reading! If I understand it correctly, nearly six out of ten productions in Canada are directed by non-Canadians.

Creative Producers seek to remain relevant amid streaming

Chris Moore laments on Dear Producer about The Disappearance of the Hit-Driven Business Model.

Chris has worked in the film and television industry for almost thirty years as a Creative Producer and has shepherded over two dozen projects, including Good Will Hunting, American Pie, Project Greenlight and Manchester by the Sea.

He begins with:

“The nature of the creative producer’s job doesn’t allow a lot of time to stop and ask questions about the changing industry around us. However, over the past few years, I’ve given myself some time to reflect. Between MANCHESTER BY THE SEA being released by Amazon, and the world shutting down due to a pandemic, it became clear that the job I have now isn’t the one I had when I started back in 1994.”

He continues:

“Many producers of my generation had a business plan for our careers. For me, it was directly dependent on the success of each individual film. Not long ago, profit in the film industry was based on a hit-driven business model. If a lot of people bought tickets to see a film in theaters, rented the DVD, or paid for a digital download, it sometimes made a profit, and was considered a hit. At the time, producing a box office hit led to an easier time getting your next project made and usually with a bigger budget.”

More on the good old days:

The 1980s through the 2010s was a great time to be a creative producer. Put deals together, own the library of content, and make big money. I came into Hollywood when this was just exploding, and at the same time, foreign markets were opening up, home video was becoming much bigger with the release of DVDs, and cable allowed for many more channels for a piece of content to reach audiences. In comes windowing, in comes licensing, in comes new markets for content. Speculation became a new business model worth pursuing if a creative producer had the stomach for it; there were new buyers and talent looking for content, and all were free agents. It was awesome.

Then he arrives at the crux of the issue:

“Unfortunately, the hit-driven business model I built a career around is not the reality of the industry we are living in today, and I can finally admit that we are not going back to the way it was. I realized I hadn’t acknowledged how much things had changed. Today, there is a very small speculative market compared to the 1990s and early 2000s, and large companies are no longer driven by the profit of each individual film. The current subscription-based business model removes the opportunity to create a hit. In this new model for storytelling, volume is more important than quality.

He then list the shortcoming of the streaming model in detail, concluding with possible strategies:

“Become an executive. Choose a specific genre. Choose talent to work with. Work inside a production company or become a manager/producer. Work for a non-profit. Take on a larger company’s liability. Or accept that the old version of a creative producer is now a hobby.”

He firmly believes: “We have to be honest with the next generation that the system we are all in right now is not working nor does it offer the life you might have been promised in film school.

His final rallying cry:

“All of this soul searching has led me to the simpler solution which is creative producers need to become part of something bigger than themselves and their projects. Rather than wait around and see if the industry is going to make room for us again, we must take matters into our own hands and find the thing that replaces the hit-driven model. If we want sustainability, we have to create a new business model that works within this new era of Hollywood.

Watch Dear Producer on Vimeo.

My take: a lot of people blame new economic realities when their job disappears. Chris Moore, however, argues that streamers have distorted the free market because it is now impossible to use the box office to measure success (other than for blockbusters and who cares about them.) Perhaps we need a new Streaming Decree that splits production from distribution once again?

Last year’s produced screenplays for your edification

Kudos to Scott Myers for once again collecting the season’s screenplays in one place!

Scott runs Go Into The Story, the Official Screenwriting Blog of The Black List. (More about this list.)

Currently there are links to these scripts, with more being added weekly

  • All The Old Knives (Amazon Studios)
  • Amsterdam (20th Century Studios)
  • Argentina, 1985 (Amazon Studios)
  • Armageddon Time (Focus Features)
  • The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures)
  • The Batman (Warner Bros.)
  • Bones and All (United Artists)
  • Catherine Called Birdy (Amazon Studios)
  • Emergency (Amazon Studios)
  • Empire of Light (Searchlight Pictures)
  • The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures)
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
  • The Good Nurse (Netflix)
  • Lady Chatterly’s Lover (Netflix)
  • Living (Sony Classics)
  • Master (Amazon Studios)
  • The Menu (Searchlight Pictures)
  • My Policeman (Amazon Studios)
  • Nanny (Amazon Studios)
  • Nope (Universal Pictures)
  • The Northman (Focus Features)
  • Pinocchio (Netflix)
  • She Said (Universal Studios)
  • The Son (Sony Classics)
  • Tár (Focus Features)
  • Thirteen Lives (Amazon Studios)
  • Three Thousand Years of Longing (United Artists)
  • Till (United Artists)
  • White Noise (Netflix)
  • The Woman King (TriStar Pictures)
  • Women Talking (United Artists)

Scott says:

“Reading movie screenplays is critical to your development as a screenwriter. Along with watching movies and writing pages, it is a fundamental practice you should put into place. Make it a goal to read at least one movie script per week.”

He should know. He’s an assistant professor of screenwriting, a working screenwriter and an author. Check out his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook postings.

My take: I will be doing a scene-by-scene breakdown of “Glass Onion.” I’ve done “Palm Springs” previously and can attest that the exercise is very valuable. For bonus insight, I also compare the script with the film and note where extensive changes have been made. So interesting!

AI writes and directs a short film!

James DeRuvo reports on No Film School that A Film Was Written and Directed by AI—Here’s the How and What You Can Learn.

He posits how AI was used in the workflow makes an interesting case study of how these types of tools can help filmmakers create movies. ChatGPT was utilized to not only generate some ideas for a short film, but to also write the script, create a shot list, and in essence direct the film.

The filmmakers say:

“With the help of ChatGPT of OpenAI, we were able to not only get it to write us a full script, but also have it direct us in the production of this short film. We were able to ask ChatGPT to give us a full shot list, suggest specific instructions for the Director of Photography and camera operators (choice of camera lenses, camera movements and lighting requirements), recommend wardrobe preferences, and even give us specific prompts to let Dall-E 2 create a full storyboard.”

See Aaron Kemmer’s Twitter thread for the whole story.

My take: Looking past the quality of this one film, AI opens up limitless questions. For instance: What are the legal ramifications? What does it mean when everyone can issue prompts for their own personal movies? What happens to the human race if we in effect outsource dreaming to technology?

For your holiday reading: Scripts Galore!

To celebrate the holiday season, Santa has collected a sack of scripts for your reading pleasure!

Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for films, television, and other visual media. Screenwriters are responsible for creating the dialogue, plot, and characters for a film or television show. Screenwriting can be a challenging and rewarding career, but it can also be highly competitive. Successful screenwriters often have a strong understanding of storytelling, character development, and the structure of films and television shows, as well as excellent writing skills and the ability to collaborate with others.

They also have to network, constantly promote themselves and be very, very lucky.

Let’s discuss two sources of scripts: The Black List and The Stunt List.

The Black List is an annual compilation of the most popular unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, as determined by a survey of film industry executives. The list is compiled by Franklin Leonard, a former development executive at Warner Bros., and is announced every year in December.

Each year, a group of over 250 film industry executives are invited to participate in the survey, in which they are asked to identify the best unproduced screenplays that they have read in the past year. The screenplays are ranked based on the number of votes they receive, and the top screenplays are included on the Black List.

Scott Myers, of Go Into The Story, provides some excellent analysis of this year’s list:

  • There are 74 screenplays on the 2022 Black List (There were 73 screenplays on the 2021 Black List).
  • Over 300 film executives at major financiers and production companies voted on the 2022 Black List.
  • 9% of the scripts on the 2022 Black List have a financier attached (16% on 2021 Black List)
  • 59% of the scripts on 2022 Black List have a producer attached (78% on the 2021 Black List)
  • 64% of the scripts on the 2022 Black List are repped by agents
  • 88% of the scripts on the 2022 Black List are repped by managers

He also teases out these themes and groupings; well worth exploring:

  • Athletes on the Brink
  • Hollywood Plays Itself
  • Political Insanity
  • The Sisterhood of Song
  • A New Voice in Screenwriting
  • Scripts By Agency
  • Scripts By Management Company
  • Unrepped Scripts

The Stunt List is a wonderful example of promotion, pitch decks and scripts, collected by Ash Lazer and Eric Moyer.

They list Originals (spec scripts) and Stunts (based on existing IP for entertainment purposes only.) For instance, this stunt script will appeal to fans of SNL and Die Hardhttps://www.ericmoyer.com/dielaughing.pdf

My take: reviewing these log lines, pitch decks and scripts is a great education. I really enjoyed Die Laughing — it would make a great group read!

AI-assisted time travel

Open Culture invites us to See 21 Historic Films by Lumière Brothers, Colorized and Enhanced with Machine Learning (1895-1902).

They highlight a collection of films originally created by the Lumière Brothers and now digitally enhanced by Denis Shiryaev.

Shot and projected at 16 frames per second, this footage has had its original frame rate restored, stabilized, upscaled to 240 fps at 4K, colourized and the faces enhanced with AI and finally output at 60 fps.

Dennis details his process in the first four and a half minutes of the film and categorically states, “This is enhanced material and is not historically accurate.”

Nevertheless, the films are a fantastic view into the past. Travel back in time to France, England and Egypt, among other countries. The motion smoothing does impart a different feeling to the footage than the jerky black and white aesthetic we normally associate with old newsreels.

My take: for me, the best shot, at 13:44, is “Panorama of the Golden Horn, Turkey, Istanbul” because it’s one of the few shots that is truly “cinematic” imho. All the other shots are filmed from a tripod and therefore static. This shot is also on a tripod but because we’re on a boat the effect is to dolly to the right, resulting in magical movement with very pleasing foreground, middle ground and background action.