Category Archives: The Mediascape

The numbers behind Telefilm’s Talent to Watch 2022-23 projects

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Telefilm Canada has selected 16 Talent to Watch projects to share $3.5 million.

It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.

Let’s start with Genre.

Drama 7
Documentary 5
Comedy 1
Horror 1
Magic Realism 1
Mystery 1

Province?

Ontario 8
Quebec 4
British Columbia 2
Manitoba 1
New Brunswick 1

Let’s look at Language next.

English 4
French 4
Arabic 1
English/Arabic 1
English/Bosnian 1
English/Bulgarian 1
English/Farsi 1
English/Persian 1
French/English 1
Tibetan/English 1

And let’s finish up with Stream.

Filmmaker Apply-Direct 7
Industry Partner 7
Festival Selection 1
Industry Partner — Indigenous Component 1

In addition, if Gender is assumed from names:

Female 23
Male 15

Some observations:

  • Documentary is almost as successful as Drama.
  • Half of the successful projects are from Ontario.
  • Almost half of the successful projects include world languages in addition or instead of English and/or French.
  • Only half of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
  • Finally women far outnumber men.

One might be tempted to conclude that Telefilm Canada is using the Talent to Watch program to over-correct its EDIA (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility) results, but that would be highly cynical.

My take: wow! This is quite a departure for Telefilm. This is the first year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them handsomely!

Where the money goes on short films

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Josh Jacobs invites everyone on No Film School to Learn all the behind-the-scenes secrets of [t]his $4,000 short.

He begins:

“Hi, I’m Josh, an LA-based filmmaker. I work as a writers’ assistant and script coordinator on TV shows, and I direct my own short films. By far, the most valuable thing I’ve learned about storytelling from big-budget shows and indie projects alike is that just two elements—the actors and the script—are way more important than everything else.”

Here’s my list of his important things to consider for indie filmmakers:

  1. The actors.
  2. The script.
  3. Don’t over-crew; have some crew do two jobs.
  4. No walkie talkies.
  5. Keep insurance costs in check.
  6. Be willing to walk away from too-expensive crew or locations.
  7. Some cities have cheaper gear than others.
  8. Join a writers group for feedback on your drafts.
  9. Devise films with locations that you have or can secure easily.
  10. Write for actors you personally know.
  11. Use costumes you have.
  12. Use equipment you have or can rent cheaply.
  13. Buy your crafty at Cosco.
  14. Save your costumes in case you need to shoot pickups.

Josh’s one day plus pickups shoot cost him $4,343.06 and he kindly shows the full breakdown.

My take: Thanks for sharing, Josh! One thing to note is that post-production actually cost more than double production. Oh, and nice short too!

Telefilm Canada releases new 18-month corporate plan

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Telefilm Canada has just released its new 2022-2024 Corporate Plan.

“These strategic priorities are guided by Telefilm’s determination to provide a public service that reflects Canada in all its diversity. To this end, Telefilm will introduce nine initiatives in the coming months.”

The nine initiatives are:

  1. Evolve our funding allocation approach by delivering a continuum of success for filmmakers, by increasing access for underrepresented groups and by enabling eco-responsible productions.
  2. Act as a partner and ally on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and eco-responsibility by adopting an evidence-based approach to our funding and corporate decisions.
  3. Promote Canada’s unique creative voices and initiatives that set the example for a sustainable and inclusive screen-based industry.
  4. Empower Telefilm’s teams and encourage internal growth and development.
  5. Streamline our programs and processes to avoid red tape, ensure a simplified workflow, improve our services, and consolidate our partnership with the Canada Media Fund.
  6. Develop and maintain user-friendly tools and systems that optimize data management.
  7. Build on the trust achieved with the government to solidify the increase in our funding.
  8. Develop relationships with public and private partners to create synergy and attract additional sources of funding.
  9. Attract donations for the Talent Fund.

In the “Performance Indicators” section, Telefilm proposes to invest in:

  • 34 Projects with production budgets greater than $3.5 million (61% of funds)
  • 38 Projects with production budgets of less than $3.5 million (28% of funds)
  • 27 Theatrical Documentaries (6% of funds)
  • 15 Talent to Watch micro-budget features (4% of funds)

Telefilm also commits to:

  • 50% gender parity for women in the role of Producer, Director, Writer
  • At least 16 projects with “a Black or people of colour” key creative
  • $4 million to Indigenous stream projects
  • 33% French-language funding
  • 20 co-productions.

Read the PDF here.

My take: With a budget of $188 million, it works out to about $5 per person in Canada. Not a bad deal.

Titles and Thumbnail are Critical to Your Success

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Kent Lamm of Standard Story Company warns that YouTube will BURY your films without this. The this? Your title and thumbnail.

He says:

“Getting your film SEEN in the Age of YouTube is a different game. Your title and thumbnail have a huge effect in how many people will watch your movie. Give your short film or feature its best shot by optimizing your title and thumbnail and planning ahead.”

The Title should be:

  1. meaningful for your film,
  2. unique,
  3. catchy,
  4. grammatically simple,
  5. seo-able, and
  6. have an available domain name.

He admires the way Omeleto titles their films: Logline sentence. | Film Title

He also thinks getting the genre into the title helps.

The Thumbnail should be:

  1. a compelling image that’s going to get people interested,
  2. most likely a frame-grabbed close up of the main character,
  3. but why not get some dedicated stills on set?

My take: This stuff can’t be an afterthought. In fact, I think that after the film title, the film logo and one central image can really help you fine tune the script, narrow the audience and solidify the entertainment promise (probably because I worked as a graphic designer for many years.) Oh, as to the title, you might as well choose from the beginning of the alphabet rather than the bottom half.

BIFA replaces gendered acting awards

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Annie Martin reports on UPI that the British Independent Film Awards introduce gender-neutral acting categories.

She says:

“BIFA will replace its gendered acting categories with five new awards: Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Joint Lead Performance — for two or three performances that are the joint focus of the film — and Best Ensemble. The new categories join Breakthrough Performance. Other organizations have also switched to gender-neutral categories, including the Berlin Film Festival, the MTV Movie Awards and the BRIT Awards.”

Meanwhile, John Norris argues on The Daily Beast Why the Oscars Should Do Away With Gender.

He says:

“It’s long past time for acting awards like the Oscars to be non-gendered. Whenever this, to my mind, sensible, modest proposal is brought up, the objections generally come down to three areas: (1) that if men and women competed against one another for Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, BAFTAs and Golden Globes, the result would be an XY tsunami, in which women would hardly stand a chance; (2) the inequality of acting opportunity in Hollywood and beyond is so skewed in favor of men that having separate female categories is necessary; and (3) that no one, from award show producers to networks to the public, wants to see any change that could potentially decrease the number of stars on stage or on a red carpet in a designer gown.“

He proposes that the two five-person categories should be combined into one ten-person category. Note that Best Picture is a ten film category.

My take: just to play Devil’s Advocate, I think we should acknowledge more excellence by female creators and therefore recognize male and female winners in every category. How about separate nights for each Academy Awards: one night the women can bask in their collective successes and the next the men can duke it out among each other for supremacy?

Netflix Approves Sony FX3 Cinema Camera

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Alyssa Miller reports on No Film School that The Sony FX3 Gets the Netflix Stamp of Approval and Why You Should Care.

She says:

“Netflix has just approved the Sony FX3 to be used for its 4K Netflix Originals. This approval is a result of the latest Firmware 2.0 that constitutes a major upgrade to the FX3 capabilities regarding cinematography and workflow.”

She goes on to explain Netflix’s minimum camera standard:

“Not only does the camera need the ability to record in 4K, but it also has to have a bit depth of 10-bit or higher, a data rate with a minimum of 240Mbps at 24FPS, a screen-referred color space, a scene-referred transfer function, and a timecode written as metadata, and it has to be capable of jamming to an external source. And this is just the start of the list, as ergonomics, durability, and usability also come into play.”

And why you should care:

“Why? Standards. Not in the biblical sense, but in manufacturing. Most camera brands (save for maybe Sony) aren’t building their next camera with a specific exhibition in mind. Codecs are all over the place, not all sensors are the same, and sometimes you even have to worry about overheating. Those kinds of issues on a film set can break your film. So if an exhibitor sets some standards for camera manufacturers, we’re inclined to support it, whether or not we’re shooting for Netflix.”

Here’s Netflix’s “cheat sheet” for FX3 camera settings and the Sony firmware update.

My take: I haven’t checked the prices of all the cameras on the Netflix list but this is probably the cheapest. Just sayin’.

U.S. Cinema Chain Woos Indie Filmgoers

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Jill Goldsmith writes on Deadline that Marcus Theatres Nudges Patrons Toward Indie Films With Loyalty Program.

Marcus Theatres of the Marcus Corporation is the fourth-largest cinema chain in the U.S. with over 1,000 screens.

The new monthly subscription plans are MovieFlex ($9.99) and MovieFlex+ ($14.99.)

Jill quotes Marcus CEO Greg Marcus as saying, “We can’t live off just blockbusters. We cannot just live off dinner. We need breakfast and lunch too.”

“The question is, is there enough demand in the market? We just don’t know that yet. But it’s promising. We are just going to continue watching, tweaking, working with content partners. But we are seeing positive signs. We want to be a very open book and share what’s happening with the studios, and get their feedback. There’s work to do on companion tickets, and families. And once we get through that, to figure out what the demand is. We want this to be a win-win-win for everyone.”

Marcus Theatres already showcases indie movies in their Spotlight Films series.

My take: I sincerely hope this experiment works. Diversifying the cinema experience beyond comic book movies at a reasonable price is truly a win-win-win for the audience, the theatre and indie filmmakers. It will also counter the rise of streaming and keep another distribution option open.

TikTok virality spawns Spotify streams

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The Pudding and Vox have posted a video that explores what happens after TikTok songs go viral.

They say:

“It’s no secret that TikTok is a virality machine. Songs get turned into sounds that can be used in any video, and if they gain enough traction they can catapult a musician into the pop culture stratosphere. But we wanted to know exactly what happens between a song going viral and an artist becoming a bonafide success. So in the fall of 2021, we partnered with data analysis website The Pudding figure it out…. We were able to follow the numbers to track what happens to artists after they go viral — and how the music industry has shapeshifted around TikTok. It turns out the app is completely revolutionizing the way record labels work, and giving artists more leverage than ever.”

Key takeaways:

  • 125 artists got their big break and went viral on TikTok in 2020. (4:58)
  • When 15 seconds of a song goes viral on TikTok, people flood to Spotify to stream the full song. (6:14)
  • Record labels monitor TikTok like hawks and aggressively try to sign new viral artists. (9:36)
  • 46% of those 125 artists went from unsigned to landing a major record label deal. (14:12)
  • Musician L.Dre says, “The fact of the matter is, if you wanna make it today, you either have to have money to hire people, or you just need to also become a video editor. Also become a graphic designer. You definitely have to wear a lot of hats for sure.” (18:37)
  • Among the artists who had never toured before or played a show about a third of them have had at least one live show and about 15% of them are actually playing festivals now. (20:45)

My take: I know there’s a lot of hate for TikTok but I love that it grants some creative folks their “15 minutes of fame.” The fact is that there is an overwhelming amount of digital content being created every day — too much for any one person to sift through. The kids on TikTok are choosing the riffs they like, turning them viral. Their creators then get recognized on Spotify — and compensated. Once upon a time “Video Killed the Radio Star,” but now TikTok has killed the video star and, in today’s attention economy, the crowd has truly become the curator.

Netflix contemplates changes as it cuts staff

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Jennifer Maas and Brent Lang of Variety exclusively report that Netflix Begins Second Round of Layoffs, 300 Positions Cut.

A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: “Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees. While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in line with our slower revenue growth. We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition.”

Jennfier and Brent write:

“Netflix has lost close to 70% of its value since it announced it was down by 200,000 subscribers at the end of Q1, and expected to lose another 2 million subs in Q2. On Thursday, Netflix’s stock opened at $180.08 per share and was trading at $180.93 just after 11 a.m. ET. Shares of Netflix were trading at north of $600 in January. In its most recent earnings, Netflix committed to cutting costs in order to keep its margins at 20%. The streamer still plans to spend aggressively on content with a budget of $17 billion in 2022 for shows and films. That’s roughly in line with what it shelled out in 2021.”

My take: as digital content streaming matures, Netflix is facing how to evolve into a sustainable business because their model has always relied on ever-growing subscriber numbers. Having witnessed the price double in ten years, my advice to Netflix is to tread very carefully because cracking down on passwords and inserting ads may be the proverbial straw that breaks their subscribers’ backs.

TikTok rewards its creative stars

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Zheping Huang says on Bloomberg that TikTok Turns on the Money Machine.

He reports:

“The most downloaded app of 2021, TikTok has surged to a billion-plus global users, who consume an infinite feed of short clips delivered instantly by algorithm. While the platform has long helped creators… step to the center of the attention economy, the company is only now starting to cash in on all that popularity. TikTok raked in nearly $4 billion in revenue in 2021, mostly from advertising, and is projected to hit $12 billion this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. That would make it bigger than Twitter Inc. and Snap Inc. combined — three years after it started accepting ads on the platform.”

“With a billion monthly active users, TikTok is still smaller than Facebook (2.9 billion) and Instagram (2 billion), also part of Meta. Yet TikTok’s programming is proving unusually compelling: Its average user in the US now spends about 29 hours a month with the service, more than Facebook (16 hours) and Instagram (8 hours) put together, according to mobile researcher Data.ai. Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University Stern School of Business, has likened the service’s addictiveness to opium.”

“TikTok is starting to show the profit potential in countries like the US. The company is now charging as much as $2.6 million for a one-day run of a TopView ad — the first thing that pops up on users’ feed when they open the app — roughly four times what it charged a year ago, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg News. A 30-second Super Bowl ad runs about $6.5 million — but TikTok can charge that rate every day.”

“TikTok set up a $200 million fund in 2020 to pay creators to get views, and pledged to grow the pool to $1 billion in the US over the next three years.”

My take: this fascinates me. Creators tell stories to audiences, almost always mediated by some platform. These platforms create the commercial market. Once upon a time it was Hollywood. Then it was network television. Then it was cable television. For a brief moment it was VHS and DVD. Then online and Netflix et al. Today, the online space has short-circuited these markets, allowing audiences and creators to interact with no friction. I’m amazed at how innovative it all is!