Film Director's Op-Ed Ignores Reality To Push Hollywood Lobbying Talking Points

from the opportunistic-assertions-of-lack-of-opportunities dept

John Singleton -- the director of "Boyz n the Hood" -- has written an op-ed for The Hill (apparently at the behest of two groups heavily-influenced by major studio money) decrying "digital theft." What will happen to young indie directors like he once was, so many years ago?

At just 24 years old, I was the youngest person ever nominated for the Oscars for Best Director and for Best Original Screenplay. My career launched in 1991 — before the explosive growth of the internet, before Facebook, Twitter and torrent sites — during one of the creative and financial high points of the entertainment industry. Even then, the odds of convincing a major film company to take a risk on giving a 24-year-old kid from South Central L.A. such an enormous opportunity was highly unlikely. In 2017, I believe it’s nearly impossible.

I’m deeply concerned the creative voices of the next generation won’t have the same opportunities I had.

So, what has changed? There’s certainly no shortage of young talent. On the opportunity end of the equation, however, you can draw a straight line from the widespread digital theft of creative works to the barriers filmmakers face when breaking into the industry.

It's hard to believe Singleton isn't aware of the numerous opportunities indie directors have now that weren't available when he first broke into the business. It's also hard to believe Singleton truly believes more barriers exist now than did 25 years ago. So, it's not that Singleton isn't aware of the opportunities and lower barriers. It's that he's being intellectually dishonest to further the objectives of the two entities that asked him to speak to Congress about digital piracy.

At the invitation of CreativeFuture, a creative industries advocacy group, and the Creative Rights Caucus, a bipartisan group dedicated to protecting the rights of content creators, I spoke to hundreds of government officials about what millions of us do for a living and how critically important that work is to our society and culture.

CreativeFuture is the rebranded CreativeAmerica: a Hollywood astroturfing group supported by several major television and motion picture studios. The Creative Rights Caucus was formed by reps Judy Chu and Howard Coble. Coble wrote the "Sonny Bono Act," the bill that has saddled us with "life+70" for copyright terms. He also helped push through the PRO-IP Act back in 2008. Judy Chu is basically an unofficial mouthpiece for the entertainment industry, seeing as she can't even be bothered to rewrite their talking points before delivering them.

With this propelling Singleton's statements, it's no surprise he doesn't depict the entertainment world as it actually is. Instead, he's simply regurgitating talking points about how piracy has so badly damaged the motion picture industry, it can barely post record ticket sales year after year after year.

The tiniest amount of perfunctory Googling would have shown Singleton his assertions are full of shit. Indie filmmakers are still selling films at film festivals. Only now, it's more likely Netflix or Amazon are picking up the tab. Not only that, but streaming companies are investing heavily in original content, so it's far more likely these filmmakers will find more work outside of the traditional studio system than within it.

Singleton wants us to believe that if the major studios aren't involved, it simply doesn't exist. (This is what major studios would like you to believe as well, as they treat Netflix and Amazon more like enemies than colleagues.) But his assertions are completely divorced from reality. Here's another eminently eye-rollable passage from Singleton's screed:

It’s easy to look at piracy in a vacuum and chalk the illegal streaming of a movie up to a mere $5 or $10 loss for Hollywood investors. Yet the aggregate cost of piracy goes far beyond that. It makes film and television companies far more risk-averse, narrowing their output to that which seems the most bankable, thereby creating a climate in which no one would be willing to take a chance on a 24-year-old with a script about inner city life.

Where's the concern for the small filmmakers, who arguably lose more when people illegally stream their work? Can't find it here. All I see is concern for major motion pictures studios, that will have slightly less money to screw directors, producers, and actors out of.

And the statement about television being more "risk-averse" than ever flies in the face of reality. TV shows that would have been unthinkable during Singleton's mid-90s prime are being made as fast as TV studios can crank them out, with budgets that far exceed the average major network TV show.

Even if Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services weren't handing out checks to indie filmmakers, platforms like YouTube and Vimeo would allow them to bring their creations to millions of viewers and monetize every play.

Singleton closes his op-ed with the expected "piracy will kill us all unless…" statement:

A critical component of that is understanding that copyright is the only thing that separates 5.5 million working Americans from the breadline. Without it, filmmaking is in jeopardy of becoming an afterthought, a hobby for the weekends.

Copyright doesn't keep filmmakers from the breadline. Copyright can't prevent infringement, so even with the absurdly-strong and ridiculously-lengthy protections given to US creators, the breadline may still be the end result. But there's no proven connection between file sharing and unemployed artists, no matter how many conclusory statements are presented without backing evidence.

Copyright doesn't enhance creativity and it can't prevent anyone from being unable to make a living doing creative work. The only purpose it really serves is to make legal threats more threatening by dangling the possibility of statutory damages above the heads of accused infringers. And that's pretty much the only purpose Singleton serves her: propping up legacy industries with legacy arguments.

Filed Under: business models, culture, hollywood, independent film, john singleton, piracy
Companies: creativefuture

Kevin Smith May Try Crowdfunding Horror Film, Red State, After Fans Offer To Do So

from the i'm-the-cellist-now! dept

We've already pointed out how director/writer/filmmaker/entertainer Kevin Smith is a great example of a filmmaker embracing the model of connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, even to the point of saying that unauthorized file sharing is just a way to get more fans he can "convert." Apparently, he may take things to another level, by following a crowdfunding effort similar to what we've seen with some musicians and authors.

The twist here is that it wasn't his idea. The fans came to him and made it clear they wanted to fund the project. If you are a fan of Smith (as I am), you know he's been talking about various projects he's been thinking about, and last year talked a lot about a rather different kind of movie, a "political horror film" called Red State. Of course, that's definitely a big step away from Smith's usual comic-fare, and finding financing for it was initially proving difficult. But, the fans stepped up:

"I think an interesting thing that may happen with it is--I was on Twitter and people are asking about Red State, and then a dude tweeted 'hey man, what if we pay for it?' And all of a sudden, a bunch of people were like 'Seriously, why not?'"

Smith has said that if he does this, he'd match every dollar donated. They're working on a website for it, but there have been some logistical issues:

"We're kind of creating this website. We're seeing if it works to set up and collect donations. It becomes a weird tax nightmare, though... It sounded like such an easy thing online... but now there's lots of checks and balances to make sure we can do it, but if that's the case, I would be into it, and I'll match it. Whatever you raise on line, like fuck it, you put it up, I'll put it up."

Of course, doing it from scratch may raise some issues, and I'd imagine he'd be better off if he weren't trying to sell "shares" in the film, since that's where things get really tricky, but focusing on selling something else (credit in the film, access to screenings, meet & greet with Kevin, etc.), with the proceeds going to fund the film. But there are lots of platforms like Kickstarter or Biracy that he might want to look into, since they've worked out a lot of the legal issues.

Still, it highlights, yet again, what a lie it is to claim that "fans just want everything for free." And it shows that content not yet created is a scarcity people will pay for. It's still early (and Smith is focused on another movie first), but it could be one of the most high profile movies made using this technique.

But the further this moves along, the more interesting it gets. After a bunch of people misinterpreted the original interview Smith gave, he wrote out a more detailed explanation of his thinking, which is clearly still in the very initial planning stage (i.e., they don't even know if it's possible), but it looks to be about more than just fan funding this one film:

Our plan is to put anything we make into a fund that would, in turn, finance other (cost-sensible) flicks fans want to see. And from that? Build a People's Studio. Simply have any interested/frustrated/desperate party put their script on our website, open for all to read, during a "pilot season" of sorts. Script that gets the most votes, gets the loot. That flick gets made and sold, all the loot goes back into fund for next round. If there's enough loot from RED STATE sale to do so, idea would be to fund two low budget flicks a year. Ultimate dream: Indie Movement, v.3.

Even though a lot of the talk around these parts has been about music industry business models, in the last year or so, I've really been amazed at the number of indie filmmakers who have been really digging in on new business models, with a strong willingness to experiment and adapt. It's very encouraging to see.

Filed Under: connecting with fans, crowfuding, fan suggestion, independent film, kevin smith, people's studio, reason to buy, red state