The Challenge for the Creative Class
You don't take my word for it, there's a whole school of "Third Wave" economists (most notably Chris Anderson's Long Tail), whose niche market entertainment theories and business models can back me up.
Or you could just do the math.
The question isn’t "can" short films be profitable. The question is: Where will the shorts that feed these burgeoning markets be produced? The overwhelming consensus among distributors is that there is a built-in bias favoring both comedies and American made films (comedies are among the international market’s biggest sellers). But that advantage has been largely ignored and the door won’t stay open forever.
This is a tremendous opportunity and boutique production companies should be the result.
Ever since the Tarantino Generation hit film-schools en masse back in the 90s, most large urban areas have suffered from an over-abundance of both comic and filmmaking talent. Fortunately for them, those same areas are also rife with investors on the look out for new opportunities. After all, Tom Friedman’s popular Flat World theory goes both ways. We're sitting on the cusp of an opportunity that only vision can exploit.
Creating short-form filmed entertainment for a changing world.
The films will be produced somewhere. If we decide to make it here, it will definitely bring much needed revenue and film financing dollars into our cities. Last year, Dallas-Fort Worth’s “new media” community brought a staggering $800 million in revenue—with only a fraction of even Miami or Boston's creative resources. This time, being late for a party won’t be a good thing, or good enough.
Or you could just do the math.
The question isn’t "can" short films be profitable. The question is: Where will the shorts that feed these burgeoning markets be produced? The overwhelming consensus among distributors is that there is a built-in bias favoring both comedies and American made films (comedies are among the international market’s biggest sellers). But that advantage has been largely ignored and the door won’t stay open forever.
This is a tremendous opportunity and boutique production companies should be the result.
Ever since the Tarantino Generation hit film-schools en masse back in the 90s, most large urban areas have suffered from an over-abundance of both comic and filmmaking talent. Fortunately for them, those same areas are also rife with investors on the look out for new opportunities. After all, Tom Friedman’s popular Flat World theory goes both ways. We're sitting on the cusp of an opportunity that only vision can exploit.
Creating short-form filmed entertainment for a changing world.
The films will be produced somewhere. If we decide to make it here, it will definitely bring much needed revenue and film financing dollars into our cities. Last year, Dallas-Fort Worth’s “new media” community brought a staggering $800 million in revenue—with only a fraction of even Miami or Boston's creative resources. This time, being late for a party won’t be a good thing, or good enough.
1 comment:
"Does everyone know about the AOL Moviefone Short Film festival? Short Filmmakers can submit work for the chance to win cash and a meeting real live Hollywood Producer besides. The films accepted into the AOL MoviePhone Short Film Festival will be seen by AOL's audience. Here's a link to the AOL MOVIEPHONE Festival's main page:
http://movies.aol.com/short_film_festival"
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