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World Recession - What's It All Mean?
Posted on April 13, 2011
Why the word “depression” isn’t used is beyond me because as far as I can tell the economy and all of us who have to live in it sure are depressed on all fronts. I say that and I’m one of the few fortunate. I’ve heard stories of people who took huge risks during the depression. For instance someone who spent his last few dollars on a Rolls and a driver. When the head of the studio where he worked ran out to get in his own car it had a flat. In that moment with his last dollars spent, his life changed when the studio head offered him the job as a producer. I don’t know how or why those things happen, but they do. And just like in the original depression there are still wealthy people and they are still making movies, and even more so T.V. So, what does it all mean for the people who can’t seem to get the work?
We’ve all heard the phrase, “when there’s a will, there’s a way”, my problem is finding that way. Every day I wake up pained by the “will” but seem to be constantly racking my brain as to the way. Given all of the changes in the way Hollywood seems to work these days it’s even harder to find the right route than before. I tell myself that if I can make it in this market, then I can make it in any market. Not sure if that’s true, but it’s what I tell myself.
The interesting thing is that, as mentioned before many times, the content just keeps coming. I mean, who just goes out and starts a new network? Oh yeah, Oprah does. One of the things that does seem to be an opening door is how we all interact and receive information online. The fact that anyone can view a reel or updates or blogs like this one, good or bad, opens a whole world of possibilities. So much so that musical superstars like Bieber are born and continue to flourish. I’m still working out how to access that world of cyber wonder, but I think it might be a key.
One of the most frustrating things is finding those in the industry to help get you in front of the right people. More to the point is, the right people with the right money and the right distribution. I just heard Harvey Weinstein say that The Kings Speech was made for 14 million dollars and has already grossed over 300 million. He also said that winning an Oscar will probably make them something like another 600 million. For some reason I was encouraged by the fact that content won over 700 million dollar alien robots and more sounds effects than all three Star Wars films playing at once. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like alien robots, but my point is that there are fewer films with massive budgets because people are too afraid to take the risks. Who can stand to lose dollars in the millions on some artsy film when they can bet on a sure thing even if it costs twenty times to produce?
So I guess in the end, in some ways times are tougher and in others they’re more accessible. It just takes some creativity to figure out the key to that access. So I’m off to work on that clever creative path and I’ll let you all know how it turns out… but hopefully I won’t have to because you’ll get an alert on your phone, email, and Facebook all at the same time.
