FILMONOMICS: Dispatches from the Industry Frontlines & Fault Lines - October 10, 2014
Mary C. avatar
Written by Mary C.
Updated over a week ago

True to her roots as a McKinsey management consultant, Barbara Romer did her research before breaking in as a film producer on DAYS AND NIGHTS. She bought Filmmaking for Dummies, soon realized that this was geared towards no-budget amateurs, and so plunged deeper into the financial and logistical realities of mounting professionally made movies. Even this analytical approach had its limits. "I love data, so I was always looking at numbers,” she recalls during one of our Filmonomics @ Slated segments, “but even a year later those numbers were irrelevant with this industry being in upheaval as it is.

In the end, what really mattered most was the humility to surround herself with team brilliance, the honesty to persist in her homework, and the tenacity to keep putting out those daily fires that make cinema such a contagious challenge. While particular to her own filmmaking baptism, Barbara’s experience holds universal truths for all filmmaking teams, whether they happen to be first-timers or seasoned hands. Which is why we at Slated started this YouTube series in the first place. For all the books out there, the film industry is evolving way too rapidly to be contained in static volumes. What is more, its human dimensions are often best expressed visually and verbally.

By drawing on the candid insights of the film business community, and combining that with our own forward-thinking perspective, we want to create an experiential resource to complement the data and networking capabilities of the web platform itself. So think of this as a constantly updating Filmmaking for Business Professionals. For those unfamiliar with the series, here are some annotated highlights from the first nine episodes shot so far. To watch them is to appreciate the degree to which modern filmmaking is laced with both analytics and interpersonal dynamics. And, please, keep watching – after all, today’s numbers will probably be moot tomorrow.

As narrated by regular host and Slated CEO Stephan Paternot, the first video in this YouTube series illustrates how the online marketplace he co-founded uses data to attack the four identified ‘pain points’ that prevent more film projects from finding their rightful place in the market. The results of this quadruple focus are already being felt by members: 50% of film projects that completed financing while listed on Slated have been introduced to investors they'd never met before. For evidence of this, listen to what Barbara Romer has to say in Episode 8.

The filmmaking business does not consist solely of war stories and tales of endless struggle, although these tend to make for good media stories. There are plenty of examples too of personal triumphs against the industrial odds. One of those is NO WAY JOSE, the coming-of-middle-age comedy directed by Adam Goldberg. As he explains here, in wry fashion, he listed the film on Slated since the platform filled a void in a film world “that is incredibly nebulous and involves lots and lots of middlemen.” He also didn’t want to go down the Kickstarter path. “Partly because I’m lazy... and partly because I didn’t want to be humiliated.”

Cinema is a small hyper-connected world – one that is only getting smaller as a result of all those accelerated introductions that technology is enabling. As a happy by-product, the lag between discovery and breakthrough is getting shorter all the time as well, which means more bankable talent coming through the ranks faster. This episodes highlights one prescient example of this globalized film economy and Slated’s early warning system for detecting rising talent: DUKHTAR, confirmed this week as Pakistan’s foreign-language Oscar submission.

This segment was filmed shortly after music icon Neil Young gave equity crowdfunding its own Zach Braff moment. Just as Braff’s Kickstarter campaign opened industry eyes to the potential of online donations as a viable source of soft money, so the legendary singer-songwriter provided proof of concept for online investing by raising $7 million for his Pono venture. Young, who knows how to put together a great band, stoked up buzz by appearing alongside a host of superstar musicians in his campaign videos. Imagine what filmmakers can achieve if they can also draw on their trove of celebrity and brand-name power.

One of the persistent knocks against donation type crowdfunding is that these campaigns smack of desperation. They can make a film look weaker or sullied in industry eyes, creating issues down the line in terms of attracting talent and securing commercial terms with investors or distributors. Equity crowdfunding, by virtue of having to fulfill regulatory requirements and being customized for a community of professionals, helps alleviate that image problem. The campaigns are more controlled and discrete. Judging by this episode, some filmmakers are starting to get that message. Several film projects have arrived on Slated either on the back of a donation campaign through Indiegogo or Kickstarter, or else with the intention of targeting both accredited investors and donor pledges in one concentrated swoop.

As a business forum, the Toronto International Film Festival ranks up there alongside Sundance, Cannes, Berlin and the American Film Market as among the main watering holes for buyers, sellers, agents and producers in search of the next big score. It also serves as a barometer for the state of the independent marketplace – provided you know which signals to read. Just because completed films are not snapped up in all-night bidding wars doesn’t mean that there is no industry business being done. It can simply mean that distributors are doing their scouting and evaluation jobs more efficiently and picking up films earlier in the production process. Exactly which films are pounced upon early these days, and for what reasons, is discussed here.

Christian Camargo freely admits to fulfilling the indie cliché when it came to budgeting his directorial debut, DAYS AND NIGHTS. Whatever lofty number he and his producing team had in mind when they started out on their adventure was brought crashing down to earth. “It’s a very difficult climate especially for anything that is perceived as arthouse or avant-garde,” reflects Christian. “It’s a very timid market. Which is one of the reasons we assembled the cast that we did – it was part of the strategy.” The end result was a film that has the appearance of something that cost triple its actual budget – a feat that the filmmakers attribute to their total commitment to financial transparency. Such an open-book approach incentivized the cast and crew to live and work happily within their means. It also brought out the kindness in strangers.

All we can say here is thank you, Barbara Romer, Juliet Rylance and Christian Camargo, for such a ringing endorsement of Slated’s vetting system. You and your film make us proud. Here’s Barbara’s take on our platform, which was born around the same time as her film started coming together: “All those proof systems are wonderful, so you really trust the data. For me that was key. What was amazing about Slated was that it allowed you to reach investors you didn’t know. They had a natural interest either in the story, the cast, the script or whatever it may be. And because at the time Slated was just starting out, I was very fortunate to be introduced to Steph who really became a mentor and a guide. For Steph to create a syndicate on Slated was an incredible opportunity. It also allowed us not to have to deal with eight individuals. He took that off our shoulders. Which, if you are working like we were doing and you are barely sleeping,... is a gift.

Completing this triptych of DAYS AND NIGHTS case-studies, this segment looks at the coping mechanisms that the key principals adopted in making their various filmmaking debuts – especially juggling so many creative hats at once. For Christian Camargo, salvation came in the form of a basement cave where he could escape the demanding crowd above while sucking on mints and gum. For Juliet Rylance, it was the hair and make-up chair where she could monitor the set on headphones while preparing for her next acting scene. This dual role also helped her overcome any performance anxiety she might have had as a theatre-trained actor amid such a formidable array of film stars. “Because I was so consumed with the producing, I didn’t have time to get too nervous or worried or concerned. It was just a case of 'Thank god I get to just play for a bit and enjoy'.

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