What is the Future of Film ?

A couple of hundred folks gathered for the day at the Sheraton Delfina Hotel in Santa Monica, California, for an intensive assessment of the health, the shifting sands – trends both good and bad – and, ultimately, the future of the film business.

Where have we come from, where are we today, where will we likely be in one year and beyond ?

The event producers – Variety and DigitalMediaWire – brought together a ‘who’s who’ of the film industry as speakers and panelists.  The dais boasted a steady stream of thought leaders and success stories in Hollywood.  Rick Nicita, Bill Block, Michael London, Paula Wagner, Ashok Amritraj and Oren Peli (writer/director of “Paranormal Activity”) were among the many luminaries..

The sessions ran the gamut, from the technological revolution now convulsing the entertainment industry (who will be the winners and who will be the losers), ‘game changers’ (how new Hollywood players are changing the business as we know it), new finance models, the next wave of mobile film and video entertainment, how international markets are shifting the business, as well as a dealmakers’ roundtable.

A few ‘notes’ from the day…

• Producers, writers, studios – all of us – are the agents of our audience.

• ‘Write movies, not scripts’ (a quote from Paula Wagner).

• Our business model needs to increasingly shift - working together ‘on spec’;

we can no longer be process-oriented, but must create consensus from the outset

and adopt a success or result-oriented philosophy; writers, directors,

talent and producers must collaborate from the inception, and be willing to

reduce fees and contain budgets, and participate in successful outcomes.

“It’s better for the industry if we are all talking to each other early and more

often” – David White (Nat’l Exec Director, SAG).  Paula Wagner admonishes

“this is not the time to come into the film business to get rich”.

• Conversations are not always easy or speedy, but agencies and talent are slowly

embracing the future reality and culture where full-fee cash offers are not the

order of the day;  they too are ‘in the mix’ and, albeit reluctantly, are selectively

beginning to ‘partner’ up on projects.

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