13 May Creative Obsession
I recently came across statistics that claimed that more than 1,200 hundred feature films were shot in the United States in 2023. Likely even higher than that when you consider the number of films that were shot, but never completed. Juxtapose that with the roughly 15,000 films that were made between 1990-1999 in TOTAL.
The staggering difference is largely due to the explosion in streaming services and direct-to-consumer distribution. As everyone in the film industry scrambles to figure out how to survive in the entertainment industry, I have been thinking a lot about what seems lost in the conversation: creative obsession.
Although the flood of streaming opened up an exponential increase in filmmaker opportunities, it also seems to have clogged the distribution pipeline with copies of films that found success in prior years. These kinds of projects are rarely a filmmaker’s creative obsession. They are more about feeding content to an audience based on what was recently on the menu.
The film industry has always been a unique balance of commerce and art. You need both to keep the business working and audiences entertained, educated and maybe even changed at times.
Yet, the creative obsession that drives new filmmakers to get their vision into the world gets almost no traction with traditional distribution and studio financing. Because of the glut of content, the risk/reward ratio has been altered. Right now, lowest risk/lowest reward is considered the best option and we all tend to desperately grab it!
The evolution of distribution avenues is homogenizing filmmaking into the general category of ‘content creation.’ Because there is no difference in viewing experience between YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon & Apple, and a theatrical release of a film is considered a lottery win—independent filmmakers are scrambling to find their distinct voices.
As a producer and filmmaker, it is startling how many conversations I’ve had where the obsession is over how a project can be the next ‘fill in the blank’ movie. The blank isn’t a script that has substance or a unique vision. It is generally a movie that is a carbon copy of a carbon copy.
When I ask these filmmakers why they want to make the movie, the answer inevitably reveals no passion about the story itself. The excitement centers on why the film could catch the current wave of distribution. Of course, by the time any film gets greenlit, prepped, shot, edited, mastered and ready for buyers, it is likely a year or more. That is easily enough time for the in-vogue buying trend to switch three times.
For the most part, films that historically break out critically and/or commercially are not carbon copies of what has been done prior. They were a unique story, or filmmaker’s vision that started another inevitable trend to replication.
There is no need to blame the streamers or the studios for not diversifying the film offering in the marketplace. They are serving bosses, boards and shareholders that cannot survive a risk that doesn’t deliver a clear and immediate reward—or at the very least, doesn’t lose too much money. This reality puts the burden on the screenwriter, director or creative producer to forge a path for their film outside of traditional financing and distribution.
The irony is that risks in the arts are the same risks in every single industry. From technology to transportation to energy, to medicine—success means that someone went outside conventional thinking and followed a creative obsession to bring a new idea into the world. When the creative entrepreneur breaks through the noise, industries grow, employment increases, and the world leaps forward.
If you are an aspiring filmmaker,I sincerely hope that your creative obsession will not be deterred by the menu of indistinguishable films that fill your devices. Do not give up on the unique idea that devours your thoughts. Invite others into your obsession and keep moving forward. If your film never gets made, I promise you that your passion will plant seeds of courage in dozens of people who joined your dream.
Then, when you see their fortitude, luck, and talent push their dream into reality, you’ll know that your creative obsession had immeasurable value.