Another guest post from Cam Hui:
I see that they’ve released a re-make of Fame, the musical from 1980 that follows the lives of a group of students at the New York Academy of Performing Arts. The lyrics of that title song of the film were “I'm gonna live forever/I'm gonna learn how to fly…”
Just as medical schools don’t teach doctors how to run a medical practice, film schools don’t teach filmmakers how to run a film business. Like many artists before them, they fall into the trap of wanting to live forever – and they fail in the business.
If I were in the business, I wouldn’t want to live forever. I would want to practice my art and at the same time make a business of it.
Creativity + Robust business model = Success
Filmmaking is a creative business, but it's still a business. You need the combination of vision, creativity, a competitive advantage and the right business model to be successful. The success of the Star Wars franchise was a combination of good storytelling and the taking advantage of computer animation techniques which were coming in use at the time. By contrast, the film Tron, which was made in the same era, failed because it was all special effects and no story.
On the other hand, the lack of a robust business model has also made many film ventures disappear, never to be heard from again. Disney or MGM can make flops, but proper risk controls are in place so that any single flop doesn't render the studio insolvent.
I have found that finding the right framework for analysis makes a problem simple. Otherwise, excuses of “nobody knows anything” become a crutch for failure, a cop-out.
Be formulaic in business, but not creatively
While the expression of “nobody knows anything” is applicable to the creative process, it is not applicable to the creation and implementation of a business model. This is not a prescription to be formulaic in your creative endeavours, but to be formulaic in your business ones.
The trick is, of course, is to find the right framework for a business model. Here is one that I would suggest that I believe could be adapted to the filmmaking world. In my previous life as a fund manager, pension fund sponsors evaluated investment managers based on the 5Ps:
Philosophy: Where do you believe the opportunity lies?
Process: How are you going to capitalize on that opportunity?
People: What skills in your organization do you need to implement the Process?
Portfolio: Does your portfolio reflect what you say about your Philosophy and Process?
Performance: What is your track record?
In practice the last two Ps can be ignored. Many filmmakers have little or no track record, but that doesn’t have to be an impediment. Moreover, past performance is not reflective of future returns.
It is therefore important to focus on the first three Ps. In a future post, I will consider the case study of a well-respected independent production company was grounded in the 3Ps that was able to achieve some modicum of financial success. In process, they were able to “live forever.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wes,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. You made a perceptive comment about the need to see both aspects of any kind of work: Art as well as business. In fact, both feeds off each other. Without the creativity aspect, there is no business. Without the funding aspect there is no sustained levels of creativity. Isn't that a good reason for people of diverse callings (both artists and businesspeople) to work together and sustain each other further? Ideally, we may even need a third component called the bridge. This 'bridge' has to constantly remind both the artist and the businessperson not to forget they need each other.
conrade