Filmmaking / Directing : Sony Entertainment Touts Financial Discipline, Announces Reduced Film Slate by Andrew Heard

This is one of those sea change indicators that few are reporting in any significant way. "Financial discipline" is just another way of saying "We got killed this year"

That is true. The only reason to do this type of thing is losing money.

so they do less, and still lose money. They need to tackle the causes and not just cut back.

I'm sure cutting back is the beginning of a much bigger process.

Agreed.

Hopefully they'll reinvigorate their entertainment approach. With 3dtv being a bust, the ps4 plagued with teething problems, and the film and music departments struggling, it's going to be a big challenge.

My guess is they haven't survived this long in this economy without innovating and adapting to the new reality. They'll find a way.

It's the same thing the majority, if not all, studios are doing. Cutting back, and turning to acquisitions. The only problem with that is they still have to market their products. Why not change up the gameplan and create low budget movies again? $250k to $3 mil. range. Everybody is looking for content right now. If you have a model where you make these, throw in creditable talent and crew, make sure its a genre people are buying (i.e. thriller, action, family...horror) then it will sell. And thus, you've just made a profit. Trust me, Spider-Man and Marvel films are great, but the other big-tentpole movies are a gamble. And if they fall, you have more to risk than just playing the odds where you actually see a profit. Trust the emerging filmmakers, not just the ones that have made a studio film. I've seen a lot of sub-par films by filmmakers that have gotten by just because they play in the system, and have friends.

I love low budget filmmaking. Giving it a sense of scale and impact, as if it was a huge budget feature, it's a challenge i really enjoy.

business associates come and go, a profitable creative partnership can last a lifetime. keep that relationship going, you never know what it could achieve.