Distribution : Hollywood is Dead and Movies Are No More by Christopher Cooksey

Great article: "Prepare for the Death and Rebirth of Hollywood" link: https://medium.com/swlh/prepare-for-the-death-rebirth-of-hollywood-f3853...

Yes, I did read that one and have contemplated doing a response video to it. Thanks.

"Hollywood" by which I mean mainstream studios, has been preparing to move into the fully digital realm for years. The Wuhan Virus event caught them unprepared though, and they are scrambling to adapt to where they were planning to be 3-5 years from now. It's a bump in the road for mainstream. It does, however, give a space in time for savvy new distribution platforms to stake out territory. But they cannot be the same model as what we have now. So I don't see the demise of Hollywood at all; just a serious moment when they scramble to pretend that "virtual theatrical" is anything other than far-too-expensive streaming, in a desperate hope that the public is willing to pay 20 and 30 dollars for a streaming experience. Which to some extent, they have been if you believe Hollywood's numbers (I don't). So far as budgets are concerned, mainstream is a corporate animal and addicted to big budgets. That's not going to change. It's reducing those budgets would kill mainstream, and they know it. I disagree with you though that independent filmmakers are "ahead of the curve." I really have to disagree on that. When I look at the 2-4 new "streaming" platforms popping up each week - I see only an attempt to emulate the large established platforms - which are part of the confluence of big budget production with internet economic models. If the people behind those platforms understood the industry, or were ahead of it, they would not be mindlessly emulating a model which economically they cannot do. Also, monitoring conversation among indie filmmakers reveals that most buy into the industry ideas without much analysis. Frankly, most embrace the Hollywood dream which still exists. That's inevitable, really, given that no one in mainstream OR indie film can afford to shatter that dream if we want to sell to the public. But it does illustrate a sharp difference between professional industry (at any level) and amateur industry. The former understand the dream and do not have their mindset dictated by it - in an always uncertain industry, they usually have a plan that makes sense; the latter seem all have the idea that of only they do a feature, they will be a successful producer/director/etc., and that is their goal. Oh well.

I still say Hollywood is done. Of course, there will still be companies producing content from the location of Hollywood, sure but they have lost the relevance to a global market and will now just have to be another player in a game where they were once king. True, many independent filmmakers are still trying to emulate the Hollywood way of doing things and a lot of new platforms will fail. That's just the nature of any competitive market but I'm seeing a lot of independent talent that has been creating content, on their own, for next to no money that crushes a lot of studio produced movies and television and the open-source communities are making it easier and less expensive all the time. Any artist with a decent computer could make a Star Wars type movie from their home by downloading Blender or Unreal Engine for free, along with a myriad of other supplementary plugins and programs. With a little talent and sweat equity, a stripped-down cast, and crew, and the ever-growing landscape of platforms, their chances of continuing to produce profitable content are pretty damn good. Stack that up across the globe and Hollywood becomes pretty redundant. Of course, there are issues that still need to be sorted out. If the tech monopolies keep reaping in as much power per day as they do, it will be a problem but then again, if they're not stopped then filmmaking will be the least of our worries.