Screenwriting : Hollywood is Changing by Christopher Cooksey

Agreed Christopher however, some of the quality has gone bye, bye too. Holywood has always had cycles with trends, contracts and great film makers passing away. The trick is to absorb imformation from the masters in all aspects of film making...imo

Carl Pepper There has always been bad quality to one degree or another. For every batch of classics from a bygone era that we hold in reverie, I promise there is ten times the amount of garbage. Of course, we want to learn from the "masters". I don't think anyone will or has disputed that. One of the lessons I learned from them is that they achieved greatness by evolving the medium that they worked in, in some way. They didn't play it safe. Now, we have the same opportunity to do something similar. Will most of it be crap? Probably, but so what. We have no control over that. What we do have control over is how we utilize it to innovate within the context of our own work. The medium is the message and will will proceed with or without us.

Where do you get the $$$$? I mean everything I've seen about people making their own movie cost a pretty penny of thousands of dollars. Sure I'd love to have tons of dough lying around to hire a bunch of people etc. but that's not my life. If the script is good enough to get money from a private party then wouldn't that same script be good enough to get the attention of normal Hollywood? I mean, that's what it's about, $$$ to make it. I believe in the normal path, agent, sales of scripts et al. Call me crazy but I still believe in the dream. I write on.

Hal Harley has been making indie films for over 40 years. His latest feature is funded by Kickstarter donations.

Hollywood is gonna keep marching. All the folks talking doom & gloom all the time don’t ever seem to have movie jobs of any significance.

Jim Cummings didn’t wait for permission. He sold his wedding ring to finance his short movie, Thunder Road. It helps a career if you can write, direct, produce and play the lead character. Lots of hats keep you employed.

Dan MaxXx Harley or Hartley?

Hey Christopher. Oh I agree perhaps not ten times the amount of B, C and D movies but true crap. I was talking about the likes of directors like John Ford, David Lean, John Houston, Frank Capra, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Wise, Sydney Pollack, Hitchcock, Ridley & Tony Scott, John Carpenter, Dick Donner, Sam Peckinpah for some.

I agree that those directors did not play it safe and thought outside the box which completely is my train of thought. When I hear that a screenplay that has been purchased from a writer by a major studio with the intent to make the film,( whether it goes into turn around or option it) its all good for me. Ithink to myself, if he or she can do it I can too. There is always room for talent in this industry.

Hi Christopher,

I remember when Jim Cummings released the Thunder Road feature. I did a post on it, and always admire and respect those indie producers who can actually make something independent, and who can actually make that something look like it cost a lot more than it did - and be successful at it.

Talk about winning the trifecta - make it; make it look great for the cost; and make it profitable!

I also remember reading a couple interviews with Mr. Cummings where he shared how he did it, and how he was handling distribution and marketing. He had more than recouped his costs (Thunder Road did very well in France, merci beaucoup), and Mr. Cummings and Sundance did a really nice case study on it a while back. In case you haven't read it, you might want to check it out, and the link is below.

The "Democratization" of Indie Films has been alive at least since the late great John Cassavetes started shooting his films that he mostly financed from his acting roles. Much continued blessings to those who enter that arena. In some ways it's easier to enter that arena now more than ever, and in some ways it's harder than ever to exit it profitably. But even an unprofitable film can lead to future jobs, right?

As Werner Herzog said, "every person should pull a boat over a mountain once in their life." And maybe even more than once. But much continued blessings to all Indie Producers.

And best continued fortunes in your creative endeavors and boat pulling, Christopher - and stay safe!

And here's that link to the Thunder Road case study:

https://www.sundance.org/case-studies/creative-distribution/thunder-road

Bill Costantini speaking about D-I-Y filmmakers, these kids recreated the "Extraction" trailer and the Russo Brothers saw it, invited them to "Extraction 2" premiere.

https://twitter.com/Russo_Brothers/status/1275888415330824192?s=20

Dan MaxXx: LOL. That's a good one. I bet the Russo Brothers will keep in touch with them long after the premiere night, too. The Russo Brothers self-financed their first film with credit cards, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Dan, and stay safe!

Bill Costantini the kids are not accepting "unsolicited materlal!" LOL.

Hey everyone. Just getting caught up with all the comments after the weekend, so I'll try to address them all in a general sort of way. Yes, the old Hollywood way of doing things is dead. That's not hyperbole. I work in the industry and I'm already seeing this in play. Hollywood is going to try to play ball in both games for a while longer but eventually, theaters will evolve into something different or die off completely. VOD in the post-covid market has fundamentally changed the way that people consume media and therefore how we tell stories and produce content has and will continue to fundamentally change, as well. It's no surprise that a lot of people's reaction to this will be like the stages of grief, which are 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; 5. Acceptance. I don't fault anyone for that. I see a lot of one through three happening at the moment. I bypassed all of them and went straight to number five. There's a whole generation of kids out there who don't know anything else like Dan MaxXx pointed out. They're going to smoke us and never know we even existed if we don't get with the program. That's just the reality. In some ways that will afford us some new opportunities to compete independently but in no way will I ever contend that it will be easy. The majority of people who try will fail. That's just the nature of any free market. Pointing out that success stories are outliers isn't proof that the thesis is wrong. It's just recognizing the self-evident nature of competition. Not everyone who wants to be a star becomes one but I'm not really talking about being a star. I'm just talking about creating a successful business plan based on the landscape that is unfolding before us. If you feel like you're going to accomplish some "dream" by ignoring that, I wish you the best of luck. It's not an impossible goal but it is more likely if you take steps to meet it halfway. At least that way if you never are discovered, you still have a chance of getting there on your own. Here's a video I made, regarding what I observe to be happening, right now. https://youtu.be/Z_bhYaEd0f8 A lot of people have watched it and the responses have been mixed. The people who are working in the industry tell me, "Yeah, that's about right." while others say I don't know what I'm talking about, which is interesting because they have never met me, so how could they know about my store of knowledge or how I came about it.

Bill Costantini Thanks for the link. I look forward to reading that.

do you have a plan on how to "reinveint" Hollywood or help the thousands of unemployed Industry workers currently out of work? Studios can't sit around and wait for genius. They own too much real estate, too much debt. This is sorta like "monday quarterbacking". If people think they know better, please show us. Become an Executive. Show us what you can do.

Indie Producer Ted Hope left Amazon after 5 years. I'm pretty sure he had a plan to reinvent Hollywood/discover new Talent. His job title is open at Amazon. Apply.

Dan MaxXx Hollywood is beyond repair. I have no illusions or interest in saving it. It's not my responsibility, even if I did have the power to do so. Why throw good money after bad. It's gone from being a kingpin to just another competitor in the market. None of my comments are in regards to anything more than how I plan to prosper and how I feel other people can prosper in this changing environment. People in the studios will figure out how to build something new but it won't be anything like the old way of doing things. Right now, there's the illusion of choice within the industry. It's very much like the choice between film or digital. For a while, it looks like you have the option of one or the other but soon enough, the old choice fades away. Why spend energy trying to preserve something that's demise has been inevitable, that's had a good run when you can be part of something new and full of potential? I'm not Monday quarterbacking. I'm learning to play a new game.

Video shops

Mega Malls

Fax Machines

All seemed like something that would last forever. The oil industry would be very worried about the growth of Tesla and other EV.

Hollywood as we know it now will constantly change. Will it remain so geographically linked? I don’t know. Industry Light and Magic has the new 3D Screen tech to replace green screen. That can be done aware. Tax incentives have produced runaway productions.

Plus the change of consumer habits.

I made a prediction for indie film (my people) and how covid may impact it.

http://griffithscreative.com.au/how-covid-19-corona-virus-will-affect-in...

Read it if you want. The only thing that is sure. There is change coming. Does the existing film industry have enough cash to influence it will be interesting.

Once the OSCARS no longer need a theatrical run to qualify we will see the industry change drastically.

Craig D Griffiths I look forward to reading it.

Hollywood has been evolving in fits & starts since before the days of the talkies and I'm certain that unforeseen changes are ahead. The basic concept of visual story presentation will continue - I'm pretty sure. It's just the 'how' that will change. Those huge sound stages and physical studios will likely continue for awhile - there's a lot of capital tied up in them and replacing them is prohibitively expensive at present. But their use will likely diminish going forward. The democratization of digital filmmaking assures us of an overwhelming flood of films (videos? - but I'm old) from the Indie Filmmaker segment. The vast majority of it will be (is) no damn good for sure. But from this will arise some creatives to bring us all excellent new story showing concepts and ideas. Although the Hollywood dinosaur may be swallowed up in the La Brea Tar Pits, a new industry will rise. I hope.

Great video! Yeah, I stopped waiting for Hollywood to give me permission last year and turned to producing my own material as a 'micro-series' on Instagram. Like real estate investing, I started small. Real small. Clips of less than 10 seconds. I've worked my way up to 39 second (on average) scenes and hope to some day soon be producing 3 minute episodes :^D

CJ Walley I'm not talking about changing anything. I'm saying it already has changed. No action is required, save for how we can create content and profit from it, now that it has.

Doug Nelson Yes, the dinosaur analogy is apt. This happened with the practical effects studios. They didn't die out but rather evolved into something new, more agile, and with feathers. Natural selection took care of the rest, as it will with so much of the new content we'll see spring up.

Steve Cleary There's a great book that I always recommend on my YouTube channel, called Getting Real. It's not about filmmaking but rather the philosophy of starting small and building up. I approve of this method.

Damian Lloyd Yes, I think that's fairly accurate. Hollywood is doubling down on how they've always done things as if nothing has happened. I see this in the comic book industry, as well. They think they're going to recapture an audience that isn't there anymore. They alienated them by botching their franchises and then sneering at their audience when the feedback and box office came in. I cover that a bit in this video: https://youtu.be/ivbtpfAMY-g It could work but they'd have to go back to their roots, taking chances on new talent and lower budget projects, which they never will, which is why it's a good thing that the door is closed. Independent creators will be forced to fill that void on their own and those who succeed will reap the rewards if they're savvy. I'm not going to put my faith in Gumroad and Reelhouse, though. Not after what happened with Distribber. (or however you spell that.) Not saying they're not useful but we're still in the early days. VOD is a Wild West, as dangerous as it is full of prospects.

CJ Walley Everything you say is true. There are plenty of vanity projects out there being produced by people who are otherwise really poor at business. That's why I'm always recommending the book Getting Real in my video descriptions. I'll be doing a video about this for my YouTube channel because there are ways to overcome these problems if you're willing to (and please forgive the overused term) thank outside the box.

CJ Walley Congratulations. I look forward to seeing it. I think I did read his book at some point. There are so many, they start to blur together. lol. I noticed that a lot of his films have anywhere from 4 to 9 producers on them, as well as at least one name, which tells me that there is a lot of pooling of resources to lift up each project. Smart, economical, and lower risk. I approve.

Has anyone here actually pay money to see "Thunder Road", the feature? I haven't. Only seen the short for free on YT. itunes has it for $4.99 rental.

Though it's hard to tell what's going to happen after the COVID-19 disruption, before that USA ticket sales had been growing steadily since the 1980s. The "bad years" were when there was a year with fewer ticket sales after a year of great sales... but the bad year still had more ticket sales than any year in the 1980s.

Now, the argument against that is that population has grown, so % of people buying tickets has fallen. True. But the cinema experience is far from dead. And if you consider all of the options today as compared to the 1980s, it's doing gangbusters business. People can just stay at home and watch Netflix on their wall sized flat screen, but they choose to go to the cinema instead.

So (at least before COVID-19) Hollywood was far from dead... and if you look at who makes that stuff you watch on your wall sized flat screen - that's Hollywood, too.

Though we live in a time when you can make your own movie and either sell it to a distributor (Hollywood again!) or put it up on Amazon and sell it yourself, that is something in addition to the standard method of selling your screenplay to a production company. It's more options, not fewer.

I have a (new) book on writing and making your own films, or just writing for low budget or indie producers... on Amazon.

CJ Walley Pre-sales are very rare now, so that makes it even more difficult. Selling merchandise sound nice but you have to really nail something iconic that looks good on a T-shirt. The last movie I saw that accomplished that was a horror movie called Terrifier. Horror fans are huge collectors but you have to please them with your movie, first. Pre-sales, as you pointed out, can be abysmal so I wouldn't ever count on those. You're right. Anyone starting from scratch needs to be someone who can wear more hats than ever. You need to have the will and talent of James Cameron in his early days.

Dan MaxXx It's not my thing but neither are most things. I didn't even get through the short film. lol. However, the man must have found his audience.

William Martell Theaters won't go away but they'll evolve into something that offers more so that they can stay relevant. On two occasions I went and got a night job at a movie theater to see how audiences responded to their experience. Once in 2012 while the Marvel Movies were at peak interest. Even back then, the name of the came was concessions. Theaters were doing everything they could to get people to buy, size up, and come back for more. That was AMC and you see how they're doing, right now. The second theater I worked at was actually just a few months ago. I left before Covid hit but made friends with the staff to keep in touch. That was EVO. They have boiling, a restaurant, a bar, video games, sports events, simulcast concerts, special screenings of old movies, and even hosted church services on Sundays, all in an effort to keep people coming in. That's the future of theaters. They're going to have to turn into little mini-theme parks to survive and get families to exit through the gift shop.

I worked in movie theaters in the 70s and it was all about concessions sales back then. The reason was the way $ was split between cinemas and studios - for the first couple of weeks the studio got 90% of ticket sales and the longer a film played the higher the % went for the theater. Back then, a hit movie might play for months!

Now that film has a Blu-ray release date before it's even released.

I noted in a recent Script Magazine article that the JUMANJI movie from 2 years ago was still in the Top 10 box office a couple of weeks after it's home video release - people wanted to experience it on the big screen with an audience. The same thing happened with it's sequel.

But so many movies get yanked from cinemas just when the theaters are starting to make money... so they have to take advantage of those packed houses when they only make 10% - by selling concessions. AMC has been smart, following small chains like Arclight and Alamo and serving real food and drinks. But nobody is going to buy any of that stuff if they don't want to see the first in the cinema in the first place. I don't go to the cinema to buy expensive fried chicken dinners. I want to see the movie on the big screen with an audience laughing or screaming or cheering or swooning or whatever. I want the shared experience of cinema.

And I am usually surrounded by young people in groups (dating doesn't seem to be a thing anymore). I think it's the oldsters who stay home and watch their wall sized flat screens. The demographics are still 15-25 as core cinema age. Those people grew up with all of the other possible ways to be entertained... and choose the cinema.

William Martell The second Jumanji came out before the last Star Wars and continued to play weeks past when Star Wars was gone. The theaters clung to it for that reason. They're always on the lookout for outliers to boost them where they've had to take massive losses on so many other things. That's the future of movie theaters that I see. They'll have to play the content game and become something different then what they have been. They already are but I see them evolving into something that we wouldn't recognize now, just as comic book stores have.

CJ Walley I wouldn't assume that anyone is cheering on the death of anything. I certainly am not. I don't believe in trying to force or stop anything. I talk about these things because I see the changing tied and believe you can either learn to navigate it or drown. When I say that Hollywood is dead, I don't mean that the city is going to become a ghost town. I simply mean that the Hollywood system of filmmaking is no longer the dominant force of movie making it once was and the world will never go back to it being that way. I'm only happy about it in so far as my excitement for what I see coming about in its place. We're not only looking at all new business models in the future but an evolution in how we tell visual stories that will bring about new ideas, audiences have never seen before. That's exciting. Yes, I see people at the Redbox outside of my supermarket all the time. I actually see a huge market reemerging for physical media. People are learning that their digital purchases aren't theirs forever and it doesn't sit well with them.

CJ Walley Regarding pre-sales, yes, I'm sure there are some companies that through their reputation will do exactly as you say they are. Reaching back in time, I'm told that Roger Corman's reputation for turning over profitable movies was so renowned that he financed them through a line of credit he had with his bank. lol. We should all be so lucky.

Yes Hollywood is changing - to what, no one knows. You gonna go with the flow or be swept aside by the tumbling tide?

Doug Nelson Exactly my point.

I agree with Doug plus I quit writing for Hollywood along time ago.

CJ Walley Thanks. I'll give it a read. Yeah, I suppose I know the YouTubers you're speaking of. I can't entirely fault them for their reasons for feeling that way. Most of it seems to be backlash over how beloved franchises have been handed over to creators who don't understand or respect the material, while also being hostile towards the audiences that love them. However, I've personally found the "burn it all down" attitude that many people embrace, these days, to be more than useless. The market will decide and the more people stop "hate-watching" whatever garbage a studio puts out, the less of it we'll get. I really believe that content creators (like myself, if I may be so bold) will create new materials that will become the new beloved classics (some cult, some otherwise) of the future.

CJ Walley Good article, btw. Yes, hindsight is always 2020. On the other hand, I ignore no one. The only thing that matters to the audience is what's on the screen and no matter how it may have come to be there, their reaction counts for data and all data is useful. As far as the marketplace goes, I foresee the real clever producers making their own, outside of the one that already exists.