For a few years now, the topic du jour at panels and conferences has been whether or not the sky is falling on the film business. Most panelists seem to settle on a common culprit contributing to the malaise: Too many films being made.
Case in point: During a recent conversation between Ted Hope and Chris Hyams, hosted by TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman, the panelists bemoaned this fact, and when Waxman commented that more than 3,000 films were submitted to Sundance last year, Chris Hyams quickly interjected that the Sundance submission number grossly underestimates the real numbers. Based on his analysis of unique, individual entries from the thousands of film festivals that used B-Side’s Festival Genius software to run their websites, Hyams estimated that as many as 50,000 films were made in 2009.
Audible gasps were heard in the room, and judging by the questions and comments from the audience, on Twitter and from those watching the streaming feed, it was clear that everyone agreed that 50,000 films might be 49,850 too many.
While the field is undeniably awash in a flood of (often mediocre) films, we might as well accept the fact that the economics of digital filmmaking ensure that these 50,000 films will likely not just double, but square in number each year.
Contrary to accepted opinion, however, this might be the best thing that could possibly happen for the field.
How is this possible? Because as more people become filmmakers, they will become even greater fans of film. They will feel a more visceral connection to filmmaking and, by extension, this will make them more avid fans of film and eager students of its history and its various niches. For proof we need only look at music - as is so often the case when it comes to thinking about the future of film.
I never walk into the record store and think there are too many bands out there, too many albums to pick from. Instead, I value the diversity of artists available for my listening pleasure. We accept this crowded sphere implicitly, knowing that for every bad band we encounter, there are numerous more that will truly charm our lives. We use trusted source filters -- be they online or off -- to help us find the music we like, employing a range of recommendations from friends, record-shop owners, Amazon reviewers and Pandora algorithms.
Today, while the industry struggles to adapt to new business models, consumers enjoy a time of plenty when it comes to finding their listening pleasure and musicians are finding their audience directly.
Music has always been cheaper to produce than film, on average, and it was the first of the creative industries to face an ever-larger deluge of content as digital creation on one’s laptop replaced studio production. While once any kid could pick up a guitar on Monday morning, learn a few chords and begin playing some sweaty club by Saturday night, they can now mix in every instrument and have 10 digital tracks for sale online by midnight.
