Monthly Digest - NOVEMBER 2018
December 11, 2018 | Dear Producer, No. 33
MUST READ
Despite reading the Creative Independent’s article, How to Balance Full-Time Work with Creative Projects, between the holidays and taking on a new #sidehustle job, I’ve admittedly fallen behind and am sending out my monthly November round-up late.
Meanwhile, according to Forbes, this year’s top earning YouTuber is a 7-year-old child who made $22mil playing with toys, so there’s that…
I’m sure you feel I talk about Netflix too much, but even SNL mocked its thirst for endless original content last week. I said to a friend the other night, ‘Netflix is to independent film like Walmart was to small businesses. Eventually only a few of us will survive.’ Bleak, I know.
If you don’t believe me, read how Netflix and the streaming wars are creating massive income inequality in the entertainment industry in The Death of Hollywood’s Middle Class.
In a play to also corner the kids market, Netflix's $1B Roald Dahl deal may be the biggest investment in kids programming yet and with 100 foreign-language series, Netflix has taken binge-watching global.
But against all odds, producers always seem to find a way. From 'BlacKkKlansman' to 'Vice': 12 top producers talk making the impossible possible and the producers behind 'Black Panther,' 'A Star Is Born,' 'Crazy Rich Asians' reveal the new challenges of guiding great films, from streamer-vs.-studio dilemmas to social media spoilers.
And while Netflix is waging a pointless war on the box office, in old school distribution-land, Roadside Attractions power couple speak about their success with faith-based movies and Focus Features rediscovers its knack for making award-winning films.
In more somber news (because comparing Netflix to Walmart wasn’t depressing enough) last month we said goodbye to FilmStruck and in the month of November we said RIP to the LA Film Festival, 2001–2018.
And after a four-decade career in independent film and television, Jonathan Sehring announced he is stepping down as co-president of IFC Films.
And while Sundance is was built on the premise that it is a festival of discovery, IndieWire dispels that myth in pointing out that no filmmaker comes out of nowhere.
Now if you need a little pick-me-up after all that, read Actress Ann Dowd talk about what it was like to not find success until her fifties at the Women of the Year Summit.
Or watch Hannah Gadsby's Full Speech: "The Good Men" & Misogyny at The Hollywood Reporter's Women In Entertainment 2018.
If neither of those lift your spirits, read how A Christmas Story went from a low-budget fluke to an American tradition.
Keep Going,
Rebecca Green
Editor-in-Chief
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