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Source – Select – Download©
AFM 2008 @ your
Fingertips from the
Nov 5th - 12th 2008 |
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Editorial Comment
Elspeth Tavares
The Real Picture & The Obama Factor
The reluctance to say the market was very, very slow was
evident in the controlled words generally expressed. With an air of optimism as
a direct result of the Obama Factor, there was an unwillingness to pinpoint the
real problems and a tendency to skirt around all the ‘old adages.’ The fact is
the slowness was a continuation of 2007. Where does the lethargy really lie?
Did the real picture of that continuance of 2007 emerge?
There were many pictures – 527 films were screened, and that is a huge amount.
Is this the problem? The consensus is that the buyers were all screening these
527 pictures (the first four days of the market), but how many buyers per
picture? Research by The Business of Film suggests that where were less than ten
per screening, half of whom left after the first 10-15 minutes. With
approximately around1000 buyers attending AFM, that simply does not compute.
Let’s leave the numbers statistics and look at the
‘overall economic climate,’ a thermometer that MAY be closer to the REAL
picture. The fact is that the industry has been here many times before. Is this
time really that different? Yes and no. Yes because the distribution mechanism
available is a changed model, but that model (internet) has not yet matured, so
we could argue that little has changed. Consumers have many more options on how
to spend their time, gaming for one, but this is still not the factor.
There were many films made with equity financing and the
financing is not available. We have been there before!! The industry will always
find new avenues of money, exploit the bejeezus out of it, make crappy movies,
and those players will eventually disappear leaving us with the entrepreneurs,
that band of true individuals who at the heart of the matter, love films, know
the business, and have established relationships.
The fact is those who didn’t have a good Market were
selling rubbish films the BUYERS do not want to buy and the public NO LONGER
wants to see.
One German buyer remarked to The Business of Film, “I
don’t understand these sales companies. They all make the same films, and there
is not one or two the same, but five or six. I go into the theatre and ten
minutes later, I think I have seen this before.” Might we be getting closer to
that 10-15 min factor mentioned at the beginning of this article?
Canvassing the many companies’ buyers and sellers revealed
three recurring points: (1) Relationships, Relationships, Relationships; (2)
Product, Product, Product; and (3) Knowledge of the marketplace from both ends
of the spectrum.
No matter what product a seller has, in the tough economy
and changed environment that exists today, a buyer will go FIRST to the seller
he has the solid RELATIONSHIP with, and that means not only getting a jar
together, but the times the sales agent has protected the buyer when perhaps a
movie has not worked as expected. Companies with good PRODUCT at all levels of
the ladder sold, for instance product that had a different spin, such as
111Pictures with new acquisition Look. Companies in both hotels with good
product all sold very well. No sign of a slow down there. KNOWLEDGE of the
buyer’s marketplace, experience and longevity were all contributing factors to
the positive side of AFM 2008 despite the financial crisis.
The real picture on the negative side is that companies
are going to have to adapt. The ‘organization’s that is IFTA, which presents the
AFM, will also need to adapt. Adapting to a world where there is a realization
that ‘money is dictating decisions’ sounds simple, but it’s not as simple as it
sounds. If there is no deep-rooted change to the fundamental rules that existed
in 1980 when the AFM was established, perhaps some no longer apply. In three
years the AFM could be a market where a larger percentage than there is in 2008
are companies with just one or two films. Experienced buyers will not buy from
these companies. The net result is that they won’t return for a second year.
Also, these companies don’t know the territories; they don’t know the prices.
This creates an underlying problem because each year the number of these
companies increases. I re-call having a conversation with AFM more than ten
years ago when there were just a ‘few.’ Today there are many. Tomorrow there
will be even more. One can argue, what does it matter? It matters because the
companies that have invested over the years suffer. Stretch the mind and think
of it in terms of the outsourcing that has occurred. The world thinks it’s
getting cheap labor, and it has for a while, but cheap comes back to bite you in
the backside and result is that for many companies much ‘growth’ may equal
little or no substance.
The negative factor continues. Look at the many companies
that opted to buy a badge for the buyers lounge instead of taking an office
(give or take 40K all in) when THEY did not have any new product and therefore
had no reason for the buyers to receive ‘the added interest’ compared to the
many companies that had paid for their suites and rooms many months ago prior to
the financial crunch hitting the world. The reality is that post AFM some will
be able to survive, others will not, and others will simply adapt.
The negative factor is, as one seller concurs with what we
have being saying for years, the consumers WILL NO LONGER watch rubbish. We
repeat: the consumers will no long watch rubbish. So what of the hundreds of
films, some of which were advertised in the daily trade press, that were rubbish
depending on how you define rubbish? This is part of the real picture and many
more observations too numerous to mention.
The Obama factor illustrated that
America was ready for change, that Americans are perhaps more educated than they
sometimes appear, that they can in one PROUD moment embrace REAL change, and
that at the root of this change is the question of education. And that holds as
true for a nation as it does for the small sector of the big picture that is the
film industry. We need change, we are experiencing change, and the coming change
will leave some members of the industry behind.
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