Not A Mission
Statement

I googled “will smith bright,” and the top response was, “Why was Bright such a bad movie?” The easy answer is that it simply does not matter to Netflix if the product they sell is good or not. This is truly a “Brave New World” in consumerism; a disconnect between quality and product! If you’re a capitalist, it’s the most anti-capitalist development we’ve seen – Adam Smith is rolling over in his grave. Truly, it is the equivalent of Soviet communism, where the masses have no say over the products developed by the State or their quality. (I have never heard this comparison, but, I assure you Bezos, Hastings and Cook would go crazy with denials.) In this new Digital Corp-oratocracy the consumers voice has been diminished. (Much like Justice Kennedy disenfranchised voters when he gleefully handed down Citizens United allowing all corporations, including foreign corps, the ability to pour unlimited money into elections drowning out the voice of voters). 

As I said earlier, policy choices have consequences. One that I’ve noticed from the development of this new digital environment is the loss of “American film.” What does this mean? American film was a development of the industrialization of the early 20th century. If Ford could figure out a way to make cars more efficiently, then the same could be done for filmed entertainment. Nobody put this model to test better than Hollywood - a company town, like Detroit, but instead of cars, they made dreams. Hollywood developed a system that required maximum collaboration. Like any company, a studio had writers in one wing, actors on contract available at a moment’s notice, directors were the project heads but replaceable (4 directors worked on The Wizard of Oz) and producers oversaw it all – and they were ultimately responsible for success or failure.  Studios knew one thing: You can never predict the success or failure of a movie, so you make ALL kinds of movies. This shotgun approach served different audience tastes. (Do be aware of Hollywood commandment number four, “to make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.”-Alfred Hitchcock.) In the ‘80s studios saw that making films was hit-and-miss at the box office but distributing films someone else financed was a guaranteed winning revenue stream. So, the business model changed from producing content to distributing content. This had the effect of ending collaborative filmmaking as a model and shifting to the European model of the “auteur” filmmaker. (In the post-war era, re-building European countries had smaller resources to devote to content, so the auteur model developed. One director/writer with a small crew and a stunted budget would make films with a unique vision reflecting the auteur’s personal voice.) This gave rise to great auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and not-so-great auteurs like Roger Corman.

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Altering this model to emphasize revenue over storytelling has had a ripple effect throughout the industry. Without an active industry to manufacture product, the steady supply of investment capital has shifted. Unions have been hit hard. Once the key to quality production, companies like those formed by Tyler Perry moved out of state to avoid paying union rates. SAG even approved paying minimum wage to their members. Like Detroit, the money that paid those who manufactured the product diminished while those few performers at the top of the pyramid controlled even greater benefits. Indeed, in the new streaming model, the package - not the script - drives production now. [Side Note: Is there a film that I think captures the American Century? Yes. The Apartment. Capitalized on later by the excellent Mad Men. And the best American director was an Austrian Jew, Billy Wilder who described himself thusly; “I’m a writer who directs his movies to protect his stories.”]