America needs to get back to making things other people want to buy. In Japan they do not even track consumer spending the way we do. They pick apart their export numbers. What are they making, how are overseas sales going, and how much better is the constantly improving quality of their manufactured goods? You can tell a lot about people by what they track. Japan makes some of the best products in the world from cars to electronics. Their economy is suffering right now, along with everyone else, but at least their focus sounds more logical.
“US unemployment is soaring mainly due to free trade, globalization, off shoring and outsourcing. We once had a manufacturing base that supplied 28% of GDP. Today it is 11% and falling. During that period the financial service sector rose form 12% to 25%. The result is the most indebted nation in modern history and the destruction of a high paying job industrial base. We as a result owe foreigners almost $17 trillion.”
- Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster, January 15, 2009
What does America export these days? I read somewhere recently that the main exports from the US now are weapon, equipment and defense sales to foreign countries. This may be why we are involved in so many wars. Another export area is entertainment. Basically, we currently make good bombs and movies. 3D animated movies are one of the only types of films that consistently make good money - if they have a great story.
Manufacturing has all but evaporated in the US after NAFTA. We have become a service oriented economy. Many spent the last few years building, buying and selling each other houses and investments. “Servicing” each other in deals that are looking rather shady in retrospect as we watch our global financial systems collapse, getting dizzy watching all the numbers go up and down. Who thought up these bright financial ideas that have brought the US and global economy to it’s knees with a screeching halt? Do long lasting indigenous tribes have service oriented positions?
Digital films are now very cheap to make. Anyone with a decent video camera and a semi recent 21st century computer can create a feature film in their home. For about $2000 you can get almost everything you need to make a feature film starting from scratch today. All you need is a few tips and some time to do it. You also need to have something to say and know how to tell a visual story millions of people will want to watch. Check out Writing A Great Script Fast for help developing a brilliant film idea to shoot.
Many unemployed people have lots of free time and unemployment benefits coming in to cover basic expenses. Maybe there are not as many jobs around anymore for what you do. Or maybe you just do not want another job like the last one and have some time to try a new area. Or maybe you have a job that is not inspiring and want to try developing other skills in your spare time. Some may be able to make a film and sell it before they run out of money. It is a gamble to bank any future on the success of a film idea. You need to know in your heart that you are one of those people who will do what ever it takes to get the job done, make the project a success and create a possible new career path.
There are currently about 10-20 million people out of work in the US depending on what set of numbers you look at today. Let’s say maybe 2% are interested in and capable of writing, producing, creating, directing and marketing their own low budget digital feature film or animation (see Career Change Filmmakers article). That would make about 200,00 new digital feature filmmakers. Let’s say at least 50% of the final films suck. There was great hope for every project, lots of wonderful preproduction was required to get funding, but only half of the films made money. That would still be 100,000 new films to make and sell.
This would create a new digital filmmaking industry in America almost overnight.
If each of these 200,000 new filmmakers got a budget of $40,000 it would cost about $8,000,000,000. This is about what we are spending in Iraq each month. If each of the film projects supported about 4 people who work on the film full time for a year, in one house to cut living expenses, it would create about 800,000 new jobs.
Americans are the best storytellers on the planet if you look at where the top grossing films are made. I’ve taught storytellers from all over the world for many years and it does matter where you grew up. What TV shows you watch matters. What your family does for living and how you have fun with your friends matters.
In each class I teach I try to get to know the students and ask where they are from, and what types of films they like and want to make. In the back of my mind I am also tracking how much help that student is going to need to get to final great script and storyboards. If the student is American (especially from California with a creative parent in film business), raised in the good ole USA, I will make a mental note that this one’s stories will most likely be fun to hear, and will be more about fine tuning and finding their individual voice and story style to show. If the student says they are from China, I silently panic knowing getting their story and script up to speed may be very time consuming and challenging.
During a recent story teaching trip around China, I discovered as children they rarely play any imaginative, or role playing games, like Barbies or Dungeons and Dragons. It is all about team sports and building hive mind harmony in Chinese schools. I once spent two hours explaining setups and payoffs to a group of Chinese graduate student animators who just did not get it. This has never happened in any of my US classes. Their brains were not wired for the narrative structure imaginative story cooking skills needed to bake a hit film idea the way US kids absorb and process storytelling ideas. There are of course some exceptional Chinese storytellers, but as an unofficial box office rule, their films as a group lack having enough suspense and emotional character identification for western audiences. My goal is not to insult China in the above observation, only to point out that different countries have different talents in their populations that are good to consider when creating industry and jobs.
Americans get it when it comes to entertainment. They have been served up their wazoos in this sweetly fun area. Every taste has been catered to 360 degrees, up, over, back around and still spinning with delight. Americans are the ultimate entertainment junkies. The top Google search of 2008 was “Britney Spears” mirroring our rapidly becoming global obsession with entertainment. The billboard ads I saw all over China in 2008 feature blond haired, blue eyed, spaced out, raver kids stumbling around Joshua Tree in the hot California sun, looking like they lost their keys after an all night party binge. A celebrity website recently proclaimed Britney Spears is the most recognized face and name on the planet now. More people know her than the pope or president. Which helps illustrate my new theory that the US has an untapped, unemployed creative career market in the global do it yourself movie making and entertainment business.
If Americans rule the world in entertainment we need to tap this national talent more in the face all these unemployed masses looking for something else to do or make. Let’s get back to making things. I often have a tough time finding movies I want to see or rent. There is always room for films with great stories. The US may not be able to compete with cheap labor abroad for manufacturing some things, but we excel when it comes to creating imaginative mind blowing entertainment for ourselves and the world.
Ask any teenage boy or girl in the US what they want to do when they grow up. Boys will say be a filmmaker, animator, rockstar, sports star or video game designer. Often the ones who are trying to please their parents will say doctor or lawyer. Teenage girls will usually say model, photographer, singer or actress. Kids want to be creative and do something fun for a living. Why not focus them on making films instead of becoming high school dropouts? The drop out rate in California is about 50% or more now depending on how you add things up.
“Idle hands are the devil’s tool” my mother often use to tell me before giving me a book to read or a project as a child. She use to call and say this to me in college too, and I would think “if you only knew!” Most people are happier doing a creative project that consumes them passionately. Maybe people would not be so depressed today if their work and lives had more meaning, creativity and fun. Many professionals I know would rather be creative artists but are reluctant to surrender their financial security.
MyFlik is currently in the process of submitting groundbreaking workforce development proposals to Obama’s economic team, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gavin Newsom and several other interested parties and investors. The main thing all these new filmmakers need is a little training, how to tips, funding, feedback, support and marketing help. MyFlik is committed to getting it’s free online film school up soon to fill the gap in digital media programs, currently under extreme financial pressure at many schools. MyFlik is also lining up investors for funding literally 1000’s of film projects using micro-budget loans and providing an online movie studio system based on great preproduction and story.
If you think you would make a brilliant filmmaker, and love a good story, start developing your idea now. If you think you may want to invest in the next generation of future filmmakers, send us an email with "MyFlik Investor" in the subject line, and we will put you on the list, and keep you in the loop as things develop.
Do you need a new career path? What kind of film would you love to make? Comments? Coming soon a new interactive comment section on each page... | 
