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. Most lawyers I know would rather be
creative artists but are reluctant to surrender their mega ego security
blanket money trips.
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?
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