The Cobbler: A New Career Model for Artists and Entertainers
by laure on 12 Apr 2010
A media professional with several years of experience in distribution and production, Laure Parsons is a consultant and filmmaker specializing in new approaches and technologies. Most recently Director of Home Media Sale and Marketing at Zeitgeist Films, she has worked for National Film Board of Canada, New Yorker Films and Tribeca Film Festival. She can be found at xplusxfilms.com and infinicine.com.
In the past, high production and distribution costs have forced artists into a kind of gambling mentality. In order to reach audiences, artists had to rely on production companies and distributors, who in turn had to take a large percentage of revenues to cover the high costs associated with producing a film, making a run of books, or releasing an album.
Because distributors spread their risk across many different works, betting that a few will "make it big", artists too were led to a lottery attitude: your work either won big or not at all. If a work had the fortune to make it big, it could sometimes make money for the artist despite many middlemen taking their pieces — but if it did not, the artist was unlikely to make much money at all.
Also, since the distributors would put more effort behind the works that served them better, the "successful" works tended to be the ones which had the most charged back against their royalties. So even the "successes" were of more benefit to distributors than to artists.
As cheap, digital means of production and dissemination emerge, however, a new paradigm for artists is emerging too. Filmmakers, musicians, and writers now have the opportunity to work in a more stable, less risky way — with an economic model like a corner shoe cobbler, with a skill and a loyal clientele. While it may not have the glamour of red carpets and stadium shows, it can be a life in which one's vocation is sustainable, at a level that pays a living wage and allows one to be one's own boss. One trades a small chance of making a lot of money quickly for a greatly improved chance of making some money steadily. For many artists, that's a good trade-off.
Already many filmmakers are experimenting with separating theatrical or broadcast licensing from online distribution or nontheatrical screenings, in what is typically referred to as "hybrid distribution". In film, most of the mechanisms available at this time for generating revenue online (such as iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu) require the filmmaker to use a middleman. Revenues from these services for independent films will generally not be more than $50K altogether, and they will most likely be under $10K for the first year or two, before subtracting the fees of the middleman. Some filmmakers cut out the middleman entirely and sell their films directly on DVD or online, arrange their own screenings, etc.
Other artists are exploring strategies that directly exploit the audience's desire to connect with and support the artist. This is the approach taken successfully by Amanda Palmer (see "Why I'm not Afraid to Take your Money") and Nina Paley ("Sita Sings the Blues"), for example. By completely giving up the small possibility of "going gold" in a centralized distribution system, they've opened up the more likely possibility of making a steady living through the support of a fan base that is best reached through decentralized means.
For the first time, it is possible for a filmmaker to make a film on a very small budget, use promotion and distribution methods that are low-cost or free, and find enough revenue to break even and possibly to support themselves in a basic fashion. It means you probably won't become a millionaire, but in return your chances of being able to support yourself through your work go up, and they go up more the better your work is.
To succeed this way, artists must be realistic about the quality of their work — but that's always been the case: engaging directly with audiences just makes it the case sooner. And artists have to learn some new skills. Finding and engaging with an audience can be time-consuming, and not all artists are equally suited to it. Fortunately, many aspects of this process can be outsourced, and in some cases distributors are learning to sell services to artists instead of trying to control access to their work. There are even tools that allow filmmakers to create their own distribution strategies while contracting others to do hard sales or theatrical booking.
Not everyone who can shine shoes is cut out to own their own shoe repair business, and not all artists are cut out to manage a small business in media creation. But for the first time, artists have a real choice about distribution, and for some of them, being a cobbler will have a lot more appeal than being a gambler.
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Comments
#1 Re: The Cobbler: A New Career Model for Artists and Entertainers
In a similar vein to "not all artists are cut out to manage a small business in media creation", I've found that "not all business owners are cut out to manage the art of their media creation"...even though they typically know their craft well. And just like for the artists, there are professionals ready to assist in getting them seen. With today's video technology and distribution channels, even a Cobbler can get his/her message out to their audience...and look good doing it.
Best, Don Roberts
#2 Birch Photographers
This is great. I think that's what Laure Parsons was advocating: not that every artist should do all this stuff themselves, but rather that the role played by distributors become more purely a "value add", as they say in business. Thank you.
#3 Re: The Cobbler: A New Career Model for Artists and Entertainers
Or you can find people like me who help filmmakers managing their "small business" without taking away any of their intellectual or decisional right. Jon Reiss has call them Producer of Marketing and Distribution.
Laura Costantino
#4 Re: The Cobbler: A New Career Model for Artists and Entertainers
Absolutely -- in fact, I think that's what Laure Parsons was advocating: not that every artist should do all this stuff themselves, but rather that the role played by distributors become more purely a "value add", as they say in business. Instead of a Faustian bargain in which the artist grants the distributor a more-or-less blanket monopoly on the work, as has traditionally been the case, the distributor would provide something more like a service for hire. Artists who don't want to perform those services themselves can arrange a deal by which a "Producer of Marketing and Distribution" does it, for a flat fee or (more likely?) a percentage.
By the way, Laura, feel free to provide a link to your site, if you provide such services.