Film Courage: How has the pandemic changed the film business? Jeff Deverett, Filmmaker/College
Professor: Great question, very timely. The major change is obviously the theatrical business,
theaters closing, so that's had a huge impact on how movies are viewed now especially, the
big blockbuster tentpole releases so that's a big one. But that also caused a huge change
in in the whole VOD [Video on Demand] world like the streaming world. So all these studios
that were probably thinking about becoming subscription video on demand services had
it in the works likely accelerated their plans and now all of a sudden you've got eight or
ten major streaming services when before you had Netflix really was it and then an Amazon
Prime and then of course Disney + was starting up but Disney + really jumped in quickly and
then everybody followed. So I think that the studios realized they needed another avenue
to exhibit their movies because they couldn't depend on the theaters obviously and um you
know that accelerated that so much and i'm not sure if it's good or bad i think for indie
films it's actually not good which i'll talk about later but probably for overall viewership
for for consumers now there's such a vast choice of quality programming that's available
at really affordable prices so i guess that's good now me personally i love going to the
movies like i like a night out at the movie theater i love watching you know a big movie
on in a big format on a huge screen with a great sound system you know in a very confined
you know like dark room like that so i for one will be back at the movies the minute
they start up i mean because i it's a night out for my wife and i i love watching a movie
that way hopefully a lot of people are thinking like me and can't wait to get back to the
movies but you know a lot of people went out and bought really big you know flat screen
tvs and good sound systems and you know and i i did too and i enjoy that it's been a great
way to watch you know content in the comfort of your own home but i i believe that the
theatrical business will be back and it will be healthy and robust and just because human
beings need to go out and need to socialize and and that's a night out do you think things
will be totally the same as they were let's say 2019 right right toward december of 2019
once things start to open up i know we're on the eve of it as of this interview but
do you think things will be returned to that exact level or there will be changes yeah
i mean it's all driven obviously by the the major studios because they have the big programming
that people want to see so i don't know just because there's going to be a decision made
corporately in in each of their boardrooms and they're going to say hey let's do the
math on this if we open you know theatrically for six to eight weeks pre vod what will the
numbers look like if we go day and date what will the numbers look like i mean it's all
about numbers right i mean they're in business to make money and they got to decide what
is the best way to you know to cater to their audience so that they can make the revenue
they want to make so i i really don't know um i know the theaters i don't know for sure
but what i've read is the theaters obviously are going to want an exclusive window you
know pre the vod release but maybe the studios have learned something new that may carry
on and frankly i mean as a consumer that's not going to matter to me i don't really care
whether there's a date vod release with the theatrical release i'll still go to the movie
theater to see the movie because i want to see it that way and i will pay my 15 and buy
my popcorn and everything because i want to go out i mean i want to i want to watch those
big movies that way so even if they're offered at the same time you know on vod i'm still
not going i'd rather consume it that way now if they're not and that's a way to get subscribers
by offering them day and date that's a corporate decision and you know i'll understand but
i don't know movie theaters so if i did i wouldn't understand how has the pandemic changed
your company and you as a filmmaker that's a great question well my company did not make
a movie in 2020 we were supposed to i have a great other new sports drama that i was
hoping to shoot and i've already kind of almost set up pre-distribution for it so i was really
excited about it and but the pandemic slowed that down because the protocols for shooting
were very very restrictive and plus personally i don't really want to do that i mean i don't
i didn't want to put my own health at risk i didn't want to put the crew or the cast
or anybody at risk so i didn't feel it was worth it to to have to shoot during the pandemic
and it's still in you know it's still sort of waiting um i'm hoping maybe we could shoot
this fall but uh we have to see how that all plays out but um i'm respectful of the fact
that hey it's a pandemic crazy thing crazy year crazy almost year and a half now by the
time this is over um but it happens and you know we'll get through it and we'll see what
looks like on the other end so i'm anxious to to shoot a game but i didn't want to shoot
during the pandemic which meant i had like you know a year more little more than a year
to do other stuff so that actually was interesting and you know at first i was kind of disappointed
but then i said let's make you know lemons into lemonade here so i did two things one
is i stepped up my consulting practice quite a bit so i do a lot more consulting with indie
filmmakers and you know i'm enjoying that because everybody is kind of struggling and
going through the same thing and it's nice to chat with people and give them advice and
i think i've connected with a lot of filmmakers and i feel like they've learned a lot and
i've hopefully helped them through stuff and i'm sure some of them will be watching this
interview and hopefully make nice comments but also i started teaching too so i live
in san diego i teach at san diego state university and i teach in the film production department
but i teach the business aspects of indie filmmaking so it's primarily distribution
and finance which are the boring parts of the film business you know the students want
to learn about camera and lighting acting directing editing all that kind of stuff you
know film making right production so they have to take my course to graduate if you're
if you're a film major and they learn about finance and distribution primarily a little
bit about budgeting and scheduling and so it's been interesting because at first the
students are you know a little leery of it you know because they don't realize what that
entails but i've really gotten great feedback on that from all the students who are taking
my course and they're primarily upper level students because they didn't really understand
distribution at all i mean they've heard the word but they had no clue what it is i talk
a lot about marketing and you know how to kind of make sure that you've got your plans
in place before you start shooting so that maybe you'll do things differently during
your shoot if you need to um and you know the whole financing piece everybody's really
curious about how that is all gets put together there's legal terms technical terms lots of
business terms which yeah people who are artists and filmmakers don't really love that but
totally appreciate it once they understand how it all fits together to become you know
the film business and so in my course i call it the business of film um the students call
it the film business i always say you should put the business part first not the film part
but you know they're both equal i mean you need to have the art obviously the artistic
side but they're taking you know a dozen courses on that side and one course in business and
you know maybe that will expand into more i believe in order to be a successful filmmaker
as i've said many times in your interviews and to other people it's really helpful to
know what really goes on on the business side primarily the distribution side you don't
have to do it all and i tell people you don't have to become an expert in it but it's good
to understand it to at least be aware what goes on what other people do so that you you
know you can be part of the conversation and the narrative and and just be a little bit
more up to speed so that when you do cross those bridges at least you know what the bridge
is what do you start out with once you get through all of sort of the the housekeeping
of the of the course and and the timeline and what materials they need what do you start
with so it's interesting um so i teach in my course which is the business aspects of
filmmaking i teach three units i teach distribution production and finance and i actually teach
them in that order so inevitably the first question i get asked is why are you teaching
distribution before you teach production like shouldn't you be teaching you know all the
legal and business aspects of making a movie which is production before you teach selling
a movie or how about you shouldn't you teach financing a movie before you teach selling
or making a movie but i chose those that that order on purpose because i said in order to
be a successful filmmaker because i you know i teach about sort of commercially viable
filmmaking obviously you have to be a good artist you have to make a good film you can't
sell a bad film so i take for granted i say i assume you're going to make a good film
that's what the other teachers are teaching at you how to make a great film so i'll check
that box but before you make that great film you really need to understand you know three
major things who your audience is who you're making it for you know how you're going to
create awareness with that audience and will your audience pay to consume it if you want
to make money with your movies and that's all distribution so it's really important
to understand those components before you make your film because one is you might make
a different film two is you might not make the film you're making i mean if you really
want to look at the business component so that like at the end you don't struggle and
say oh if i only would have known or if i had a thought of that first that's why i teach
distribution first because distribution really is enlightening to understand sort of the
film that you're crafting so that you make the right film so you could sell it afterwards
and and even while you're making it you have to understand distribution so that maybe you
have you're making components that help you market the film or maybe even doing social
media from set or that type of thing you're marketing marketing marketing preparing to
sell your film before you make it have you been surprised by any of the questions or
actually just pleasantly sort of enlightened by how advanced some of these individuals
are when it comes to distribution yeah well no i mean all i'm going to say ninety-nine
i say probably 100 of students who go to film school go to learn production i mean that's
what film school is teaching you how to make a movie i think our school San Diego State
University [SDSU] recognized that it's really important to teach distribution of finance
because those are such important components of being a successful career filmmaker but
for the most part students don't expect to learn about those kind of things because those
are sort of the business things and film schools about the artistic things so at first i'm
not surprised they're surprised the students are surprised when they take the course they
have to take my course to graduate if you're a film major so it's a prereq you know there's
two prerequisites and you know and it's a mandatory course so you know i'm the course
they don't want to take because it's all the boring stuff it's legal business stuff that
type of thing but once they do take it and they start understanding about you know how
distribution works and what the different platforms are and how they buy and sell and
and how movies you know get financed and this kind of thing they're totally intrigued by
it they're probably a little overwhelmed by it as well because there's so much that they
haven't really thought about you know financing a movie is in my estimation far more complicated
than making the movie or editing it um like i say everything's important i'm not belittling
any everything anything but um to understand you know how the whole system works from start
to finish as a business is fascinating for them and and they're learning a lot they're
learning things that they had no idea they were going to learn about so i'm really happy
with how much they're being exposed to and learning but they're also there's lots and
lots of questions because once you learn a little bit you want to kind of learn more
and there's just not enough time to answer it all as a matter of fact i've had to cut
my materials in half twice because there's just so much to teach and and i take for granted
because i know it all you know that they can i can go quicker but but i have to go a little
slower because you know i just throw around terms you know like v o d s no big deal right
like that's if you're in the movie business you know about that you don't know about that
if you're a film student you don't know what those platforms are you've heard of netflix
you know you've heard of disney plus you've heard of some of these things but you don't
necessarily know what all these things are so i have to really take time to explain all
that kind of stuff and it's important because now they have a very good handle on potentially
where the movies they're gonna make are gonna go and of course it's gonna change you know
probably changes all the time but for now.
Questions For The Viewers: What did you like about this video?