I watched this video of Steven Soderbergh take about his own view of where cinema is and how financing films in the industry is diminishing cinema and up coming talent.

Some of the points I took away:

The difference (and there is one) between cinema and movies

Cinema is something that is made, it’s unique. Basically if that filmmaker didn’t make it it wouldn’t exist in any other form. While on the other hand movies are just something you watch. A line that stuck with me was that not all movies are cinema however not all cinema are movies.

There are fewer executives who know movies and love movies. It’s profit driven while Soderbergh sees it as a talent driven business. That the directors matter more than the idea. You can have a great idea but if it’s not executed properly it won’t be great anymore. While great directors and up and coming directors will bring ideas with them.

You need to make about $120 million on a film to survive in this market. Roughly 30 million for mainstream, wide release and then another 30 million for overseas. On top of that the film distributors take half of what you make.

We NEED more people who are going to take risks and look past estimated profits. Or else the industry will become more and more narrow in what it produces.