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Hollywood Betting Big on Genre Films: AFM’s Vegas Move Signals Shift in the Independent Film Market For the first time in its 45-year history, the American Film Market (AFM) has traded the coastal ambiance of Santa Monica for the glitzy setting of Las Vegas, launching its 2024 event at the Palms Casino Resort. This relocation comes with high hopes for streamlined networking, concentrated events, and fresh energy—but also a dose of skepticism as the independent film market continues to erode. With a notable focus on genre films, the independent film industry is gathering to confront market challenges in a bold new setting. A New Venue and New Energy Relocating from Los Angeles, where AFM was a fixture for over four decades, the Las Vegas setting promises to bring renewed energy to the market. At the Palms Casino Resort, all activities—from screenings to panels to networking events—are conveniently held under one roof, a feature set to alleviate some of the logistical challenges of prior years. By consolidating everything into one venue, AFM aims to foster a community atmosphere, allowing filmmakers, distributors, and buyers to maximize their time without shuttling across various locations. The all-in-one setup at the Palms is already a draw for industry heavyweights. With 286 sales, production, and distribution companies registered, including significant players, AFM sees increased interest from international representatives spanning 80 countries. European delegates from Italy, France, and Germany are attending in solid numbers, underscoring the global appeal of AFM’s new setting. The Rise of Genre Films Amid Uncertain Markets In an industry facing unpredictable returns from theatrical releases, genre films have emerged as a key investment focus at this year’s AFM. Genre films, especially horror and action, command significant buyer interest due to their strong built-in audiences and relatively lower risk. The recent success of horror films like Longlegs and Terrifier 3 has reinforced this trend, with AFM showcasing an impressive slate of horror and action offerings. Projects generating buzz include George A. Romero’s final zombie movie, Twilight of the Dead, directed by Brad Anderson, and the psychological thriller Victoria Psycho, which reunites Sanctuary star Margaret Qualley with director Zachary Wigon. Action films are also gaining traction, with high-profile offerings such as Cleaner, featuring Daisy Ridley in a Die Hard-style thriller, and The Last Druid, a sword-and-sandals epic led by Russell Crowe.

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Heard the city of LA's Summit about fixing the film business didn't go well. Lots of word salad, not a lot of solutions. Here are some easy fixes that will help us in CA pivot towards the future without costing a dime, California Film Commission: Remove the barriers to entry. Right now filmmakers need 60% of thier budget banked before applying. This means any project debt financing first money in can't apply. Any project that hasn't cash-flowed over half of their budget can't even apply. This is virtually every Indie production that isn't backed by a hedgefund or large angel investor. Create a new tier for Low Budget work: under 2 million dollars. Let the Studio movies come in and gobble up the 3+ million funds with a handful of projects. Keep your studio bosses happy, while providing a platform for new voices, new business models, and true film differeniation. Open up Tax Credit qualificaition to ATL workers. This might chase away the George Clooney's of the world, but celebrity isn't what it once was. Now the star is the film itself, the brand, the IP. Have more hits shot in CA, and the needle will move.

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Weekly Executive Briefing: Exciting updates in the industry this week: - First Citizens is now offering business loans up to $250,000 without personal guarantees, providing a fantastic opportunity for clients in need of capital without risking personal assets. This could be a potential selling point for larger projects or expansions. - VFXnow Hardware Buyout Program is offering a no credit check option for equipment buyouts, allowing clients to smoothly transition from rental to ownership. A flexible choice for studios looking to build long-term infrastructure. - AWS is extending financial assistance for POCs, Migration, and Modernization of Workflows for new and existing clients. This presents a significant opportunity to offset initial deployment and migration costs, serving as an incentive for clients hesitant about cloud transition expenses. - AWS Deadline Cloud Update introduces a new fully managed render farm service, simplifying setup and management of cloud-based rendering. A scalable solution tailored for VFX, animation, and design clients. - Secure Studio is offering Core Studio Managed for $3,000 per month compared to an in-house Engineer priced at $120,000 - $200,000. Emphasize the vital importance of keeping security and backups up-to-date while considering the opportunity to provide a co-managed service for less than a Jr. admin. Stay informed and seize these opportunities in the evolving landscape! #ExecutiveBriefing #VFX #media #CloudSolutions #youtube #creative

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Shooting Products can be tricky and very time-consuming. There are many variables that affect the look and dialing it all takes time. #sandiegovideographer #sandiegovideography #sandiegovideoproduction

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California Production Coalition: Fighting to Keep Hollywood Filming in California. https://lnkd.in/g-BtDZgq Entertainment Partners is excited to be part of the California Production Coalition to ensure California remains THE place to film! California has phenomenal resources and over 100 years of experience in productions. Excited to see this coalition being launched today! It's very important to note, Productions in California bring high-paying jobs and economic activity to every part of our state. And I'm proud to be part of the fight to protect that. Are you ready to join the fight for film, TV, and streaming production in California?   Along with nearly early three dozen film, television, and streaming production businesses and associations have formed the California Production Coalition to advocate for policies that strengthen California’s film industry. It’s a pleasure to be working alongside other businesses to improve conditions for filming in our home state. The group, including members like the Motion Picture Association (MPA), Television City Studios, and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, aims to address declining production activity, which has been slow to recover after the pandemic and last year’s strikes.   Representing prop houses, equipment leasing firms, payroll companies and other service providers, the coalition is focused on expanding California’s film tax credit program. Their first priority: supporting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to increase the annual program from $330M to $750M. This expansion could boost local jobs and revenue, building on the $961.5M in tax revenue and over 110,000 jobs supported by the credit between 2015 and 2020, per the LAEDC.   The coalition, which began organizing last summer, aims to educate policymakers and the public on the benefits of keeping productions in-state. They also advocate for reducing red tape to make California more competitive with rivals like Georgia, New Mexico, Canada, the UK and Australia.   With production volumes down 17% globally and reality TV shoots in Los Angeles declining by 56%, coalition members warn of the economic ripple effects on businesses that rely on a thriving production ecosystem.   The coalition’s mission: ensure that Hollywood’s legacy and economic contributions remain rooted in California, while creating a stronger, more competitive future for the state’s film and TV industry.   https://lnkd.in/gxXi4BuQ https://lnkd.in/gxXi4BuQ Entertainment Partners #CaliforniaProductionCoalition #CaliforniaFilmIndustry #TaxCredits #Hollywood #jobs

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You could be releasing your film with a better distribution model You have direct access to the largest audience base in the WORLD and its FREE. Evan Shapīro shared an incredible post on the total viewing of YouTube compared to "traditional" broadcasters & streamers. (the graph below comes from his post, made by him) The stats are astounding. Though Evan's post primarily looks at television, the same concepts can be applied to films. The always insightful Jo Redfern also commented on Evan's post and I had to share it here: "investors really need to consider the vast talent looking to build new animated series, features and games FOR the social first generation to go ON social first and build from there. Many new IP being left unmade." As an indie filmmaker or creator, social should be your first strategy. Get on YouTube first. Grow your audience there. Build demand for your IP, stories, and creative style in real time. Not only do you have the incredible power to building an audience on YT, you are also creating a brand for yourself as the style of filmmaker you are. And you can earn a revenue straight from YouTube. Six months prior to releasing your film or pilot, you should build out your YouTube channel with behind the scenes, making of, interviews, and even vlogging the process. If you already have that content, publish on TikTok and link back to your YouTube channel. So that when you launch your film, you have built out your audience and you can have your channel monetized - to begin to earn revenue. You can spend years knocking on the doors of investors, production companies, and studios. Or you could create and share, build your audience and have those same people come knocking for you. YouTube knows where they stand in the TV market so you can bet they are strategizing how to make that more enjoyable for audiences, and you can for sure bet they will do the same for films.

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📽️👀 Indie films are leaving a whopping 40M viewers on the table. A mind-blowing study from former Sundance CEO Keri Putnam shows that while just 36.7M Americans currently watch indie films, the potential audience is nearly double that—77M people would actually pay for a dedicated indie streaming service. The 118-page Harvard Kennedy School deep dive, backed by Nielsen and Parrot Analytics, shows how badly streaming platforms are failing indie content: viewership has plummeted from 30M in 2020 to 18M in 2022, mainly because major platforms' algorithms bury indies under mainstream hits and there's no centralized way to discover these films. Coupled with a severe lack of viewership data that makes it impossible to track performance, the indie market is operating blind—yet could potentially double with the right distribution strategy. Putnam's pushing to combine platforms like Criterion and MUBI into one mega indie streaming service, plus creating a trade organization where platforms could safely share anonymous viewing stats. The findings offer a potential lifeline for indie films, which have struggled since theatrical releases peaked in 2017.

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✨ **Post-Midnight Video Editing = Pure Excitement!** 🎥 I have to admit — there's something *thrilling* about diving into video editing after midnight! As the clock strikes late and everything quiets down, I get this rush of creativity and excitement. It’s like the world falls away, and all that’s left is me, the footage, and endless possibilities. The late hours give me this special focus, and I’m absolutely *energized* by it! Whether it's piecing together a complex edit or experimenting with new techniques, the magic seems to happen when everyone else is asleep. It’s not just about getting the work done — it’s the thrill of seeing everything come to life when the world around me is calm. Post-midnight editing feels like the ultimate creative escape! Anyone else share this late-night editing excitement? Let’s hear it! 😄 #VideoEditing #LateNightCreativity #PassionProject #ExcitedToCreate #ContentCreation #CreativeFlow #NightOwlVibes

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Day by day we are building something we believe in unconditionally. 📯 Knowledge becomes actions, actions lead to realization. When you ask no more questions Why you make it, this is truly your role in life. #Sacramento #Theatron #filmdevelopment

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"This edit is too simple." ...But there's also a challenging part of doing short-form editing for podcasts... ...making it sound natural. Here's a 2-minute clip that I found interesting about AI and music in one of the episodes of Colin and Samir where they interviewed Jacob Collier and I try to condense it in 60 seconds. 😂 While I'm aware that there are AI tools like vizard.ai, Opus, etc. that can speed up the process of looking for clips and I've used them both but sometimes AI can't get the "tone" of what the person is saying resulting in some of the generated clips sounding abrupt. The cuts can sound unnatural. This is where the video editors come in. 🎬 We don't just edit for the sake of editing, we listen to what the person is trying to say while making it sound natural at the same time. ✨ *On a side note, the background music that you're hearing right now is AI-generated by Suno and I just prompted a genre that I think would suit this conversation and I must say...it's getting crazy realistic. As a indie singer-songwriter, I find this amazing and scary. 🙈 ------------------------------------------------------------ Annyeong! My name is Alec and I play games, sing songs, and edit videos for a living. Let's connect! 🤓 #VideoEditor #YouTube #ContentCreator #FreelancingLife

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To people interested in indie filmmaking business, watch this episode. You’ll learn a ton with Jeff Deverett . https://lnkd.in/et97NkWg

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For those curious about the film, here’s the first trailer.

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Do you want your own category section on a streaming service? Do you have a video podcast, a tv series, an influencer channel, comedy or music videos, class you are teaching, etc...? ElevationMovies.com just may be the place for you! PM to find out how to make it happen! #stream #streamer #streaming #streamingnow #comedy #comedian #podcast #musician #music #band #ElevationMovies

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🎨 Why We Still Need Creatives—Not Just AI 🎨 Guillermo del Toro recently spoke about the limitations of AI in the creative process, emphasizing that creativity can’t be replicated by algorithms. While AI can assist, it lacks the emotional depth, intuition, and storytelling vision that make human creativity irreplaceable. Del Toro is right—true creativity requires imagination, empathy, and nuance. As companies adopt AI for efficiency, it’s vital they continue to invest in hiring talented creatives who bring the soul to storytelling. What do you think? Can AI ever match human creativity? Feel free to share your thoughts! ♻️ #AI #RealArt #opentowork #Videoproduction https://lnkd.in/ekQ9Ruze

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According to a 2017 paper by Jim Rogers, the three major labels control over 70% of the recording market and 65% of the music publishing market (global). The four-firm concentration ratio rule states that if the top four companies collectively hold more than 75% of the market share, the industry is considered an oligopoly.

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