Last night I was part of a panel discussion at the AFTRS put on by The Australian Documentary Forum (OZDOCS). It was an event for Australian documentary film makers and the focus of the event was changing distribution technologies and new business models.

As the discussion was unfolding, I came to the belief that there is a huge opportunity right now for documentary film makers to document what is happening to the world.

Think about it for a moment…

When people drive past a road accident, they slow down and take a look, even way past the point of impact. They love to look at the ambulances arriving, or the mechanics hoisting the broken car onto the back of a truck…

We are going through a slow motion train wreck to the global economy. The world of content is changing day by day. The environment is in crisis. There is famine in Africa. There are pirates (real ones) in Somalia….

There is no shortage of absolutely compelling material for documentaries that should almost certainly be eaten up by a public that loves to look at the accidents on the road…

Now – as to monetizing that content… That comes from thinking in a totally different way to what is the current mind set.

I talked about it briefly last night.

It is about passion. When people who make music or movies or who write books talk about getting paid for their work, they immediately lose me. That is what put the music industry off the rails. When everyone in a business is pre-occupied about making money they lose sight of the vision of changing society – for the better!

In Silicon Valley when you talk to Venture Capitalists (and there are still a whole bunch there and they are still looking for investments, regardless of the parlous state of VC in Australia) they want to find out whether you have a really life changing vision. They don't want you to be concerned about the business model. Their view is that they are the smart guys in the room as far as money is concerned and you should trust them to help you get rich, while you get on with the vision thing…. By the way, I believe them.

Documentary Film Makers in Australia – you have no shortage of incredible material to drive your creativity. Let it flow!

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Posted in Main Page by Chris Gilbey No Comments Yet