Legendary Oscar-nominated producer James Schamus, who oversaw films like “Brokeback Mountain,” “Lost in Translation” and “The Pianist” during his tenure as CEO of Focus Features, spoke at length about issues such as AI, Netflix’s Warner Bros. deal and the pitfalls of algorithm-based distribution during a keynote talk at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival.
Schamus, now the head of the New York-based company Symbolic Exchange, has recently been behind acclaimed indie titles such as Kitty Green’s “The Assistant.” He is in Göteborg as the head of the festival’s Ingmar Bergman competition, platforming first-time directors, and kicked off activities at the event’s prestigious Nordic Film Market by providing a broad take on the current state of the audiovisual industry. Speaking about the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal, the screenwriter said, “consolidation is the name of the game right now.”
“Ted Sarandos is a brilliant businessman and leader,” he added. “He’s very clear that he considers his competition to be anything that would take your attention away from a screen that he would be controlling, so that’s where we are. The attention economy is a distraction economy. It requires the production of human viewers who are in such a state of distraction that they will be stuck within whatever data environment a media conglomerate is trying to control. Our job is to try to resist the content death and the third law of content thermodynamics that would make every single thing we do completely predictable.”
The producer categorically concluded the thought by saying, “It’s going to be bad news for a while at least. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Still on the subject of the impact of Netflix and other major global streamers, Schamus spoke in depth about the issue with “taste communities.” Netflix divides its huge subscriber base into thousands of these smaller communities, based on viewers’ past viewing behavior. These groups help inform what is shown on the streamer’s landing page, as well as refining each user’s algorithm.
“The Assistant”
Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street
“It used to be that, if you made a movie, you would want to sell your movie or show to the distributor platform that you knew wanted to share your show or film with the largest possible number of people in the universe,” said Schamus after enquiring if anyone in the audience was aware of the logistics of taste communities. “They would be proud to let as many people in the world know about the thing you made, right? That is literally the opposite of the business model of every downstream distributor that is now the economic engine of our entire collective industry. I’m not making this up. The people to whom you are selling your show, their number one job, believe it or not, is to make sure as few people as humanly possible know about your show.”
The veteran explained how the top-left corner of Netflix’s landing page is the “real estate.” If users continuously scroll past those first few offerings, frustration ramps up, and a sense of “there is nothing here for me to watch” grows. If this experience repeats itself a few times, the chance of a streamer losing that subscriber goes up substantially. “It’s the opportunity that makes or breaks these platforms. If they get it wrong too many times, you start scrolling and then they’re dead.”
“You must be in a state of distraction to be their ultimate client,” he added. They don’t want you to choose. If you’re choosing, they’ve already lost you. Netflix spent $18 billion on content last year. That means that, every week, between $200 million and half a billion dollars is like sperm swimming up to the left, trying to get there.”
James Schamus at the Göteborg Film Festival, courtesy of Rafa Sales Ross
Taking a sharp turn, Schamus said he finds “inspiration” in “the capacity for humans to show up.” The seasoned producer brought up the current situation in Minnesota, currently the epicentre of large sociopolitical unrest following the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in the state in less than a month. Earlier in January, Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer, followed by Alex Pretti being killed by another officer on Saturday.
“The greatest part of the terrible news from the United States right now is that Minnesota had a general strike last week,” he said. “Every teacher, every postman, everybody showed up. People are showing up for each other on a day-to-day basis. When you’re producing and you go scouting to different towns and places, you have a reason to go into people’s houses, which is so interesting. That kind of ability to break through barriers, we have that privilege, and it’s wonderful to use it to tell stories.”
Finally, the producer briefly commented on his duty as the head of Göteborg’s Ingmar Bergman competition, saying he loves such experiences because it means watching early-career films. “In general, these are not going to be the most accomplished films at a festival,” he pointed out. “You’re literally watching people actively struggle with a medium that they haven’t yet totally taken control of. The excitement of that is watching people do things that, because they don’t have that control, are often far more interesting than things that are done by pros like me.”
As for the near future, Schamus just wrapped a mainstream comedy shot in Mexico, which he briefly called “a huge commercial proposition for Latin America.” The “Indignation” director is also slated to serve as consulting producer and writer on “The Boroughs,” the next series from the creative team behind “Stranger Things.”
