James Schamus, the legendary Oscar-nominated producer who directed films such as 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 deal with Warner Bros., and the pitfalls of algorithm-based distribution in his keynote address at Sweden’s Gothenburg Film Festival.
Seamus is currently president of Symbolic Exchange, a New York-based company that has recently worked on acclaimed indie titles such as Kitty Green’s The Assistant. He was in Gothenburg as head of the festival’s Ingmar Bergman Competition, inaugurating the event’s prestigious Nordic film market by selecting first-time directors and offering a wide-ranging perspective on the current state of the audiovisual industry. Regarding the deal between Netflix and Warner Bros., the screenwriter said, “Right now it’s about integration.”
“Ted Sarandos is an excellent businessman and leader,” he added. “He’s made it clear that he thinks his competitors distract from the screens he controls. That’s why we’re there. The economy of attention is an economy of distraction. It requires creating a human audience that is so distracted that it becomes trapped within the data environment that the media conglomerates are trying to control. Our job is to try to resist the death of content and the third law of content thermodynamics that makes everything we do completely predictable.”
The producer concluded this idea firmly by saying, “It’s going to be bad news, at least for a while. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Continuing the conversation about the influence of Netflix and other major global streamers, Sheamus spoke at length about the issue of “taste communities.” Netflix divides its huge subscriber base into thousands of small communities based on viewers’ past viewing behavior. These groups not only inform what you see on a streamer’s landing page, but also help tune the algorithm for each user.
“assistant”
Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street
“It used to be that if you made a movie, you wanted to pitch your movie or show to a distribution platform that wanted to share your show or movie with as many people as possible in space,” Seamus said after asking if anyone in the audience knew how taste communities worked. “They take pride in making sure that as many people around the world as possible know about what you create, right? That’s literally the opposite of the business model of the downstream distribution companies that are now the economic engine of our entire industry. I’m not making this up. The people who are selling your show, their number one job, believe it or not, is to make sure that as few people as humanly possible get to know about your show.”
The veteran explained how the top left corner of Netflix’s landing page is “real estate.” As the user continues to scroll through the first few services, frustration increases and the feeling that “there’s nothing to see here” grows. If such an experience is repeated several times, the chances of a streamer losing its subscribers increase significantly. “Opportunity is what makes or breaks these platforms. If you fail too many times, you start scrolling and the platform dies.”
“You have to be distracted to become their ultimate customer,” he added. They don’t want you to choose. If you are choosing, they have already lost you. Netflix spent $18 billion on content last year. So every week, between $200 million and $500 million, it’s like a sperm swimming to the left trying to get there. ”
James Seamus at the Gothenburg Film Festival, presented by Rafa Sales Ross
In a sudden change of direction, Seamus said he finds “inspiration” in “human beings’ ability to show up.” The veteran producer addressed the current situation in Minnesota. Minnesota is currently the epicenter of large-scale sociopolitical unrest following the fatal shooting of a US citizen by federal immigration agents for the second time in less than a month. In early January, Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer, and on Saturday, Alex Preti was shot and killed by another officer.
“The biggest piece of scary news coming out of the United States right now is that Minnesota went on a general strike last week,” he said. “Every teacher, every postman, everyone came. People show up for each other every day. When we go scouting to different towns and locations during production, we have a reason to go into people’s homes, and that’s so interesting. That ability to break through barriers, we have that privilege, and it’s great to use that to tell stories.”
Finally, the producer briefly commented on his role as head of the Ingmar Bergman Competition in Gothenburg, saying that he loves such an experience as he gets to see films from his early career. “Generally, these films are not going to be the most accomplished films at the festival,” he noted. “I’m literally watching people actively wrestle with media that they don’t have full control over yet. The excitement is seeing people do things that are often much more interesting than what professionals like me would do because they don’t have control.”
As for the near future, Sheamus just finished filming a mainstream comedy in Mexico, which he briefly called a “huge commercial proposition for Latin America.” The “Indignation” director will also serve as a consulting producer and writer for the “Stranger Things” creative team’s upcoming series “The Boroughs.”
