Mon Oct 05 18:20:42 1998
Subject: Re: Washington



> > anyone who understands the business of art, and knows how to run
> > a creative team, could carve out a healthy business space.
> 
> think so?
> 
> [...]
> 
> anyway, I always thought entertainment is a tough business and the
> group here seems to support that view.


oh, i won't debate that the entertainment business is tough, but part
of the problem is that artists tend to think rather stereotypically
when it comes to making money.   there are more truly pathetic
business people running theatrical companies than you'd believe.   it's
much the same problems creatives are facing on the web.. you may be a
writer or a graphics whiz, but if you don't know all that horrible
stuff like budgeting and project management, you're gonna get screwed.

theatre companies are usually started by actors who've turned
director, and who don't really want to become entreptreneurs.   they
try to bootstrap their way up financially, but don't have a coherent
list of strategic investments.   as a result, they try to push too
hard with limited resources at the start.. i've never met a director
in my life who didn't want to get $50,000 worth of production out of a
$500 budget.   they get buried under incidental maintenance expenses,
and plateau out at the level where their inner fire matches their
financial burn rate.


there are two secrets to making entertainment pay.   the first is to
invest in the highest quality physical goods you can afford, and the
second is to get the f*ck out of the way of the artists.

a director with a $500 budget should spend that money on something
they can re-use in future productions.. not on trying to make a piece
of flashy, throw-away scenery look like it cost a fortune.   the more
times you do that, the more you resources you have on hand for the
next production.   each show gets a bit better looking, because it can
take advantage of the investments made by the ones that went before.
eventually, you can afford to do shows that have enough of a budget to
absorb a few hundred bucks in throwaway expenses, you just have to
build up to it.


in the meantime, you have to recognize that an artist is by definition
the biggest source of value-added effort in the known universe.   they
take almost nothing in physical resources and turn it into a product
people will pay for.   in theatre it's even better, because the
product disappears as soon as it's created.   there are also stylistic
ways of dealing with any lack of resources.   if you can't afford a
$10,000 chandelier for the ballroom scene, draw one with black magic
marker on a piece of white cardboard and fly it in.   use that as a
theme in your designs, and you can do _MAME_ for $150.   the point is
that once you've sold the convention to the audience, they don't
*care* about the difference any more.

the problem is that most producers think that having money to spend
gives their opinions the same weight as those of the artists, which is
absolutely insane if you look at it rationally.   the producer invests
in the artists because he knows they mint value out of thin air, and
he wants a piece of it.. that's all.   if artists knew enough about
contracts and business to put that on paper, they'd have a "keep your
goddam mouth shut" clause written right into the boilerplate.   sure,
that might turn away some investors, but only the ones most likely to
cause problems.   spend a few seasons bringing in profits, and you
won't have any trouble finding people who want to jump on the
bandwagon.


i've no doubt that the company you mentioned is talented and
motivated.   but if you sit down and actually talk to them about their
planning and their long-term strategies, with the same mindset you'd
use setting up a web project, i bet you'll find that their business goals aren't very sophisticated.