Recent content by Lucas

This right here. Preserving the illusion of momentum is practically a survival mechanism in this business. A couple of years ago we were involved in a modest regional co-production. About a week before shooting, it turned out one of the financing partners had completely miscalculated a local...

Spot on, Michael. Reading some older sales agency agreements today honestly feels like opening a time capsule from a completely different industry. I’m reviewing an old international sales boilerplate from around 2015/2016 and some of these clauses would probably terrify producers in today’s...

Man, this hits close to home, it’s that classic "kill your darlings" moment and it never gets any easier. For me, the realization always kicks in during the first rough assembly, because on set you’re riding that adrenaline high, but in the quiet of the edit suite you suddenly notice the pacing...

Why Are So Many Finished Films Still Unsold in 2026? At this year’s Cannes market, I met several producers still trying to sell films that were completed almost two years ago. In some cases, their previous sales agents had not managed to close a single meaningful deal. I watched a few trailers...

We were actually talking about this during Cannes as well. A lot of films spend months chasing smaller festival premieres, create some noise for a week… then completely disappear. At the end of the day, a festival only adds value if it leads to real buyers, real distribution, or real audience...

Honestly, over the past year I’ve heard more and more producers say they would rather shoot in a country offering “only” a 25–30% rebate where the system actually works, than in a territory with a fantastic incentive on paper but endless delays, slow audits, and nobody giving clear answers. We...

I think one of the biggest reasons production keeps moving outside the U.S. is simple: other countries stopped treating filmmaking only as entertainment and started treating it as infrastructure. Places like Hungary, the UK, Canada or Australia didn’t just build tax incentives they built...

What I think many people still underestimate is that this is no longer just a temporary cost-saving phase for studios. The global production ecosystem itself is being rebuilt. In many cases, Europe has become far more financially predictable than parts of the US, especially when producers look...

AI isn’t a shortcut anymore, it’s a commitment. The moment you touch voice, likeness, or performance replication, you’re not using a tool, you’re entering a contract system. That’s where most indie projects get it wrong. Tools like ElevenLabs or Runway lower the barrier to entry, but they...

One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough in pitch deck discussions is that you’re not just pitching an idea — you’re aligning with an existing ecosystem. A strong deck doesn’t only answer “what is this?”, but also: “who already knows how to handle this kind of project?” That’s where a...

A common mistake in development is assuming that broader ideas create broader success. In reality, unclear positioning is often what limits a project the most. A well-defined micro-genre doesn’t restrict a film it gives it direction. It helps align tone, pacing, and creative decisions early, and...

Interesting take, Admin. I think we’re witnessing the "Death of the Middleman Market." The reason Toronto (TIFF) is gaining such ground isn't just about the location; it's about the timing. TIFF sits at the perfect intersection of the fall awards season and the end-of-year budget cycles. If...

Really appreciate all the perspectives here this is exactly the kind of nuance I was hoping to surface. What’s interesting is that we’re all circling around the same core idea from different angles: control vs commitment. Big studio films optimize for control. Every decision is reversible...

I think this is where culture and market logic really start to intersect. These stories were ignored for decades, and now they’re being rediscovered in a context where they also have clear commercial value. That doesn’t necessarily invalidate them if anything, it might be the only reason they’re...

Calling Netflix a (trap) feels a bit too simplistic especially from a production standpoint. I get where that sentiment comes from especially if you're thinking about longevity and cultural impact but it ignores the fact that Netflix is solving a completely different problem than traditional or...