Recent content by Michael

The biggest mistake we made wasn't hearing "no." It was believing "almost." For months we kept thinking we were one conversation away from closing the financing. Every meeting sounded positive. Everyone liked the project. Everyone wanted to keep the conversation going. But nobody was actually...

I think there's another limitation of AI that we rarely talk about. AI can generate ideas, speed up workflows, and even imitate certain creative decisions. What it still can't do is take responsibility. Every film eventually reaches a point where someone has to approve the final cut, sign the...

One thing filmmakers often confuse is audience and customers. Getting 50,000 trailer views doesn't automatically translate into ticket sales. I've seen films with relatively small audiences generate meaningful revenue because those audiences were highly engaged and willing to take action...

One thing I've learned is that a scene rarely fails because of the acting, cinematography or dialogue. More often, it fails because it answers a question the audience isn't asking. I've seen beautifully shot scenes with strong performances disappear from the final cut simply because they...

I think many big-budget films no longer look physically “captured” they look endlessly processed. Older films felt like real moments preserved on camera. A lot of modern blockbusters feel overly cleaned, optimized and polished until all texture disappears. Ironically, audiences now seem to...

Something I keep hearing more often lately is that the classic independent film financing money has not disappeared it has simply shifted. Some of the more serious financing conversations now seem to come increasingly from Middle Eastern investor circles, certain Asian partners, and European...

Great to see more London-based indie projects heating up for the late summer pipeline. Mandy is always a standard go-to, but it’s definitely useful to have these hyper-local listings pop up across different platforms. Whenever my team is spinning up a new project and looking to expand our post...

I think the traditional flat 20% model is becoming outdated. If a sales agent is simply forwarding emails between buyers and producers, then 20% feels excessive. But if they are risking their own capital, offering an MG, funding market screenings, or genuinely pushing territory-by-territory...

I think one of the biggest problems right now is that too many films are still being made as if it were 2018. A lot of producers spend years financing and shooting a film, but almost no time thinking about who is actually going to buy it, how it will be marketed, or why audiences would even...

What’s becoming very clear in 2026 is that Virtual Production is no longer replacing filmmaking problems it’s relocating them. A lot of indie producers still focus almost entirely on LED wall costs, while underestimating the real bottleneck: the technical crew capable of keeping the illusion...

What many streaming executives still underestimate is that audiences are no longer comparing platforms only against each other they are comparing them against their total monthly cost of living. Once subscriptions start competing psychologically with groceries, fuel, or utility bills, churn...

I think one of the biggest shifts happening now is that audience-building is starting to influence financing decisions as well. More investors, sales agents, and distributors are paying attention to whether a project already has some level of visibility, community, or measurable audience...

I think another major shift is that indie films are no longer competing only against other films. They are competing against infinite distraction. A viewer opens Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, gaming platforms or social media and instantly has thousands of entertainment options fighting for...

One of the most interesting changes in recent years is that the Marché is becoming less about simple film sales, and much more about project positioning. Years ago, many companies arrived in Cannes mainly with finished films looking for territorial buyers. Today, a large part of the...

Good points I think the real shift here is how greenlighting changes after consolidation. At this scale, studios optimize for predictability, not volume. That means fewer bets, bigger IP-driven projects, and much stricter criteria overall. It’s not just that mid-budget films get squeezed, it’s...