Last go round, we started building the list — the Recommended Best Practices (RBPs) — for how to stop getting stuck on repeat and finally start freeing ourselves from Square One.
Today is another dose of RBP but this time it is aimed elsewhere. This whole NonDē exercise, and not the WWBRFIC series we are doing now, but the ORIGINAL NonDē of “we need a different and separate ecosystem” one began with a focus on what an ecosystem is. Today’s five is all about how an eco is an eco, and a lot of it comes down to how an org can be more than an org. These 40 years of SC-Indie let the darn orgs all be stand-aloners. Time for that to end, friends. These all need to be neuro networks and pathways of both inspiration and optimization (and not the efficiency sort either). We need to become an orchestra that can play beautiful symphonies. Time for everything to work together, don’t you think?
And yes this Part Five. And we have another one to go too. I am going to spare you the recap today in hopes you’ve been keeping up. If you haven’t, you will find the handydandy at the end so you can click through the past in rapid succession if you please.
The Next Five Recommended Best Practices For Our New & Improved Cinema Ecosystem: Make The Ecosystem Work Like An Ecosystem
6. Build Better Bridges Between The Organizations We Already Have
We do have a lot of film organizations already, don’t we? Maybe part of the problem is less about what exists than what fails to happen in collaboration between these orgs. Maybe it is time they measured their own success by what they do together and not just what they do apart.
A filmmaker can receive meaningful support from one organization and then discover that the next stage begins almost from zero and no one is there to offer a hand. The knowledge does not necessarily travel with the film or the cinemaker — it takes some strategy and planning from those that design the labs or offer the support. Something is not working if everyone next in line is beginning at the same starting point. Energy and labor is wasted by repeatingrepeatingrepeating. That is a terrible way to build an ecosystem. Am I right?
A good baton toss should leave the next artist farther ahead. The organization receiving her should know enough about what came before so that it can build on the previous work rather than duplicate it. Where institutions have complementary strengths, the connection between them should become part of the design rather than a lucky accident.
NonDē is, as all ecosystems are, connective. A collection of strong organizations operating in isolation does not automatically create a strong overall system. The real value appears when responsibility and knowledge can move between them.
We need better bridges between the boats we already have. Coordination can be cheaper than creation and, in some cases, much more useful.
7. And Yes, Build New Institutions Where The Gaps Remain
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