By the fading light of the afternoon sun, the three were grilling a single kipper over a small fire. As the fish cooked delicately, they passed the time with industry war stories.
"With all these cheap new cameras and filmmaking tools, there are too many people in the market!", said one, sewing up a hole in his dirty sock.
"Yeah! It's too crowded now. No-one can make a living anymore.", said another, padding his tattered winter coat with torn out script pages.
"Definitely," piped up the filmmaker cooking the fish, "There is no future in this game anymore."
Suddenly, a corporate type, in a suit and tie, appears over a nearby hill. He approaches the filmmakers, removing his $600 Armani sunglasses. As he arrives at the filmmaker's makeshift camp, he brandishes a warm smile and says, "Excuse me gentlemen, but I have need of your services for a corporate video."
The filmmakers observe him for a moment.
The suited man's smile drops slightly.
Finally, the cook replies, "Can't you see we are busy?"
"Yeah," said the sock mender, "Go bother someone else."
The corporate man trots away, defeated.
The men sit silently, watching the cooking fish.
Finally, the coat padder says, "They should have a telethon: 'Feed the starving artists'."
"Yeah," they reply.
THE END.
The above may seem silly, but its only a slightly askew satire of the discussion that is happening in the industry.
While the established practitioners are quick to point out all the ways the new filmmaking environment is worse, there is data that paints a different picture.
Oddly though, as the resources to produce video have become cheaper and therefore led to more filmmakers, so too has the APPETITE for video grown.
The latest research is that video is going from a luxury on a company's website to a necessity:
This is because the norms around what we expect to see have changed, especially for younger generations who have grown up with Youtube. Video used to be a luxury, but it is fast becoming the new minimum.
The money from these corporate videos could do many things. For example, it could keep a filmmaker's bills paid until their developing 'coming of age, sci-fi, horror, romantic comedy' script is ready to go into production.
So, who says there is not enough opportunities out there?
Or is ego getting in the way?
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