I continued work on a piece about why I’m making Thigments
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lWgr87_k7nT11VTN0_rPmJgfX5SARY4wJSV0-awpuy0/edit
I’ve been chasing this rainbow since 1997 in my own way, in fits and starts. My hope was that in New York, I’d learn how media becomes successful. I’ve learned a lot here, not the least of which that, strangely, I fit in here better than anywhere I’ve been. I’ve learned how to tell certain lies in business meetings to lay traps to figure out whether I can trust a person later. Strangely, those lessons in business remind me why I value you guys so much. I trust both of you implicitly, deeply, and in a way that I can’t trust friends and colleagues here. It’s sometimes draining trying to figure out who you can trust around here. It toughens you, and that’s not a bad thing. But it’s also important to remember how to remain the decent person you really are. So, friends and family that you can be real with become so much more valuable. At least, that’s the way I had to learn it.
When I still lived in Bellingham, I worked at a Sushi restaurant for a while in 1997. That was the year Titanic came out. Do you remember the Black Beauty? At the time, Black Beauty was in a broken down state, so I had to walk to work. Had to is a misnomer, truthfully I liked the long walk. It’s one of my favorite things about New York, just emptying my mind and walking for a long time.
The sushi place I worked at was near Bellis Fair Mall. I’m leaving the sushi place, and I walk past Bellis Fair, and I saw the sign declaring, “Titanic $1 Billion See It Now!”
I saw Titanic, thought it was a fine movie, but was really bothered by it. Not the acting, not the directing, but the amount of money it made. The movie made a ~$1 billion. James Cameron alone earned hundreds of millions of dollars, enough that he’s been able to do all kinds of crazy things over the years (including travel to the bottom of the ocean with 3D IMAX cameras and invest in an asteroid mining company). I don’t begrudge people for the money they make or what they do with it. I’m not wired up that way. I don’t believe in judging people. When I find myself judging people, I feel sadness and I sweep it away. Life is too short to judge anyone too much, even billionaires.
Market Observations …
Non-Profits need to derive 33% of their income from donations. The more successful a non-profit is, the more donations it needs in order to maintain status. Imagine the public reaction if the United Way announced they were losing their non-profit status, due to lack of donations. Most of the public probably wouldn’t understand that.
Observation: Non-Profits are required to do good with their profits, but need to generate at least 33% of their income from donations, every year.
Some of the most profitible ventures on Earth are media franchises. Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, The Muppets … a long list. Disney purchased Star Wars from George Lucas for $5 Billion!
Observation: Media is incredibly lucrative!
Copyright, and the libraries that companies build, are a key to that largesse. In the present, copyright lasts a long time. If a single person (or in some cases multiple individuals) are recongized as the author of a work, the copyright on that work lasts until 70 years after the day they died. If a company is recognized as the author of a work, then the copyright lasts for 70 years from the date of publication. For a lot of media companies, it’s in their best interest to identify a single creator or author for certain works. Like, Bob Kane is recognized as the author of Batman by DC Comics. While many creators contributed to the character of Batman (and arguably, Bill Finger was an unrecognized, criticial collaborator on Batman). Bob Kane passed in 1998. So, Batman’s copyright is likely to last until 2068, under the present laws.
Observation: Copyright laws mean that a successful media property can earn income exclusively for the holder of the copyright for at least a century in many cases.
And they’ve made back that income. Lucas used his money to build low-income housing, which is awesome. And Disney is doing what it’s supposed to do. It’s board of directors, it’s public charter, it’s status as a for-profit venture requires that it make as much money as possible, within the confines that it operates. While Disney does donate to public good, and arguably, it’s content is also a public good itself, there is nothing in the DNA of Disney that requires they do public good.
Observation: For-Profit Media companies are not required to do good with their profits
But also, a little whimsical. Suppose he decided instead to build a giant statue of Darth Vader on his property? While he might get some criticism in the media for such an action, in the end, people would see it as perfectly reasonable. It’s his money, to do with as he pleases.
Observation: Individuals may do good, but are only bound by their conscience.
Benefits companies – Newman’s Own, Warby Parker, Tom’s Shoes, Method …
Observation: Benefit Companies can build altruism into their business models, and into their operating documents, which obligates them to do good with some of their profits.
So, put those observations together …
– Non-Profits are required to do good with their profits, but need to generate at least 33% of their income from donations, every year.
– Media is incredibly lucrative!
– Copyright laws mean that a successful media property can earn income exclusively for the holder of the copyright for at least a century in many cases.
– For-Profit Media companies are not required to do good with their profits
– Individuals may do good, but are only bound by their conscience.
– Benefit Companies can build altruism into their business models, and into their operating documents, which obligates them to do good with some of their profits.
And you come to a realization. Successful media, if created or assigned to a public benefit company, can generate income for the public good for generations.
So, okay, from those observations, you can see a simple strategy.
STRATEGY: If I develop a media franchise with mass market appeal through a company with altruistic principles built into it, then I can successfully generate income for at least a century for worthy causes.
Production Conditions
Making successful media is difficult! But also, not impossible. Sometimes it takes decades. Sometimes it happens right away!
The Muppets took twenty years to develop
Star Wars came from the inability of Lucas and company to obtain the rights to Flash Gordon, but Star Wars was a nearly instant hit
The author of Rope Burns, the book that spawned Million Dollar Baby, was over 70 before the book was published.
Ishtar
Waterworld
Condition: Media success is unpredictable, and failures can be expensive
I have expertise putting down cameras, organizing productions, and making things. Through stuff I’ve made over the years, I have expertise in short form content (from commercials to other video shorts). My friends have helped me make these things over the years, including some very talented artists who offered incredible help! Machines, a short film I made in 2001, has screened in film festivals around the world. Safety Folder, a comedy short film my friends and I created, also has screened at festivals. I made a short film called ‘Voicemail Revenge’ that won the ‘Guerilla Filmmaking Award’ at a 24 hour film festival. I’ve produced commercials. I’ve acted, even winning a small acting award in Vancouver, B.C. for a monologue I created, a long time ago.
Condition: I have success and expertise with the production of short form content
YouTube is competitive, but is forgiving of iterative content .
Condition: YouTube is a great platform for hosting short form content
I know a lot about writing, scripting, characters, performance, directing and producing. Enough to know, I shouldn’t try to do it all myself, but also enough to know that if I needed to, I could. I could start with just me.
Condition: You’re a good enough performer to entertain people
Life, Death, Art and Funny Little Puppets
I had been trying, unsuccessfully, to teach myself animation from 2010-2013. While I like to draw, animation is a different art and discipline. The fun part of animation, for me, was writing, characterization, and thinking of goofy voices. I ended up in the hospital for a short stretch, due to an Ulcerative Collitis flare up. It gave me a chance to think about what I wanted, how to get there, and what I could do. I thought about my assets, my liabilities, and more. It was then that I remembered, I used to love puppets. My brother Randy had left behind a yellow bird puppet when he moved out of our house. I used to love playing with it, and connecting it with the puppets I saw on TV (like The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, the puppets that Mr. Rogers used, the puppets on Sherry and Lambchop, and a puppet named Norbert on a local TV show called Boomerang). I realized that the puppets were controlled by people. One Sunday, there was a TV special on about The Muppets, called ‘Of Muppets and Men.’ I had missed the first part of the special, and then started watching. I realized what I was seeing. This was all about how The Muppet Show was made! You could see the people controlling the puppets! I grabbed an older video tape, that had the tab broken on it, then put a piece of scotch tape over it. I put it into the VCR, and made sure the VCR was on the right channel. And I pressed record. I didn’t get the whole special. But I got enough, to watch over and over again. I felt really shy about my love of puppets. I was already a kind of weird kid by my own measure, and something about loving puppets felt even weirder. I watched that special over and over again. Later still, I had a school assignment; we were to present a book report to kids a grade below us, second graders, about a book we really liked. The idea was to dress in a costume. I choose ‘Ozma of Oz’ as my book. In it, a boy named Tippitarius is revealed to be a princess named Ozma. I made a terrible Tippitarius costume, and made an Ozma sock puppet with goofy blonde hair and a crown. In the middle of the performance, as I explained what happened, I disappeared behind the overhead projector. Then I started to perform Ozma’s voice. The kids liked it. But then they started to say, “Where’s Ozma? Where is she?” I realied that the Ozma puppet wasn’t visible. In my panic, I had forgotten what I’d learned watching ‘Of Muppets and Men!’ I put Ozma up over my head, just like I’d practiced at home, just like I’d seen on ‘Of Muppets and Men.’ And the kids ROARED with laughter and cheers. They loved her! She was really funny, and they liked her.
My friends thought it was a little weird, but then, they thought I was a little weird. But the kids in that class, they loved it. So, I kept up with my puppet obsession in secret. I didn’t really build a lot of puppets, and the ones I made were just crude things like paper bag puppets, or sock puppets. I mostly used the bird puppet, and some of my stuffed animals. I kept learning. Funny voices. Accents. I had a lot of interests, computers, eventually sports, writing stories, movies, but I practiced those funny voices and accents and puppet movements by myself. I lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and my folks never went to college. I had a vague notion of what I needed to do in order to go to school. As I entered middle school, I became less interested in classes, and what was being taught to me. I got by with a roughly 3.0 B average, although with the right kind of work, I could have been an A average student.
But always, the voices, the bouts with putting my arm over my head. As I entered high school, I had a dream of meeting Jim Henson, of saying, “I want to learn everything I can from you, and apply the things I’ve learned to being the best at this. I want to be your protege, your apprentice!” I imagined a lot of people asking the same question, but when I met Jim Henson, he would believe it.
And then, Jim Henson died. And to my teenage brain, that meant that particular dream, of being his apprentice (no matter how silly a dream it was) had died. I put away the puppets. I kept the funny voices. For friends, on occassion, I’d pop out with some amateur puppetry skill, often out of nowhere from their perspective. But that dream was over.
As I sat in the hospital bed, ruminating on all of this, I thought to myself, “Well, that was stupid. Why aren’t you still trying to do this?”
And it hit me. I still have that skill at funny voices, and with characters, and that I’d simply gotten better at a lot of things. Except for the puppetry. But I remembered my lessons from ‘Of Muppets and Men,” really well. I knew what I needed to do. I needed to take it easy, get out of the hospital, and find a way to evaluate my skill set. I found a class in TV puppetry in New York; one of the nice things about living in New York is that if you want to find things like that, you’ll find them here. I took the class, and learned a lot, not only from the instructors but from my classmates. But the biggest take away for me was that, all the stuff I learned as a kid from watching Dave Goelz, Jim Henson, Jim Nelson, Frank Oz, over and over again in that little documentary, then trying to imitate their artistry, had stuck. The hardest part of the class was learning to watch myself in a monitor, in reverse, but the rest was there. It was good enough.
I took some classes in professional puppet crafting, to learn a little more, so that I could make my own puppets if needed. And boy, did it turn out I needed to learn this! I hired a few different folks to try and make puppets for me; in the end, I learned some expensive lessons, but also learned how to make them myself.
In a lot of ways, Jim Henson was an overnight success. He worked on a few different local TV shows in DC, then got his own show while he was in his teens. He turned that show, “Sam and Friends,” into a hit, and eventually a company called ‘The Muppets.’ He worked at his craft for decades, getting better, and finding people along the way. Because of his work, and the people he found along the way, we got Sesame Street, all of the wonderful characters in The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and so much wonderous art through the Creature Workshop. Without Jim Henson, Frank Oz may not have had a career, and there may have been no Muppets.
In a lot of ways, Jim Henson was not an overnight success. He had some career highlights, started making money, but was constantly searching for money, making pitches, and failing over and over again. It took decades to get The Muppet Show on the air, and it took 3 different pilots. He was never able to mount a Broadway show around his puppets, despite thousands of sketches and pages of scripts, and notes. Some movies that are now beloved, like the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, were box office failures on their initial release; Henson became despondent. He revived The Muppet Show in the early 90s, without much critical acclaim.
To me, there’s an important lesson in all of this. Whether or not you find an audience for an art is partly in your control and partly out of it. The part you can control is the decision to create, to hone, to practice, to make, to show, to fail, to try again, to keep going, to allow yourself to succeed, to bask in an audience’s appreciation. The part you can’t control is whether any audience, in your own time, will be open to it.
Life is short. Like the wizard in the hat said, “All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.” The only thing I can do is to keep doing.