The Roots Behind a College Film Exchange

 
Primer Tuesdays
by Carlos Sanchez

Vertical Integration: In microeconomics and management, vertical integration is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need.

Vertical integration has also described management styles that bring large portions of the supply chain not only under a common ownership, but also into one corporation (as in the 1920s when the Ford River Rouge Complex began making much of its own steel rather than buying it from suppliers).

Vertical integration is one method of avoiding the hold-up problem. A monopoly produced through vertical integration is called a vertical monopoly.

In the context of film history: Although the term [Studio System] is still used today to refer to the organization and output of the major Hollywood studios, historically the term refers to the practice of large motion picture studios, between the 1920s and 1960s, of producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract, and which dominated exhibition through vertical integration, i.e., the ownership or effective control of distributors and exhibition, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques.

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Disruptive Innovation (according to Lucy Postins, interviewed by Fastcompany):  I think of disruptive innovation as creating something that consumers didn’t realize they needed; it’s developing a product that changes the status quo and refreshes the set of options consumers have, with something new that makes the old options (which they previously thought were fine) suddenly seem dull or flawed.

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Context: Filmmaking is more accessible now than ever.  New media, grassroots marketing, crowd-sourcing, micro transactions, and self-distribution offer a means for a dedicated and talented group to sustain themselves independently.  I believe that group exists within the Brooklyn College production community.  I think BCFS can usher in its arrival.

By considering disruptive innovation, we think about the ways that a wide consumer base views and interprets short form media and then proceed to mold that into a demand.

By recognizing and officiating departments that cover the range of producing content under one roof (Production, Development, Marketing and Distribution, Exhibition), we'll be able to create product, set our prices, reverse engineer solvency and create a living for our corner of indie cinema.

We start out doing this the same way we engage a production, we come together and plan it out.

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Contact the film society at info.bcfs@gmail.com