It’s no secret that we are seeing higher and higher production values associated with streaming and TV programming in general, a trend that has reached full maturation since the heydays of the Game of Thrones fever. This week we see nine indie production companies unite as ‘The Creatives’, including several with strong independent profiles, in order to fulfill a 3-year partnership deal with Fremantle. Is this the new way for indie producers to compete in the high-end drama market? Blake & Wang P.A entertainment attorney, Brandon Blake, has further details.
Cross-country partnership
The production coalition will include 9 indie film and TV production crews, across 8 Global borders, join forces as ‘The Creatives’, including:
- France’s Haut Et Court, and Unité,
- Israel’s Spiro Films,
- Belgium’s Versus Production,
- Germany’s Razor Films,
- The Netherland’s Lemming Films,
- Norway’s Maipo Films,
- UK’s Good Chaos, and
- USA’s Masha Productions
The reason? The current explosion of streaming services demanding content voraciously, yet keeping much financial and creative power circulating among the same old studios.
While the coalition is talking a big talk about being on the side of the ‘little guys’, which is nice if it happens, this is also a response to the fact that few indie streamers on their own can afford to, or have the network to, produce the same glitterati-filled casts and high-impact visuals that are drawing streaming attention. At least not without ceding much of their creative production powers to high-powered studio partners. United, the outlook could be different, and we have no doubt The Creatives hopes to leverage that advantage, too.
It’s certainly an interesting way to bypass an old problem, and it will be interesting to see what The Creatives have to offer as a ‘test case’ of sorts for the indie market. We will definitely keep this development on our radar going forward.
Film and Television 