Mark Duplass Sees Media Landscape as 'Wild West'

Bloomberg

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00:00You do it all. Is there one that, I'm sure you get this a million times, that you like

00:03more than most in terms of doing, producing, directing, or do you love how everything kind

00:07of helps the other thing? I do like the blending of all the things, and I come from the independent

00:12sector. You know, I came into this business making $3 movies in my kitchen with my brother

00:16on our parents' video camera. So I'm no stranger to doing it all, but that said, I think that

00:22as I've been fortunate enough to do both indie projects and also be on a show like

00:27The Morning Show, which, you know, one day's catering on that show is more expensive than

00:32most of the work I make. I like the balance. You know, I like hanging lights with my friends

00:37and sweating on my indie projects. But then I like when my burrito is brought to me in

00:42the trailer of The Morning Show, and I'm taken care of. So these are the things.

00:46I work with someone who likes when his burrito is brought to you.

00:48Who doesn't like a burrito delivery? Also a trailer. Pretty nice.

00:51Yeah.

00:52I'm wondering about if you were getting into the business right now and how that would be

00:56different. It's like you're making movies in your kitchen with your brother, but maybe

01:00you'd be using an iPhone. You'd be editing it using AI.

01:03I think the headline is the democratization of the technology has made it so wonderful

01:07that you can make anything you want now so much more cheaply than I had it. So you have

01:12it a lot better than me on that front, but you have it way worse than I had it in 2005

01:16when I came in.

01:17Yeah, so talk about that, but.

01:18The distribution channels are not there, right? And so we're now experiencing sort of the death

01:25of the hyperbolic television movement, right? And we staffed up and we got all ready for

01:30it. And here we are. And then it just dried up on us. So now we're going to have to start

01:36hacking a new road of direct consumer distribution. You know, we're working in so many different

01:43models that we're making television series completely independently and taking them out

01:47and selling them afterwards because it is the wild west.

01:52Well, you know, it's funny that you say that because I think about something like YouTube

01:55and how much I watch YouTube and specific channels and like anybody can put anything

01:58up there. When you think about distribution channels, Mark, what seems to provide the

02:03most opportunities for you, especially since you say you play a bit more in the indie world?

02:08Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I'm very, very fortunate in that I've been doing this for 20 years.

02:12So, you know, I at least have somewhat of a name that people are interested in working

02:15with us. But I think YouTube is certainly exciting because you can put it up, it can catch fire.

02:20But the monetization of that and sustainability is really questionable, in my opinion.

02:24But then you have these smaller sub streamer services, like you look at Dropout TV and what

02:29they're doing in comedy and you look at Shudder. You know, they've become the home of horror

02:35fans as a subsidiary under AMC, you know, and they're doing things in a low cost model.

02:39So I think the future here is going to be figuring out how to make things relatively

02:44cheaply, cutting your big producer fees, cutting a lot of everybody's fee across the board.

02:49And then when you're in a position to be on top in power, really share that back end with

02:54people. And that's how I came up in independent film. We would make movies for $150,000.

02:59Everybody would make a hundred bucks a day. It was creative communism. And then you get points.

03:03We could take them to Sundance and sell them for a couple of million bucks. And

03:05the sound guy would make $50,000 and buy a home. It was a beautiful time.

03:10It's not quite that easy anymore, but there's something in that model that will still work.

03:14I talked to somebody who lives out here. He's in the industry. He's been doing this for 30 years.

03:17And he was like, I've got award-winning casting directors walking dogs on Rover to make ends meet.

03:24No, it's real.

03:24Is it that bad?

03:25I mean, I live in the Valley, which is, you know, the place where basically below the line,

03:29union heads were able to buy their homes, you know, and that was under the sort of unspoken promise

03:34that this industry would continue to boom. Strikes, fires, but not just that. The death of the streaming

03:40wars, which were unsustainable. That was just an arms race to see who could choke somebody out, right?

03:45Netflix and Apple are the winners?

03:47I mean, TBD, because we could see a merger happen in five minutes after this that changes everything.

03:52Um, and there are, I won't, I won't go that far, but yes, there, there are certain people that have

03:58interest in those mergers and don't have interest.

04:00So, so does, do you see the industry getting better?

04:02Um, I think the industry is going to change. Look, I've been in this for 20 years.

04:05I know people who are been in this for much longer than me. And we, there are times when,

04:09oh my God, it was the 1980s. If you had a movie that had, you know, a gun and blood and some fighting in it,

04:15you could take it to VHS and you'd make your money and it was a killer. In the nineties, it was that for DVDs.

04:20In the two thousands, the streamers came in and I got to make all these cool movies for Netflix and

04:24TV, but it's going to change. We don't know which way it's going, but we got to be vigilant.

04:28You know, it's, we've seen it in the media industry and we still like being in it. It's

04:31incredible to be 30 seconds. You're still having fun. You like it.

04:34I love it. I don't say I'm having fun all the time. I feel a deep responsibility for like my

04:39brothers and sisters in LA and in New York and everywhere who are just getting choked out by this

04:44business. So I'm trying to find what is that thin lane that I still want to make outlier interesting

04:48content, but at the right price, that makes sense and sustains us. And I don't have all

04:53the answers for that.

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