LAYOFFS, POSITIVE NEGATIVITY & DEWEY COX

Happy Thursday (AKA Friday Eve) to everyone and hope your week is going well. Welcome to Potentially Focused! Today we …. Share practical tips on what to do if you get laid off, find out the positives to embracing a little negativity, and offer something silly for the weekend.

Potentially Focused is a newsletter for busy people in the TV business (or not) who are curious. Everyone interested in new possibilities, the stories we tell ourselves, and what makes us tick. Each edition features quick links to at least one great piece of content on professional development and one centered on personal growth. It's practical information for your journey to You 2.0.

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Here we go…

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET LAID OFF

Layoffs. Many of us fear them and understandably so.  Typically, they’re abrupt. In a moment, your job is gone, and with it (for many people) a sense of identity, the loss of belonging to a group, and the daily interactions with friends you may have worked with for years. And, of course, there's the stress of figuring out what’s next.

For some, it’s even worse than that. There can be huge financial consequences as well as issues related to healthcare coverage. My heart goes out to anyone in that situation now or in the future. I know some things are just not easily solved. I won’t pretend that I personally or this post can provide solutions for all the difficulties that can come from being laid off.

What I can offer out is the knowledge that you are not alone. And, if you have been laid off, chances are it has little to do with you personally. Layoffs are usually related to macro issues and unfortunately, just a part of the way of the business world these days. I encourage anyone struggling right now to keep it simple. Keep putting in daily effort, work your network, and above all, remember who you are and all you’ve achieved. Like most things in life, your time of struggle will pass.

I’ve been laid off. And no, it wasn’t the greatest moment of my career and it’s not a favorite memory, but it was by no means the end. And, I don’t think I’m unique in that. In fact, from what I’ve seen of other’s experiences being laid off, it can lead to an interesting new phase of your life and career. There’s a lot left to say about how you view it and how you process the emotions around it, but that’s for another day.

That all said, hopefully, you’ve never been laid off and never will be. But, chances are if it hasn’t yet, someday, unfortunately, it will.

So, if that day does come for you, what should you do after you get the news that you’ve just been laid off? In a few short paragraphs, I’ll share a link to a great article on that topic.

But first, a few quick takeaways.

• Being laid off is distressing for many reasons. The ensuing feeling of lacking power is high on the list. But you actually do have some power in the situation. If you are offered a severance, remember that with a severance offer, a company is looking to buy something from you. Framed in that way, you regain some power and influence over your destiny.
• No matter how good or especially if it’s bad, always negotiate your severance package. It’s often hard in those moments to feel confident advocating for yourself, but it helps to remember the first offer is just that… a first offer.
• When you negotiate, what you’ll ask for will depend on your circumstances. Money (or rather more of it) is always good, but there are things beyond money you can ask for that may be more personally valuable to you.
• Finally, take your time. You don’t have to sign anything right away. Sit with it. Talk to your lawyer if you have one. If you don’t, consider getting one. Just don’t sign anything immediately. Generally, companies give you time to consider their offer and it’s wise to take it.

Here’s the promised link. Wishing you a long and successful run in your current job and that you won’t need this information anytime soon.

And for anyone who knows someone really struggling right now, please reach out to them. Even if you can’t offer out much, just letting them know you’re thinking of them is a huge help.

IT’S POSITIVE TO BE A LITTLE NEGATIVE

Lots of people are angry these days. There’s a lot to be angry about. Life can be hard and these are difficult times.

But what does being angry get you?

Anger is a negative emotion, right? Something to be avoided. Something that will ultimately sink you if you let it consume you. Haven't we all learned that much from Star Wars?

With all apologies to the force, recent studies have found that anger can have some benefits. It can help people both perform better on tasks and achieve more of their goals. It can be a motivator.

Hmmm…. So what to make of all the emphasis in our culture on positive outlooks and keeping a good mindset?

Is it all off? Should we just tap into what many might think of as our worst selves, get stuff done, and achieve all our dreams and desires?

As far back as The Clash in 1979 and probably since the dawn of humankind, the notion that “anger can be power” has been well established. Examples of anger fueling people for better or worse are woven throughout our history not to mention a million movie plots.

As with most things, the truth is complex.

Yes, anger can be motivating. It can make you get up and do things, things you may have put off or feared doing in the past.

Anger can also give you clarity. You can suddenly see ways forward that you may not have fully recognized before.

But, critically, anger is short-term. Or at least, its positive effects. Anger, if held over time, turns to other things, bitterness foremost among them. And bitterness leads to nowhere good. It will and does trap you. Ultimately, you end up checkmating yourself.

I think the important thing is to acknowledge your anger. Then, where you can, use it to motivate yourself, but ultimately process it and move on. This doesn’t mean forgetting what angered you or denying it, it means allowing yourself the opportunity and grace to move forward.

Here's more on the recent findings about the positive benefits of a little anger.

And if you are struggling with anger right now, here's an article with some good advice on how to help release it.

HAPPY WEEKENDING!

In this edition, we’ve dealt with layoffs and anger in ways that are hopefully useful to you.

Speaking of anger, here is a picture of our very own angry cat. His name is Hercules and he's really upset I didn't use a photo of him for the piece on anger...

Anyway, with the weekend coming, we wanted to end with something fun and positively distracting. Here’s a list of great fake music biopics to check out.

My personal favorite is Walk Hard. Hard to top John C. Reilly in general, but he shines as Dewey Cox.

What’s your favorite fake music bio? Let us know.

THAT’S A WRAP

See you for our next edition on Tuesday when we’ll have another great interview on tap.

Thanks to you all for reading. Please let us know what you want more or less of. Please feel free to share information you’d like me to pass along to our readers. Also, always happy to feature guest contributors.

And of course, please subscribe and share.

Have a great weekend!

Marco 

PS - BEFORE WE GO

In this past Tuesday's edition, we featured an interview with Roy Ackerman . Roy writes opinion pieces for Broadcast, a UK-based trade publication. One of the things I'd like to do with Potentially Focused is share others' smart thoughts.

So, here is a column Roy wrote last fall...

A GOOD OLD CO-PRO MAY HOLD KEY FOR FUTURE OF INDIE DOCS

By Roy Ackerman 26 October 2023

Streamer interest may be waning and budgets getting smaller but co-pros with PSBs offer a route to success.

We’re nearly two years into the ‘media apocalypse’ – the 180-degree turn by the streamers away from hard-hitting reputational documentaries and towards audience-friendly genres like true crime and celebrity. A friend told me that one streamer boss has gone from saying he’d only commission her idea if it could win an Oscar to: “Please don’t bring me an awards film.”

The indie-doc business model – raising independent finance to shoot your film, take it to a festival and sell it to a streamer – feels broken. The big players didn’t buy a single doc at or after this year’s Sundance Festival.

So what can we in the documentary community do? Many are calling for bespoke platforms to step into the breach – there are around 26 such platforms, including Mubi, Curiosity Stream, Kanopy and Magellan. But with the market so atomised, none of them is able to offer meaningful funding.

I’ve heard there’s a well-advanced project developing a technological solution that will offer directors a sustainable route to monetising and funding films. I look forward to seeing what happens there.

“It’s time for film-makers to revive the co-production model and recognise the huge value of the public service networks”

Meanwhile, what about individual documentary-makers? Before streamers came along with their fat cheques, we used to rely on co-production, selling film rights piecemeal to networks around the world. What would happen if we brought together the commissioning budgets of global TV networks with the tens of millions of dollars of US philanthropic and private equity funding that goes into indie docs?

I think it’s time for filmmakers to revive the co-pro model and recognise the huge value of the public service networks in Europe, plus the BBC, ABC Australia, NZTV and others.

There are also examples of resourceful producers doing for it themselves. The producers of The Wisdom Of Trauma, an independent doc about a childhood development expert, worked with a marketing firm to target their core audience and launched it with a global virtual premiere seen by more than 4 million paying viewers, making enough to cover the entire budget and fully finance their next film.

Producer Elizabeth Woodward is building on that approach with Another Body, a film about the danger of deep fakes, combining a theatrical release and TV sales to strategic territories with an online summit and a sophisticated impact campaign with petitions, lobbying and educational outreach. 

This approach takes willpower and hard work, some of which might end up as unremunerated sweat equity. But if you have invested years and passion in a film, the results in terms of impact and revenues can make it worthwhile.

It’s time for public broadcasters to stop trying to compete head-on with the streamers by focusing commissioning on populist subjects that already have a globally high profile. Taking on harder-to-market content and more risks with commissions is a key part of PSBs’ remit.

As film-makers, we need to play a part too. The streamer model simply hasn’t worked – apart from Netflix, they’re all losing billions. So if you do want to get your indie-doc onto a streamer, start getting used to budgets more like the pre-peak streamer era, during which prices were pushed well over $2m.

Think, what could you make for $1.5m or $900,000? Also, are we sometimes too snobbish about populist subjects? Can’t films about icons or crimes be elevated too? Is making your film a little bit more relatable really making it worse?

As Dana O’Keefe of Double Agent, a producer and backer of indie films, said recently, we’re in a more austere time than we’ve been in for the past few years, but that, in a sense, was an inflated market. As the market evens out, there are still reasons to be hopeful.

· Roy Ackerman is an independent producer, based in New York, currently working on a music documentary series with Idris Elba as executive producer