Four months ago I launched In development newsletter with a question: With the entertainment industry in crisis, what should we do next?
Since then we have explored:
• The petition and Sales of vertical videos
• Filmmakers get money from rich people
• A pay-to-game model that can make sense
• How filmmakers can own their release strategies
• How crews learn to think as impactors
• Why Living Lean is business strategy
This week asks something else:
What if your success as a filmmaker is bound to the strength of your personal society?
It sounds like (and probably is) the first thing you would hear in a TED call, followed by trenchant anecdotes and thought -provoking homilies. I offer none of them, and i am the kind of person who hugs a bit “Personal society,” But still I continue:
What if investors or buyers valued your project not only on story, role, production team and director CV – but also on the collective value of the communities they brought to the table?
I’m not talking about Instagram followers (even if you probably would have them too). I mean the ability to show that there is a collection of people with a specific affinity for your work and for each other.
We already know what this looks like: that’s what built Comic-Con and the franchise that fills it. But what happens if the same logic applied to you – an indie filler, new producer, actor or film photographer?
I think this is what happens next.
Entering the affinity economy
It already has a name – the affinity economy – and credit goes to Evan Shapiroa Former TV manager with a talent to inhale huge amounts of data to identify what is already true but not yet declared.
Two years agoShapiro Legacy-Media managers at Global Conference IBC rattled when he explained that they were now operating in a creative economy.
“I looked at the room and said,” This is the moment in time where you will have to change everything or get out of the business, “he said in a recent video, shortly before taking the stage at IBC 2025.” It pissed off many people in the room to the point that there was a bunch of harrowing old men who got up and left. ”
Today, Youtube number-a-TV channel and the creator economy are a given, such as gravity. Shapiros has now moved on: he describes the affinity economy as “a new ecosystem where the mainstream media and the creator economy have collided and melted and turned into a Frankenstein monster.”
The affinity economy does not care if you are indie or blockbuster, theater or tictok. It does not particularly care about likes, which can be relaxed or purchased. It is about what cannot be falsified or AI’D: the society that your work creates or inspires.
Reception
When Shapiro returned to IBC in September, the audience’s reaction was clearly different.
“The reception was very positive – from the people in the audience, from the organizers and from the people who pay to finance the conference,” he wrote me. “It was a bit overwhelming TBH … I also had the opportunity to ask a significant selection of delegates about what they would most want to transform if they could. The overwhelming answer-more than 2/3-was to switch from the visionless CFO-centric culture in the industry and return to vision and assignments. This was over the media and technology.
It is encouraging news in a world where Paramount prepares to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery whole.
The affinity economy is a future surral, but there is evidence that its reality is already here. When I talked to Cineverse Exec Erick Opeka last week about MicrocoWe talked about the upcoming LA Vertical Drama market and its fan event Verticon, which is inspiring presence from as far away as Australia.
Why that means something
More importantly, he said that devotion can translate directly into dollars. If Micro drama Star Kasey Esser Shows that his fans are converting to paying customers, he can get more money … from companies like Microco.
“If they build their own franchises, if they have their own characters and become popular,” said Opeka, “they will require it and they will get it.”
In other words: those who can convert fans to the audience will win. But it also requires young creators to start building a fan base Now – before they have made the big sales or any sales; Maybe even before they are really good.
It is some hard work, but during the affinity economy it is important – not only for future returns, but because the community is the only metric that is important.
How to do it? It is a future issue in development.
✉ Do you have an idea, compliment or complaint?
dana@indiewire.com; (323) 435-7690.
Weekly recommendations for your career thinking, curated by IndieWire Senior Editor Christian Zilko.
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I will be the first to admit that marketing on social media does not come naturally to me, but all filmmakers who want to make their legs in the affinity economy need to learn it. Vora offers 26 easily digestible pieces of information for all directors who want to build a following for their film, which makes a fun read and a resource that you can refer back to over and over again.
