Every producer in Hollywood has felt the squeeze over the past year. TV and film buying activity has dropped significantly as the industry resets the bar for content volume and profitability while studios slash, burn and reorganize themselves for a different era.
Tommy Oliver, the producer-director who is founder and CEO of the Confluential Company, is working through the downturn with cautious optimism that a saner business landscape will open up more opportunities for independent players.
Oliver raised capital with Goldman Sachs a few years ago to build up the Los Angeles-based Confluential. The firm now runs a busy production services division in addition to nurturing and financing its own projects, as Oliver explains in the latest episode of Variety‘s weekly podcast “Strictly Business.”
“We focus on BIPOC stories, and so we only put money into projects from creators of color. That’s it. And so when things are great [in Hollywood], it’s maybe OK to good for us. When things are bad, it’s horrible, because these are the sort of projects are often at the back of the queue, and we’ve gotten to a place now, unfortunately, where there’s also a ‘Black tax’ on projects,” Oliver tells “Strictly Business.” “For us, it has completely changed the calculus around what makes sense and where the opportunities are, because I’m not going to stop trying to do the things that we can be proud of. I’m not going to stop trying to support the creators who we should be in business with, but we’ve got to be able to do it responsibly, otherwise we don’t get to keep making those projects.”
Oliver dubs himself a “weirdo” in that he has interest and skills for managing the business and the creative side of filmmaking. With great detail — down to the dollar figure that he was offered for the critically praised Sundance film “Fancy Dance” last year — Oliver explains how Confluential has prospered by understanding the value of BIPOC stories that others missed. As soon as “Fancy Dance” star Lily Gladstone started to create Oscar buzz for her work in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the conversation around “Fancy Dance” changed. The title was ultimately acquired by Apple TV+.
“We knew the film was more valuable, and so we chose to wait, and we chose to understand that, things will change. And so that’s the difference between how people are valuing something, whether in general or at a moment in time, and knowing when to do a deal,” Oliver says.
Oliver and his wife, producer Codie Oliver, created the unscripted series “Black Love,” which aired on OWN for six seasons. On the podcast, Tommy Oliver shares a tale of derring-do involving the show’s Season 2 renewal that is illustrative of his approach to business.
“We can be creative about the financing. We can be smart about it, because we can bet in the right ways for the things that have outsized potential,” Oliver says. “Because we know who the audience is. We know how to deliver creatively, and so if we are hitting on the things that we need to do, then we should be in a good place, especially if we’re being responsible about it. None of this works if we’re overspending. None of this works if we’re not understanding where the marketplace is or how things have shifted.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.
