Jimbo: As you should already know, we at Jimbo's (all one of us) love to promote the up and comer. I've also made a comment or two about the way things are going in entertainment and how that needs to change. I feel happy to announce that I have come across a person who I believe is headed toward giving us all the type of entertainment that we need moving forward. His name is Allan Yoskowitz, and he is the founder of Doomed Scholar Studios. Say Hi Allan!
Allan: Hey out there. Hope you are all well.
Jimbo: So tell us a little about what you're looking to do with Doomed Scholar Studios. Kind of a broad mission statement.
Allan: Too much of what we’re given is about socio-political messaging these days, and not whether or not the people watching are enjoying it. The point of watching TV or a movie is because you enjoy it! All we are getting (a lot of the time) is a lecture.
Jimbo: Ok, I hear you about all of the woke stuff, but just to be sure, you're not talking about excluding people, right? Isn't it more about providing quality programming?
Allan: I am not talking about excluding anyone. People have the right to enjoy what they’re watching, and Doomed Scholar Studios is going to give them (to use your words) ‘quality programming’ to watch.
Jimbo: Alright, I understand what you're saying. So tell me this. Do you have anything you're working on now that you can kind of hint at? Just to kind of give people an idea of what you're working toward in more concrete terms.
Allan: There are a few... I can tell you I really haven’t seen anything out there like what we’re talking about.
Jimbo: Awesome. Ok, so obviously you're looking to start a business making movies and TV shows, hence the words “studios” in Doomed Scholar Studios. But tell me this Allan: Are you also working on anything in print or online?
Allan: I’ve coauthored two novels, Codename: WINTERBORN and Codename: UNSUB with Declan Finn. Post-apocalyptic science fiction. I haven’t really written anything in a long while, beyond the development of the concepts that are being developed for DSS.
Jimbo: Awesome. Now, I've been following you a bit on the Facebook group you just mentioned. Something you talk about frequently is entertainment as a business and how it's important to make a profit. I love that angle. Tell us all a bit about what you think the importance of making a profit is.
Allan: The United States is a capitalist nation. Entertainment companies (in a capitalist nation) are is supposed to produce material people will enjoy in order to make money from the effort.
Maybe it won’t all be on a show directly. Maybe selling toys or something else related to the show…
But that’s the purpose behind a business. To make money on a product or a service, whatever it is… like a doctor’s care, or paying money to go to a theater and see a movie.
But there are specific people you need to make a good profit for if you want to keep getting your paycheck.
Your investors.
You want to make good money for yourself? You make good money for them. Simple.
Jimbo: I get it. Let me ask you this though, Allan: Would you call a movie, for instance, that lost money a success or a failure? What about a TV show that didn't pull in enough viewers to pay its bills?
Allan: Like I said, the ultimate purpose of a movie or a TV show is to make money. If they didn’t make a profit, I’d have to call either a failure, no matter what I thought of them personally.
To be a success both have to make a profit; even if they pay off whatever it cost to make the project, they have to make a good profit for the investors or those investors aren’t going to give you money to make more movies/shows.
Jimbo: Ok, so what you're saying is that, as the head of Doomed Scholar Studios, you're looking to make products that not only entertain, but also make money does that sound right? If so, what types of content are you looking to both include and exclude to make a good product?
Allan: That’s absolutely right. I want people to enjoy watching what we’re giving them, and because they’re enjoying it, spend the money to see future projects. To want to see the characters again, and to spend their money on being able to (by, say, buying our material on a streaming service, or buying related goods).
What types of content do we want to include and exclude to ‘make a good product’. That’s actually a very tough question, Jimbo sir. Like I said, we want to keep politics and social messaging from becoming a ‘major issue’ in our product. They are going to ‘show up’, I am not going to deny it’s a part of life to see those things.
There are a lot of issues I’d like to avoid, but that isn’t possible. Things like race, religion and sexuality. They’re part of life, and you have to acknowledge them as part of life.
Doing that doesn’t mean we have to make a lot out of them, though.
Jimbo: Hold on, Allan. Are you honestly telling me that you can make a good show, whether for TV or a movie, without including overt political messaging? Isn't that a bit of a reactionary stance on your part?
Allan: We can’t eliminate every political or social issue… but we don’t have to be blunt with them. Keep it subtle, and if anything, you’ll have viewers talking more about what they’re watching because they’re talking about what their favorite characters are saying, and what the ongoing storylines mean… and they’ll keep watching to find out.
Jimbo: Wow. I like that stance. It's something I've encouraged here on my blog as well. Ok, Allan, one more thing before I let you go: I know I'm not a perfect interviewer. I always feel like I've left the one thing that my guest most wanted to talk about off the list when I do this. So, tell me, what else should I have asked you? Don't forget to answer your own question.
Allan: Well, why am I doing this. I am a martial arts instructor; I have been practicing Taekwondo for thirty years, and am a fourth degree black belt. I assist with instructing kid’s classes. I want them to have fun when they’re watching something, just like they have fun at the school.
I enjoyed going to the movies and watching TV when I was younger. I want them (and their families) to enjoy it the same way I did, and hopefully someday to enjoy it that way with my own family.
These days when they watch, they’re getting lectured. How is that fun?
Jimbo: Awesome. Thanks for sharing that and thanks for stopping by Jimbo's. You're welcome back at any time Allan. Make sure you keep us posted on any projects that you have coming up!
Allan: Well, with my thanks, Jimbo sir. I’ll let you know what we have going at some point in the near future, believe me!
P.S. Allan wanted me to mention that he is currently having a contest to design the logo for DSS. Please join the Doomed Scholar Studios group on Facebook and/or MeWe if you plan to enter. Rules are listed below:
- Any submissions must be personal, original work (preferably by a member of the DSS group)
- Submissions can be hand-drawn or computer-developed.
- Submissions (images) must be 'signed'.
- Images cannot be 'graphic' (they cannot contain blood, nudity or violent activity)
- ONE image per competitor.
- .JPG, .PNG, .GIF and .PDF files accepted (up to 2MB)
Send work TO:
I wish Allan had been a bit more specific about what he plans to come up with that's as entertaining as say, an Avengers movie. I remember lots of explosions, hardly any lecture in any of them.
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