Where this was said
The Creator Economy Pipeline Problem
At 25:33 · chapter starts 25:00
Where are the doors opening and closing in Hollywood right now? Ahmed's answer surprises the room: he says he needs advice from young creators more than they need his. A new generation of genuinely talented storytellers is building entirely new paradigms on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube — playing by completely different rules. Ahmed is inspired by them and troubled by the gap: these creators have audiences, income, and creative independence. To recruit them into long-form storytelling, you're asking them to walk away from all of that for two years of unpaid development. That's not a talent pipeline — it's a talent deterrent. He's genuinely uncertain how to bridge it, but asking the question is itself an act of intellectual honesty from someone inside the system. [1] — Riz Ahmed "The next generation's most talented storytellers are on Instagram and TikTok — but asking them to walk away from their audience and income …" 24:50
The producer of Everything Everywhere All at Once drove Ubers to survive development. That's not a badge of honour — it's a system failure. Ahmed argues that until Hollywood pays for the development process itself, it will keep losing the best emerging talent to algorithms and ad revenue.
