Financial ownership shapes which stories get told despite no direct supervision of creators.

Evidence

The structural constraints imposed by escalating wealth and financial capital on independent filmmakers are difficult to prove in a direct manner, since there are no hedge fund managers breathing down the necks of aspiring writers, directors, and producers. But it doesn’t take a screenwriter to imagine which pitches an heir to a great fortune is not going to be excited by, which projects are not going to be greenlit by a financial investment firm, and which stories are not going to be even written in such a stultifying climate. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 295

Categorization

• QUESTION: This admits the causal link finance-to-form is inferred rather than directly evidenced — exactly the causation-vs-correlation test the reader is running on Part Two.
• SEED: The ‘absent force’ argument — structures shaping creative output without anyone issuing orders — is a reusable critical frame for tracing how ownership constrains form.