You’d think with all the collapse in the “Film Business” we’d have a whole lot more experimenting going on. Or at the very least the encouragement for experimentation. Why is it that everyone wants to keep doing it “business as usual”. It’s broken! Those days are over! The sky has fallen! Dust yourself off and let’s begin something new! Stop sniveling.
It is a different business now than what it used to be. There is no U.S. acquisition market for films, even if the movies are good. Library value as an asset is a thing of the past (or at least libraries being something you could base easily predictable cash flow or resale on is over). People don’t want to pay to see movies — unless they are the sort of culture (including niche culture) unifying event film. It is truly hard to get people’s attention when they are overwhelmed with the plethora of choices — we are a world of distraction and rapid attention shift. It is even more difficult to get people to talk about good stories, even when more are told and made than ever before. Everything requires more work and more thought than it used to.
Which is not to say that the art and industry of film is over. Far from it. It is just a different business. [...]
1. Be a mentor to someone. This is more than just hiring interns. It is about really educating someone, giving them access to experience.
2. Do something “the better way” instead of the easy way. We make ethical excuses in order to say money, but we need to focus on the big picture.
Avoid 15 Passenger Vans as they are the most dangerous vehicle on the road.
Provide housing when someone has worked an excessive day.
Recycle bottles and cans.
Print less. Use less paper.
Email Call Sheets
Provide production packages (shooting schedules, breakdowns, lists, etc.) on line.
Crew Lists as Address Cards so they can instantly be in one’s phone.
3. Remember that everyone is first and foremost a human being and not just a worker drone.
Learn everyone’s name and what they like to do. Remember that everyone is working together.
4. Keep the crew updated as to the progress of the production — through post and release.
Recognize they make the movie; treat them as partners.
Via email updates during post and release.
5. How can you have the movie actually help improve the world?
Can you generate charitable items that could raise money? Can you collect signatures on petitions for particular causes? Can you educate your cast and crew? What can you do with the completed work that will make this a better place?
6. Can you help out another filmmaker with your film? Invite another artist to film a doc about the process.
7. Stay focused on what the movie needs and don’t get distracted by the thrill of 100 new friends.
8. Show your appreciation. Feel it. You wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for your cast, crew, and financiers.
- How can you help other artists with this film you are doing? Can you bring others into the process?
- Do something stylistically just because you like it. Allow something to be “outside” the film, something that doesn’t fit so right and is only there because you dig it. Why does it always have to fit?
- How can you help the world by the content of this film? How can you work for impact first, and business second (without ignoring those financial obligations, that is)?
- How can you have less environmental impact on the world with your process? Recycle. Use less paper. No styrofoam. Car pool. Carbon credits.
- How can you do more to show appreciation for your collaborators? What if you put people first would that change your content significantly?
- Are you really collaborating with your crew? Do they feel like you are? What if you listened more, and spoke less?
- You say it is a team approach, but what if everyone was treated equally? What if your equality carried over not just to financial matters, but also in terms of access?
- What if you completely demystified the process and opened it up to comment by all cast, crew, and fans? As opposed to the studio’s no-twitter policy, what if you made it a requirement>
- What would be a different business model? Could you give it away? Free it? Never plan to screen it theatrically? What if the movie was not the main event, but something else was?
- Place the bar higher & reach higher. What makes something better? What if you made sure you could answer any question as to why before you started? Or maybe this would be the opposite and you should answer no questions but hold it all within yourself…
- Is your work truthful? Is every action, emotion, reaction honest? Are the settings truly lived in? Can you extend only from your characters, their psychology and socio-economic situation — removing your own intent from the design?
- What if you built your audience base prior to shooting? And maintained significant communication with them throughout the process? How might that change your final work?
- Innovate. Try some new equipment on every production. Improve a simple process. Isn’t production about the communication of information in the service of art, as efficiently, economically, and aesthetically as possible?
We start shooting tomorrow.
This site could not have been built without the help and insight of Michael Morgenstern. My thanks go out to him.
Help save indie film and give this guy a job in web design or film!
