Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The State of the Film Biz

So it seems after Soderbergh's speech on the film business going to shit there has been a lot of follow up about it online. Some big folks (indie folks) are finally admitting the business isn't all its cracked up to be anymore.

Check out a few links below. 

Starting with Soderbergh's speech itself of course.

Ted Hope chimed in with a list of 17 things you should now about the business that should influence your behavior. He pretty much talks about how a sustainable life cannot be had anymore as a filmmaker and proposes a few things you should know to help you navigate through this business, and gives you a warning about how this might make you feel too. 

"WARNING: taking any of these points out of context, could create unnecessary fear or depression. If you want to tackle reality, you need to know what ground you walk on.  Some truths are hard to accept but once you do, you can move forward and to a different place.  Adding Film Biz realities to Culture truths, and building Best Filmmaker Practices on those understandings could provide a Design For Sustainable Collective Creation.  Or at least that’s this Hope’s hope."

This is good advice if you want to survive as a filmmaker in the business as it stands now, but propagating the system is no way to change it for the future of cinema. Our reality is what we make it so lets actually make the films we think no one will want to watch but secretly wish we could make, no safety net, no marketing talk, just make what you want and put it out yourself and see what happens maybe? 

This leads me to a wonderful interview with Francis Ford Coppola. Somehow I missed this article when it first came out but its relative to the state of film talks because its an ideal that creators can forget about when a whole lot of numbers are thrown at them.

All of these guys make great points within their articles but what Francis Ford Coppola has to say about art just resonates. 

Soderbergh's address

Ted Hopes 17 Things

Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Creative Collaboration

How do you feel future filmmakers will be able to sustain themselves? 



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