Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Okay - It IS New Media Tuesday...

From John August's blog:

Quoting Patrick Goldstein from the LA Times, Stern notes:

“The real problem with the indie business isn’t quality, but discipline. We have a generation of filmmakers who feel entitled to make personal films… and a generation of executives who’ve been willing to essentially use specialty films as a loss-leader to launch their division or win awards. If people in the indie world want to start making money again, they have to start treating their investment like a truly precious natural resource, not like Monopoly money. Discipline is not antithetical to art.”

And later:

Every filmmaker would like her movie to break out of its niche and gain wider exposure and acceptance. But Stern’s point is apt: figure out your base, and develop a marketing plan that succeeds even if it never goes beyond that. If this sounds more like planning a small business than planning a movie, that’s sort of the point.

I wouldn’t make another indie the way I did The Nines. I’d figure out how I was going to make money before figuring out how to get money.


Amen. Pass the sacra-mental wine, please.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Story is king, not personal anguish.

S. Harlan Cone said...

I personally like to blow shit up - preferably via aliens or giant robots. I like to emotionally justify it. But then... there is fire.