Indie Film - It All Growed Up

Drew Bellware sent me this via Google Reader about the pitfalls and triumphs of an indie film called FULL GROWN MEN. The post is from one of the producers, David Munro who is guest blogging on Prep Shoot Post and it is a perfect case study for today's indie film producer.

Read it now.

Of special interest is this:

Days turned into weeks, that turned into months. More top-tier festival play, more great reviews (and yes, some not-so-good ones – personal visions are always an acquired taste), more ‘We love it, buts” from acquisitions people. What was going on? Why hadn’t Harvey and Bob backed up the Brinks truck yet?

In crystal-clear hindsight, two reasons: first, we had not made a 100% audience-friendly film. And second, films that were not 100% audience-friendly were no longer selling. The irony, of course, is that indies were never meant to be mainstream. But the runaway success of Indiewood, and the resulting co-optation of indie distributors by studio specialty arms, had created unrealistic hopes, and imposed blockbuster logic on films that were never intended, or capable, of performing like “Pirates Of The Caribbean 3.”

The whole blog post is filled with good, solid in-your-face advice that only comes from someone who's lived this experience. I think Mr. Munro has experienced something similar to what I did several years ago... growing pains.