Lessons Learned

The New York Times published an article recently on the REBUILDING PHASE OF INDEPENDENT FILM.

It's a great article that reviews the indie film landscape then and now, pointing to some of the lessons indie film has learned.  What's interesting are several points that all come together in the end of the piece, namely:

Indie experiments are being closely watched in the business because what happens in Hollywood often first happens in New York City. While many in Los Angeles continue to struggle with the studio system and the emerging intricacies of 3-D, New York has locked on a different challenge: how to wring even the tiniest profit from that enormous investment in smaller movies.


Producers who routinely spent $12 million on a film five years ago are now being advised by Mr. Sloss and others to keep their budgets to a third of that. 



“The independent film landscape is so different than it was, this is not the heyday of the ’90s,” said Mr. Rao. His Sri & Company has made a pair of Bollywood-style films, the second of which, “Badmaash Company,” is scheduled for release by Yash Raj Films of India next month.

Mr. Rao’s company is lean enough that it has no office at all unless a film is in production. 

“It’s an overhead-free world,” he said.

 Read the whole article. There's lots to digest here, not only if you're an east-coaster , but for those of us in the wild west or third coast. 

And I like the idea they are calling these new indies "garage companies."  Some of the best bands in the world started in a garage...

So did Apple computers, whose IPad is one of the new tools / platforms that will change the lessons yet again.