Day: December 9, 2008

Categories
Truly Free Film

Hard Times: The Refrain Continues

Why do you need to plan to distribute your film yourself?  

Answer number 29: 
Because there won’t be anyone left to do it for you!

One of the downsides of all of us being so well connected and tuned in, is the bad news gets to us all much faster.  Hopefully, the upside is we can react positively much quicker too.  Time will tell.
If you didn’t notice, media in all forms is in a tailspin:  Layoffs at Universal and Paramount; NBC contemplating reducing nightly programming;  the NY Times mortgaging their building; The Tribune declaring bankruptcy;  publishers slashing employees and limiting releases.   I do hear that Jack Daniels posted high profits this quarter though.  My business partner’s exit strategy of a liquor store in a fishing town is looking mighty wise…  When Barry Diller is the loudest voice calling out corporations on the greed inherent in firing 500 more people to save a few million dollars, we know the world is changing.
David Carr’s “Stoking Fear Everywhere You Look” captures these times quite well.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Imagine

I got the album for Christmas the year it came out.  I had matching glasses.  I played the album over and over and stared at the photos and the poster.  Every song entered my being, and is still there today.  By the time this day rolled around 24 years ago, I felt that John was someone I need to move on from.  My music had changed, but I was not truly ready to move on; I was only acting the angry young man part, a part that I had partially lifted from John.  I am glad he lives on today.  Imagine…

Categories
Truly Free Film

It’s Two Separate Schools: Chesanek’s Counterpoint (Part 5 of 6)

Brent continues…

This discussion can’t proceed forward until the two schools of thought here are separated. One school says traditional narrative is dead and new storytelling methods MUST be applied to new distribution models, while the other realizes there is still a market for narrative feature films that can be accessed through new technology and distro models.

If you want to expand your so-called brand while creating “content” and label yourself as a “creative” (in reality, it’s not a noun) or just want to create infinite ways and media for telling a story, then you’re in this field, so these are some options, these are the issues. If so, then it’s likely none of these marketing terms seem pejorative to your craft.

But many do find these terms pejorative. If you lean towards uninterrupted, feature length art films that show restraint and dexterity in the information provided to an audience, believe in the quality of a screening environment, are not about pushing as much content and info as possible but rather about expertly pursuing a craft you and many others still love but realize there are new opportunities for these works to be seen, then there is this discussion over here, these are the issues on this side of the situation.

These two worlds remain very closely aligned in discussions, and it seems not fully distinguishable from each other just yet, but also not completely on the same page. We need to clearly delineate and grow from there, learning from both sides but never assuming these schools are the same.