Author: Ted Hope

Categories
These Are Those Things

When I Was 8 Years Old On My Birthday

On September 30th, 1970, Dennis Hopper appeared on the Johnny Cash Show and recited a poem by Rudyard Kipling, “If” — or as he named it: “the middle word in life”.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied to, don’t deal in lies, or being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise. If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; if you can think — and not make thoughts your aim; if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same; if you can bear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build them up with worn out tools: if you can make a heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss; if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone. And so hold on when there is nothing in you, except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much; if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and what’s more, you’ll be a man, my son!! 

I think he was talking to me.

Categories
Truly Free Film

A Total Disruption

“How is the film industry going to learn to support the artists who are willing to take risks, are committed to their own audience and advancing the language of cinema?

Continue reading “A Total Disruption”
Categories
Truly Free Film

Take Your Film To Where The Audience Already Is

“Filmmakers, Hollywood, The Industry, rarely know whom their audience is. We do it so ass-backwards: we make a movie and we think it is so wonderful that people all over the world will come to see it. Wouldn’t it be a hell of a lot easier if

Continue reading “Take Your Film To Where The Audience Already Is”
Categories
Truly Free Film

The Animated Version Of How I Became A Film Producer

Special Thanks to Ondi Timoner and the A Total Disruption team!

There is, of course, a lot more to it than that, but

Continue reading “The Animated Version Of How I Became A Film Producer”
Categories
Truly Free Film

Deliver Relationships and Experiences! Not Products.

Categories
featured Truly Free Film

The Five Crucial Things We Want From Movies

IMG_9912What are our expectations when we sit down to watch? How strong are they? Are these expectations actually demands? Will we be punished if we don’t fulfill them?

I think there are universal hopes all audiences have for cinema each and every time they sit down to watch.  When we fail to provide them, people start to lose faith in our product. We need to keep this promises front and center when we create new movies. Many do, some don’t. Which side do you want to be on?

Continue reading “The Five Crucial Things We Want From Movies”
Categories
Truly Free Film

For Film To Work As A Business We Must Give More

Things could be better for the film biz. We can lift it up.  We have the power.

How do we decide what is the best approach? What makes sense in terms of how we should work today?

For me, I start with the premise that everyone has less available time.  We work more and more.  We have more responsibilities and obligations. The less time we have, the more valuable that time becomes. We generally don’t commit our available time frivolously. 

From there, I accept that there is increased competition for our time.  Although we have less leisure time, we have more options on how to spend that time then ever before. 

What does this access to everything mean for us? Generally speaking, the quality of our experiences improve with the increased input we get; that is, the more we consume, the better we are equipped to consider our next move. As we find “better” work to immerse ourselves in, the better work we do. When we have better advisors, our output benefits. As long as we don’t surround ourselves with the wrong people and things, things do get better.

How does our immersion in better things influence us? Overall we expect a better “ROIE”: Return On the Investment of our Engagement. We value time. We know there is plenty of good things to find. Our curiosity grows.

Luckily for us, those of us in the film business have a truly distinct product whose value has generally gone untapped.  Business has taught us to look at film primarily for the revenue it can generate of course.  The audience has been taught to value film based on how much entertainment it delivers.  Yet, as any cinema lover knows, movies are much much more than that.

Movies create a shared emotional response amongst strangers. Good cinema compels us to discuss it afterwards.  A movie can create empathy amongst folks who have only previously felt differences.  How incredibly powerful is that?  Can we unlock that attribute on a regular basis?  Damn straight we can! The transformative power of cinema is its true utility; well, that and its consequent ability to build community around it.

If we highlight these aspects of film, we give the audience a better ROIE.  Give more.

If we give the audience more, they in turn give us more. Isn’t that great?

Time to stop thinking of film as just an entertainment. Movies change people and they can change the world.  Let’s celebrate this utility inherent in our art and business.