Bill Mechanic, a man that is as responsible as anyone for building Hollywood as we know it and an incredibly smart man and passionate film fan at that, has been doing a lot of public speaking lately. Whenever he speaks, I learn something; I also understand our business better. Despite making far larger films than I can even dream of, he still knows what is critical to all film’s success (and our industry’s survival).
In the keynote speech he recently gave at the Independent Film and Television Production Conference, Mechanic chastised the mainstream movie industry by asking:
When was the last time you heard anyone either from a studio or an independent talking about improving their product, of creating positive buzz and expanding the audience?
Isn’t this precisely what we have been talking about for the last year here? Isn’t that what we need to do if we want to survive?
He goes on to advise:
An independent… should make movies individualistic and compelling… that actually do stand out and succeed because of their quality and their uniqueness.
Read Mechanic’s whole speech. It is full of great nuggets. It generated many of my morning’s twitter posts yesterday.
