“Earth. It Was Fun While It Lasted.” Armegeddon’s tag line sticks with me, because I instinctively substitute “Earth” for “Indie Film” when I read it.
In these days of RampantFilmBizChange, everything is ripe for reconsideration. MCN hipped me to AdWeek’s collection of “66 Great Movie Taglines“. Sure the list gets a smile regularly from me, but I walk away deadened and jaded. The sell is obvious. The dominant clever factor feels like a child beauty pagents’ related icky. “Look at me! Look at me! Give me a trophy! Now!!!”. Get me outta there.
Can’t we do better? Or at least do different? What once was called “Indie” has never been proud enough of it’s differences. Isn’t now the time — this the age of absolutely no acquisition market that makes much sense for the majority of work — to stop the sell and instead embrace the collaboration? Or the participation. Or something else entirely different.
A good number of “Indies” show up on Adweek’s list. For me it is clear articulation of the past. We have moved on. That is not our culture anymore. Okay, it’s not the only culture anymore. Yet it feels to me, the creative community is still living in the past. We have to move forward. Move further. And soon.
What thoughts do you have on how we could innovate this process? How can we bring taglines inside the narrative? How do we make them about the experience, about the process, about something more than sounding clever and hip?