Month: August 2010

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Truly Free Film

Where’s Film Biz On Kubler-Ross Scale?

Kübler-Ross’ 5 stages of grief are: denial, anger, bargaining for time, depression, & acceptance. Where’s the film biz on this list?  And where is the Indie Film Biz on the chart?

It seems to me that most are still in step one: denial.  I wrote my “38 Ways The Film Business Is Failing” post from what I felt was a place of acceptance (K-R Stage 5).  We should be ready to move on now.  Each of my 38, and the 37 I posted the year earlier, are ironclad truths in my view ;-).  Seriously, though, each of the combined 75 statements are wake up calls, pleas to move on and find solutions.  Can’t we just hurdle over the middle three and land on the final one?

If we accept acceptance and wake up to the world we are living in, what is our next step?

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Truly Free Film

Jon Reiss On Ten Thoughts On The PMD, Economics, & Responsibility

Let me clarify some of my feelings about the PMD. I will add my universal caveat that every film and situation is different. But here are some important guidelines:

1. The best case scenario is that a PMD is on board as a full collaborator and worker from as close to inception of the film as possible – no later than beginning of prep. This allows for, what I feel, the optimum of the integration of audience connection and engagement (which is what distribution and marketing is at its essence). If you wait till you have finished your film – you are in a world of hurt (I’ve said that before, but I don’t think I can say it enough) because this connection building and engagement take time and effort and cannot be hurried.

2. The best marketing is as creative as traditional filmmaking now

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Categories
Let's Make Better Films

Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Test

The first color film tests — that perhaps ever were — are pretty damn beautiful.

But here they are, 1922, and then how long did it take to make color films the standard?  Sure everything happens sooner these days, but change sure takes awhile, even when the tools already exist.

Back twenty years ago, I was hired several times to write business plans for indie films.  I included a paragraph for the anticipated windfall of profits from VOD.  I see a version in many a plan that I stumble across in the present day.  We can dream, but I don’t think $100K is exactly the windfall I was fantasizing about back in the day….

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Bowl Of Noses

All Of Chewbacca’s Dialogue From Star Wars!

This in from SavageChickens:

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Truly Free Film

What Do The Top Grossing INDIE Films Of 2000s Reveal?

I think I may have posted this before.  I just recently came across it again.  This list was compiled by the good folks at Indiewire.  I stare at it and think it must reveal some greater truth.

What does it say about our culture, about what people want to see?  What does it say about the mainstream industry and what they will buy or promote?

Top Grossing Independent Films of the 2000s

1. The Passion of the Christ, 2004 (Newmarket)  $370,274,604
2. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 2003 (IFC Films)  $241,438,208
3. Juno, 2007 (Fox Searchlight)  $143,395,265
4. Slumdog Millionaire, 2008 (Fox Searchlight)  $141,319,928
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000 (Sony Pictures Classics) $128,078,872
6. Traffic, 2000 (USA) $124,115,725
7. Fahrenheit 9/11, 2004 (Lionsgate) $119,194,771
8. Paranormal Activity, 2009 (Paramount)  $107,753,000
9. Brokeback Mountain, 2005 (Focus Features)  $83,043,761
10. March of the Penguins, 2005 (Warner Independent) $77,437,223
11. Coraline, 2009 (Focus Features)  $75,286,229
12. Sideways, 2004 (Fox Searchlight)  $71,503,593
13. Burn After Reading, 2008 (Focus Features)  $60,355,347
14. Little Miss Sunshine, 2006 (Fox Searchlight)  $59,891,098
15. Hero, 2004 (Miramax) $53,710,019
16. Atonement, 2007 (Focus Features) $50,927,067
17. 28 Days Later, 2003 (Fox Searchlight)  $45,064,915
18. Lost In Translation, 2003 (Focus Features)  $44,585,453
19. Napoleon Dynamite, 2004 (Fox Searchlight)  $44,540,956
20. Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, 2009 (Lionsgate)  $42,004,270

Categories
Let's Make Better Films

Gunn Was First. I Am 23rd!

Our director broke first with this photo forecasting some of the mayhem that The Crimson Bolt and Boltie will get into later on  in our film SUPER (and as the caps tell you, you pronounce the title LOUD, like at eleven), but hey I am always late to the party.

"Boltie" & "The Crimson Bolt" manufacture mayhem.

And if you haven’t yet, please “like” our Facebook Page.

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Truly Free Film

Thoughts On Titles (Plus: Ten Titles For Nonexistent Films!)

Are titles more than a marketing tool?  They certainly can be that thing that encourages the desire, and the fond memory, the element that represents the art & the ambition, as well as being the reminder of the thing you want.  Titles can tell us that the movie is distinct and worth our consideration (The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) or warn us that we may not be the correct audience for it (Blood _______).  Good titles grow richer once we see the movie (The Ice Storm) and can move from seeming initially generic into some sort of deeper resonance (as Ang’s movie did).

The industry’s holy grail is often seen as the title that gives you a clear idea of both the tone and content or concept of the film (The Forty Year Old Virgin).  Some subjects demand to be put in the title (weddings, food, chocolate, blood) because they are the things that audiences love most.  Life’s big subjects get more than their fair share of attention (death, sex, love, power).

Sometimes though it seems as if who’s ever picking the titles deliberately tries to confuse,

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