I have accepted that cinema is an ever-evolving medium. But I never expected our heritage to be at stake. This post is not a podium for me to exclaim film is superior to digital, nor will I be stating the digital conversion (or DC) was a poor decision of the industry. As a society furthering itself in the Digital Revolution, the DC was the most obvious future for the way we exhibit motion pictures theatrically. But I never expected this:
“We have decided to suspend theater operations…”
How do you know someone is someone you are going to work with for the long term?
How do you know each other is capable of being supportive of what the other has to be doing?
What are things needed to make this unique relationship work?
The latest installment of my Film Courage interview attempts to answer precisely that:
Colin McCormick did a really great and in depth interview with me for SAGIndie. We covered a significant amount in pretty substantial detail. Suffice it to say that this excerpt is just the tip, and you will want to read the whole thing. But to begin with check this excerpt out on the similarities between producing and directing, and how they demonstrate everything has got to change:
I often say that there is the role of the producer and there is the role of the director that are remarkably similar. The producer comes in and has to extract the big vision, the dream of everything that you
This week I am presenting a new talk “How To Produce In The Emerging New Film Ecosystem”. This is not part of my “book tour” but really back to my gospel on the pulpit — my push to help drive us forward. I launched this new talk on Monday at AFM (sans any slides), and will follow it up today (Wednesday) in Napa (in an abbreviated format) and then off to Vancouver for Merging Media to really kick it home. I should have it down pretty well come end of the week I hope. I spoke a bit about this new rant to PlaybackDaily/StreamDaily and you can read about it here.
As both artist and entrepreneurs, we filmmaking types are stuck in legacy practices that have little applicability to the way the world is. We are holding back both the advancement of our craft and our culture, the cash and the capital. It is time to
I am the fucking greatest! Ah, the wave of pride and misguided sense of accomplishment that one can ride having “finished” a script. Especially script number one. The real one, not the others before it, shat out only to be abandoned too late out of sentiment and denial. Don’t get me wrong; completing a script is hard work. The act itself is something to be proud of. What happened after I typed those last words wasn’t what I expected. A colossus weight lifted. For a day I felt serene. Then that wave of anarchic emotion that I’d expected kicked in and I felt complete…but was the script?
Granted, Hope For Film is a good read if you are a film fan too, or really a creatively minded person, but it is all of us in the film business (or those that want to be) that my book is geared to. I’ve shared with you the reasons why I wrote it, and many have shared with you excerpts from it. Yes, there are many good reviews out there too to tell you that it is worth your time too, but none of that yet tells you how you will directly benefit from reading the book, does it?
Fortunately, Film Courage came to the rescue. They have released three prior interview segments to date, and this latest one lays out four key takeaways from my book. You’ll have to read the book of course to get the nuance and all the secrets, but if you want more details, watch the video. However, if you want a good idea of what’s in store for the read, here are my observations on my book:
Where does good work come from? Just because you can say something, doesn’t mean that you should. Stewing on an idea does not mean that it will have more flavor. We are told to go, go, go, but when is slow actually the fastest route?
