indieconomies – Hope For Film

Indie Street Post #4: Maximizing Your Story-telling Capital

By Jay Webb

Previously: IndieStreet Post #3: “Indieconomies of Scale Part 1”

Indieconomies of Scale, Part 2 (of 3): Production Benefits & Vertical Integration

There is one aspect of business that seems to remain constant no matter the advancements in technology: the pressure placed on producers to create better products for less money…the story telling business is surely not immune to this stress. In my opinion, there is no better way to accomplish greater story-telling on smaller budgets then by having a group of filmmakers that are cooperative, competent, but most importantly, alarmingly passionate about the stories being told.

Screen shot 2013-10-01 at 10.14.09 PM When considering how to apply business concepts like economies of scale to Independent film, in the case of production we have to reorganize our thought process a little. In this post, we start by treating a small group of Indie filmmakers as a story producing company with each member having both objective story telling capital (skillset, equipment, etc.) and subjective story-telling capital (interest in project, loyalty, emotional connection to material). The more story-telling capital that can be attained through cooperation, the more a group can benefit from production Indieconomies of scale.

Traditional Production Economies of Scale

Decreasing Costs per unit: When companies look at production economies of scale, they find a wide range of advantages that stem from increasing their production to a certain level. With the growth of a company’s operation, cost per unit will decrease so per unit profit increases.

Indie Street Post # 3: Indieconomies of Scale: Cooperate or else!

By Jay Webb

Previously: IndieStreet Post #2: “Word on The Street”

The “Word on the Street” is: Cooperation

Indieconomies of Scale Part 1 (of 3)

How can we apply the word “cooperation” to an industry whose namesake automatically pushes us away from the very notion? At IndieStreet, we are hoping to bridge the conceptual gap from “artistic & independent” to “business-minded & together” through a simple explanation of what we call Indieconomies of Scale.

We hear a lot of buzz in the Independent film academic space about how filmmakers must start cooperating for the industry to survive, but we have yet to see many examples of execution. This post will not express a concern about the “industry” as an abstract whole, but is more concerned about you as an individual filmmaker. I love great storytellers, and there is a threat to individual independents who do not start grasping technology advancements that can uncover the benefits of community and emerging markets. You are a hard worker who makes a film and tells a touching story with all of your heart, but you can’t figure out the best way to navigate the transitional market in a way that will maximize your film’s potential reach or return. Well you are in luck! You (single frowning Indie filmmaker) are not the only one with this dilemma…and you are also not the only one in the world with a quality story told in an innovative way. There are others just like you. My bet is that you can find at least one other like-minded filmmaker (or better yet another filmmaking team) from somewhere on the globe who you admire that has a similar passion, energy, niche target market, and can mutually agree that you are at the same career stage (which, let’s admit it; the level of “Struggling” encompasses at least 90% of Indie filmmakers).

Copyright © 2024•