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Truly Free Film

Building Our Home: Is It Possible To Make A Living As A FIlmmaker?

You know what? As important as this question is, and as dedicated as I am to making sure we all learn the practical things that will allow us to both earn a living & build a new system that allows for artists to sustain a career in the arts, I also think that if we try too hard to answer that question, we will never commit ourselves to the art, craft, and pursuit.

We need to run full speed into this love of film, but particularly to do it with all of our heart. If we are also not lazy about it, and if we are studious in our endeavors, forever trying to improve our craft & our knowledge, while also maintaining a sense of wonder and pleasure, then perhaps we can truly become artists. That is the first step — the becoming — and only after we land in that dangerous swamp, can we address the second step of knowing the waters & environment. Once through those trials, and only once there, can we set about the third step: building our home.

Let’s say you did that first step and made the leap. Let’s say you then have remained vigilant in your practice and you are an eternal student of both film and the system. You watch movies, talk movies. You read novels and study art. You read up on the technology and train yourself to use it. You refuse to accept that the way it is is a given and you consider change. You keep your house in order and don’t live beyond your means. You are thankful for the good fortune you’ve enjoyed, and don’t blame others for your struggles. Well, then, you are ready for that next important step: survival and sustainability.

The Tribeca Film Institute held a panel at The New School trying to address “How To Make A Living As A Filmmaker” and thankfully it’s up on YouTube. It’s a long panel and could benefit from a bit of meta-tagging and some chaptering, but it is worth a ride, and if you are starting out a focused one.

What are the lessons it offers? Lots, but among them: be self-reliant; be generous; recognize that it is a long run; find another way to make money beyond filmmaking (teaching, shooting commercials, speaking gigs); build your audience and database.

I’d like to write a post on the practical things we need to do survive these days. I am going to start taking notes, but I would love your suggestions.

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Truly Free Film

Film Courage: Thinking About Lost Opportunities

Back at the head of the year I did a three part post for the indispensable website/podcast Film Courage pondering what might have been in Indie Film and what actually could still be. They have been kind enough to collect all three posts in one handy dandy spot for your reading enjoyment. They have also been generous enough to post it on their front page. Here’s a taste, but I hope you dive in for the whole meal.

I graduated from high school in 1980, the year often associated with when the Hollywood Business fully became the Blockbuster Business. When I graduated I thought I had revolution to run (even if I wasn’t prepared to run it), but I didn’t get around to finding the film business for a few more years.

I was fortunate in the timing of my professional & artistic pursuits that I could benefit from the DIY aesthetic, the approach of the first wave of punk rock (circa 1977), and political events like the class antagonism of the Reagan Years, and the fear & consequences of the AIDS epidemic. Add to that the prevailing post-modern, multi-culti, deconstructionist sway of academia, the birth of a new distribution platform (VHS video), and Hollywood’s abandonment of the complex and personal. What could have been a more perfect storm for the coming wave of American Indies?

Circumstances gave me and my generation of filmmakers opportunity (even if some paid a high price). Has such an opportunity come again over the next thirty years? Did we miss it?

Read the rest (and enjoy Film Courage’s choice of photos too!) here.

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Truly Free Film

It’s Up To Filmmakers To Make The World A Better Place

Every once in a great while, someone comes along and shows us we have not really been recognizing the reality of the world we are living in. People tend to speak of this as “disruptive thought”, subtly implying that this clarity may not be a good thing — at least for some. Certainly Freud, Marx, & Einstein have been leaders in this field, but equally disruptive has been the community at large, as we recognize that our group think might well be a bit wrong headed. Now it is being recognized that the traits that make good filmmakers, traits that haven’t previously been championed in other fields, may just make the world a much better place.

I was so fortunate when I met and fell in love with my wife, Vanessa. Among the many gifts she has given me is a vigilance to make sure that I grow and become more thoughtful in all my actions. Among this focus is a greater attention to my emotions and general empathy. Although I have struggled in some areas, I have always felt comfortable applying those aspects to characters on the page and screen. Perhaps this is because those skills are always rewarded in development, and generally by the critics and audience. People appreciate it when films help us connect with one another both on the screen and later, off.

Often when I am speaking to filmmakers they express dismay that their skills appear to be so non-transferable. “What else can we do than make films?” “Who would ever need the skills that we’ve developed, other than other filmmakers?”. Well, it seems like the world is now waking up to the fact that those same skills are needed everywhere and both politics and business are in desperate need of our gifts.

NYTimes OpEd contributor had a must read piece last week entitled “The New Humanism“. Of course, Vanessa tipped me to it. The article distills a great deal of thinking being done in many fields, but when Brooks laid out the new necessary attributes, he might as well have been speaking about much of the creative community:

Attunement: the ability to enter other minds and learn what they have to offer.

Equipoise: the ability to serenely monitor the movements of one’s own mind and correct for biases and shortcomings.

Metis: the ability to see patterns in the world and derive a gist from complex situations.

Sympathy: the ability to fall into a rhythm with those around you and thrive in groups.

Limerence: This isn’t a talent as much as a motivation. The conscious mind hungers for money and success, but the unconscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or the love of God. Some people seem to experience this drive more powerfully than others.

Isn’t it nice to know that your skills and talents are needed? But, dang, it is a bit of a heavy responsibility to try to make the world a better place. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Maybe if we all woke up an hour earlier…

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Truly Free Film

Tonight! Wednesday! Come Tweet With Me About Producing on #FilmIn140

My producing partner on SUPER, Miranda Bailey, and my former Sundance Creative Producing Mentoree — and an innovative producer in his own right — Thomas Woodrow will be joining Sheri Candler and the good folks at Film Threat, and hopefully hordes of others — like you, and you, and you — for a discussion on the role of the producer.

This is just one of the many new ways a truly free film community is joining forces to emphasize access, collaboration, and demystification. Wanna be part of it? It’s easy. All you have to do is…

Read this as FilmThreat explains how to join the #FilmIn140 discussion clearly for you.

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Truly Free Film

New List Of Future Film Investors

Producers pride themselves in sourcing new financing sources. There generally is not a large supply of eager new money to leap into film biz. One agency has even taken to refusing to share with the producers they are representing the sources they are submitting to, for fear that they won’t be the new financiers’ preferred suppliers. Knowledge is power, but transparency is progress. Which is why I am excited to share this list with you…

You almost would expect a financier list to be the sort of thing that is found on Wikileaks. I do think we are entering a period when free culture moles inside the agency world (yes, they have been planted and are digging away furiously), will start to drop documents on the Deadline desks, but this list did not come from such a source.

The Film Biz is always a bit obsessed with lists. Box Office. Highest Paid. Most Powerful. Most Number Of Twitter Followers &Facebook Friends. You’d think ability to get movies made would always be something that Industry-ites would track a bit more thoroughly. Well, until we start do this, I am pretty thrilled to be offered THIS LIST annually. So who on it do you already know? What can we do to get them into this world a bit more thoroughly? I don’t know about you, but I am going to head off to China next month. Isn’t that what any self-respecting film producer should do? Let me know if you have anyone over there you think I should meet.

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Truly Free Film

Can You Spend A Bit Of Today WIth Me?

I don’t know if you made it out to either of the panels or discussions I did last weekend in NYC. If not, perhaps this weekend will be easier. Particularly since I am willing to come to you where ever you happen to be. Why? Simple. Check this out…

Last week I did an interview with Noah Nelson for the Turnstyle Podcast. You can stream or download it here.

It’s a special for SXSW where SUPER is having it’s US Festival Premiere. I won’t be there, alas. If you are there, can you do me a favor? Give us a vote on Festival Genius here.

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Truly Free Film

I Am Inspired By Alrick Brown’s KINYARWANDA

Tuesday night next week, we will be screening Alrick Brown’s KINYARWANDA as part of our This is that Goldcrest NYC screening series.

I remember why I want to make movies when I see films that take me to other lands and help me gain a better understanding of the world I am part of. When a film is able to also deliver such understanding in a personal and intimate way, making me feel at one with a diverse group of characters on multiple sides of an incredibly complex issue, the passion to create meaningful work grows even stronger.

I remember why I want to make movies when I see films that take me to other lands and help me gain a better understanding of the world I am part of. When a film is able to also deliver such understanding in a personal and intimate way, making me feel at one with a diverse group of characters on multiple sides of an incredibly complex issue, the passion to create meaningful work grows even stronger. When the work refuses to oversimplify or rely on overt sentimentality to do this, when the filmmakers clearly have made great sacrifices to get the movie made, when those filmmakers fill — what in some other hands may have been a bleak or upsetting venture — with love, hope, and the vitality of life, I recognize why movies matter so much. I believe such a work will make our world a better place.

Alrick Brown’s directorial debut, KINYARWANDA, winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance this year is a deeply felt & personal film that looks at an array of characters’ lives before, during, and after the 100 day Rwandan genocide as they strive for peace and reconciliation. It is also the first feature film produced by Rwandans.

I am confident that I will never have to endure anything as horrifying as what the characters in Brown’s film experience, but I am thankful that Alrick chose to dramatize both how easy it is for evil to infect strong people, and how hard it is for the strongest of people to act righteously when presented with an easy opportunity. The differences in all of us will continue to be exploited by those desiring power and privilege, but art, such as KINYARWANDA, will always be one of the necessary bridges to bring us together.

Please check out this movie as soon as you get a chance. Their Facebook page is here.