02 Jan

Posted at 19:01h in Film Fundamentals
At the end of last year, we dealt with the train wreak known as Hollywood. But that was 2013, a year that is so over and done. It is now 2014, a year full of bright new promise and exciting possibilities. OK, I can't tell the difference either, but let's pretend. What does the new year offer for the indie filmmaker?  I suspect it will be both the best of times and the worse of times. Predicting the future can result in a dickens of a fit. The two key issues at the core of predicting indie future are: 1. financial and 2. digital. The financial question is the simplest and the hardest to resolve. Indie filmmakers need money. You see, it's extremely straight forward. They know that money is out there, somewhere. As I said, it is incredibly straight forward. They can't find it. Damn!  I knew there was a tricky part.

10 Dec

Posted at 17:09h in Film Fundamentals
It is easy to dismiss John Landis' recent comments about Hollywood (see the IndieWire story) as sour grapes.  After all, his last movie (Burke and Hare) earned $947 at the US box office ($4.3 million internationally).  Heck, I even know a few people who are still complaining about Blues Brothers 2000.   Unfortunately, he is also right.  There are no film studios any more.  They are media companies.  In turn, they are owned by large media conglomerates.  Those are owned by gigantic multinational corporations who in turn own about two-thirds of the planet, more or less. Likewise, making movies is not part of the function of the major film companies.  Not really.  Making movies imply a creative process.  Large companies are not interested in vague  notions like the creative process.  Large companies are involved in ownership.  

21 Nov

Posted at 08:47h in Film Fundamentals

Should companies make public the revenue generated by films distributed via video on demand (VOD)? According to The Hollywood Reporter, this question is a hot topic among indie filmmakers. I'm not so sure that's true, but it ought to be.  Since VOD is the most probable...

01 Nov

Posted at 18:30h in Film Fundamentals
The romantic comedy genre is dead. The horror genre has received numerous obituary notices over the past ten years. Film Noir is pretty much an historical concept used for stylistic flourish and the occasional directorial hommage. Genre film-making – a major backbone to the low budget and indie cinema – is often treated as a dead commodity. Reports on the demise of various forms of genre appears almost as frequent as rumors of Bill Cosby's death. They are also about as accurate.

23 Oct

Posted at 14:24h in Film Fundamentals
Where ever you go, the topic is social media. It is the quick fix for everything from fund raising to film promotion and distribution. It is all things to all people, which is why it is a good thing we have so many self-professed experts online to tell us how to use it. It plays a bit like that scene with Groucho and Chico in A Day at the Races. So let's begin by stating that I am not an expert on social media. Never have been, and never will be. To be honest, I have a strong anti-social streak which works against the whole concept. I am even thinking of developing my own social media site based on the principle that people ought to mind their own business. I thought I would call it MySpace/Not Yours.

11 Oct

Posted at 17:41h in Film Fundamentals

Ted Hope may or may not have left his heart in San Francisco.  But he has left his job.  After slightly more than a year as director of the San Francisco Film Society, Hope has quit. Officially, he wants to get back to work as an indie...

03 Oct

Posted at 17:41h in Film Fundamentals

The question of racial bias in American movies is supposed to be over. You know, the product of some long-forgotten age. Way back in Antebellum time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and we had just discovered fire. However, almost every major study on this issue completely...

10 Sep

Posted at 13:22h in Film Fundamentals
First, there was Y2K. Then came 2012. Now, the film industry is bracing for 2015 (according to the article 4 Reasons 2015 Could Be the Movie Industry's Worst Year Ever). OK. Y2K kind of flopped. Likewise, 2012 was a farce produced by an odd collection of New Age gurus who didn't know the difference between Maya and mayonnaise. But the 2015 theory has a point, even if the provided link is to an article at Cracked.com.

28 Aug

Posted at 17:20h in Film Fundamentals
Theater owners do not depend upon folks like me for their trade. After all, I prefer to watch movies in theaters that are largely empty. Quiet as the grave, and more deserted than a tomb. I love it this way. Too bad none of these places stay in business for long. So the recent dust-up about rude audiences has sparked my interest. Especially since I have long felt that certain movies demand a loud and rude house in order to be properly appreciated. Heck, a misfire like Maximum Overdrive is only enjoyable with a rowdy audience. Traditionally, the rude house debate has been mostly focused on the difference between a quiet, polite audience versus a boisterous band of total loudmouth jackasses who behave like a pack of Vikings on their way to England. The proper film audience stays reverentially silent while casting a studious glaze at the screen.

19 Aug

Posted at 16:47h in Film Fundamentals

Spike Lee had a hissy fit on Bloomberg TV. Well, not really a full blown hissy fit. More of a “frank and open” exchange of views. To be honest, Trish Regan started the interview with a kind of “When did you stop beating your wife” approach....