What is the future of indie filmmaking?
In 2015, as indie filmmakers look at the status quo and the evolution of independent filmmaking since 2000, a few key learnings will emerge. Among the most profound will be the painful understanding that indie filmmakers got caught up in the Hollywood-esque whirlwind of spend, spend, spend. When in fact such irresponsible spending was to the detriment of the industry of independent filmmaking and to the film project itself.
In 2015, the notion that bigger is better will come to a screeching painful halt. Filmmakers who have padded their production budgets with miscellaneous expenses crew member salaries will come to the painful realization that they’ve gotten caught up in Hollywood media propaganda.
Who doesn’t want to be a part of a 50-person production team? The visual of being on set with ten people working like crazy, forty people sitting on their asses looking befuddled and a director screaming and pulling his/her hair out is what most people see as an ideal production. There’s energy! There’s chaos! There’s tension! There’s conflict! Hell, it’s just like a movie.
But is that what independent filmmaking is all about? Is that what no-budget filmmaking is all about? Or is it more of what we expect a Hollywood studio production to be like?
The monetization of independent films (particularly low-/no-budget indie films) begins with the expense of making the film. The more you spend on the film, the more the film must earn before investors are paid, actors are paid and ultimately YOU are paid. With indie film distribution still a conundrum to most folks — even experts — and studios balking at indie films with no celebrities, how do you turn a $100K indie film into a financial success? In this case financial success means, how do you make enough money from your film’s distribution to live and make another film? Could it that you start by making a $50K, or a $30K or a $10K film instead of spending a tenth of a million dollars?
I look around and I see/hear about dozens of productions with engorged production expenses. There seems to be this prevailing rite-of-passage perception that “If I spend tens of thousands of dollars on my film it must be a real film.” What happened to the ideals taught in the book, How to Make a Film for $10,000 and Not Go to Jail?
How to Make a Film for $10,000 and Not Go to Jail
But let me point the finger at myself too. I spent far too much money on my film, Broken Hearts Club. I should have spent half as much, but it was easier to throw money at issues and conditions because I was lucky enough to have that money available.
We can’t blame technology for our inflated budgets. The technology is there. The technology continues to be on the side of the independent filmmaker who aspires to create art and entertainment for under $10K (or even less). Films that were edited using iMovie ($79) have made it to the Independent Spirit Awards. Cinema filters for Final Cut Pro start out around $100. You can find a 1-terabyte internal hard drive for under $100 or a firewire external for around $150. We can rent HD cameras for $65 a day, or buy a used one on eBay. With the right filters in FCP and/or some editing prowess we can even use a consumer HD camera to make a film.
But some where along the way I think people lost faith in the indie way. Perhaps it wasn’t glamorous enough. Perhaps it was simply too damn hard. It seems we get caught up in having a posse of stray PA’s roaming the set. It’s easier to hire a costumer to pick wardrobe choices instead of doing it ourselves. Some indie DP’s frown at having to do the work of a Grip. Director’s want to sit their asses in a chair for most of the production instead of helping with lights, makeup, set design.
I’m not saying it’s easy to be a director on an indie set and have to switch between being your own PA, Scripty and 1st AD — but I am saying it’s what you (we) did when we first started making films. Now that you’ve gotten better at the whole filmmaking thing, why not re-employ those strategies that allowed you to make a zero-budget film in the first place?
That’s exactly what I am doing with my feature film/web series Woman on Fire: The Resurrection of Serious Rogers. I’m turning the clock back to 2003 when I made my first no-budget short. I’m breaking my ass to gather a team that believes in guerrilla-style no-budget filmmaking where everyone wears three hats, gets their own coffee, is thankful for the case of RedBull and doesn’t bitch about eating subway sandwiches.
Once I’ve revisited the past I shall go back to the future to test my theory. Implementation of the theory is more about resourcefulness and creativity than it is about intelligence. Where there is a will, there is a way. But we have to believe we can still make a good film with a good story the old fashioned way.
Yeah. We can.
