Why do we-or any independent filmmakers-feel that we deserve an audience?įilmmaking is difficult, incredibly stressful work, and one can easily feel entitled to being rewarded for that work. The biggest challenge has been to flip our own expectations. We always knew that our movie was strange and that marketing it would be difficult. Through all of this increasing negativity, though, Matt and I have done our best to remain clear-headed and meet the challenge head-on. We concluded that we would be alone in championing our movie-a realization that can be incredibly lonely and despairing. The movie we’d spent two years making seemed doomed to die without the support of some existing cinematic institution to breathe life into it. Having relatively few credits behind us, we couldn’t expect to have much interest based on our previous work. Post-production took longer than anticipated, money ran out, and the whole endeavor went from being a joy to a burden.Īs the cut took its final form, we realized that it wasn’t the type of movie that was going to get into any of the major festivals. The entire production was covered out-of-pocket and we went into a fair amount of debt. despite extraordinary stress and effort, a crowdfunding effort after we wrapped was only moderately successful. At numerous points throughout shooting we experienced those ecstatic alignments of skill and chance that can make productions feel blessed with a magical significance that’s typically reserved for mystics and manic episodes.īut of course the other shoe eventually had to drop. The approach at every step was more intensely collaborative than I’d ever experienced, lending the production a sense of meaning and purpose that was unique and worth whatever ass-aches it caused along the way. We had a beautiful cast of enthusiastic actors, better locations than we ever could have anticipated and a story unlike any we’d quite seen before. When Matt Latham asked me to co-write and produce his feature “You Are Your Body / You Are Not Your Body,” we had the same high ambitions and expectations that it takes most filmmakers to get a project off the ground. Arrogance may be unavoidable (the meek may inherit the earth, but it takes a big head to make movies), but this sense of entitlement is a symptom that must be rooted out and eliminated.īeing as much a part of this problem as anyone, I’ll illustrate with my own example. But instead the defining characteristics of most filmmakers are arrogance and entitlement. Making a movie should be an act of love and the defining characteristic of a filmmaker-even at her most caustic, critical, or pessimistic-should be a generosity of spirit. The creation of a movie isn’t just a calling but a privilege that only the circumstances of history and chance have given to any filmmaker. The creation of anything-whether a work of art or a child or a product-is a calling, and the responsibility of this calling shouldn’t be taken lightly. Oscars 2023: Best Makeup and Hairstyling Predictions Oscars 2023: Best Visual Effects Predictions Violence Beyond the Movies: Why This Filmmaker Loves Guns and Doesn't Support the NRA I Directed Peter Fonda in a Western, and It Was a Privilege We whine that our quirky dramedies about navigating the pitfalls of life post-grad school don’t seduce the masses to shill out $4.99 to rent them on iTunes. READ MORE: What Will the Future Look Like for Indie Filmmakers?īut if the Golden Age of cinema has arrived, why do those of us with the most to gain-the newly-equipped army of no-budget independents-spend so much of our time and energy endlessly caterwauling like so many Sad Sacks? When our Kickstarter campaigns don’t reach their goals, we bemoan the Zach Braffs of the world for stealing the money that we feel we so righteously deserve. Crowdfunding platforms and social media have made building an audience possible without a publicity team or millions of dollars. Movies made for a few thousand dollars can be streamed instantly all around the world. For those of us working with limited means, this is undoubtedly the best time in the history of American cinema to be making movies. Ideas are being tested and new aesthetics developed by filmmakers with no money using inexpensive equipment.
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