Great post with a lot of great ideas here. I love following this conversation on Substack. It's very inspiring, especially because I am, like you, also making a feature film totally independently this year and it can be quite scary and isolating in this environment. My thought on the whole issue is that filmmakers have to essentially adopt the "creator" model that has made Youtube so successful for a lot of influencers. Obviously, for filmmakers it will look a little bit different but as another commenter noted below, the theatrical environment is quite dire in a lot of the country so we shouldn't shy away from digital distribution in order to reach a broad audience, even if tech companies are pretty much responsible for the mess our industry finds itself in in the first place. If you're interested, I have a few more thoughts on it here as well: https://umlautproductions.substack.com/p/i-manifesto
Glad we're on the same journey! I'm all about community building so let's help each out out. I'll check out your Substack to start. Making a feature is HARD, so I'm going to be sharing how my journey goes if you want to follow along. Always happy to chat too if you want.
Thanks for the shout out, Andrew. I'm with you (obviously). Personally, I think our cinema industries are caught in a negative flywheel currently. We have neglected the necessary operational improvements to both the product and the process for about 40 years because most participants were persuaded that it was "good enough". This happens with most things unfortunately. SC-Indie stood for very little and neglected the sustainability of the art, artist, or system. Nothing happens overnight other than decay. There are systemic reasons why there is no "indie" theater chain or true federation, but we can work on that (and the other things that need to be rebuilt). Tomorrow will look far more different from this present than today does to yesterday.
I hate to be the negative realist. I see a lot of romantic posts about the future if indie filmmaking etc. But there isn't even an indie l/Arthouse circuit in America. The major chains are hooked on what the major studios feed them. And it's the major studios that are putting out the garbage nobody wants to pay to see. The so called independent local community theaters pretty much do the same. Unless you're paying upfront the rent the theater to 4 wall or, they're not interested in showing your indie film. I know, because I contacted 120 of them to see if they'd book my film "Clown. N Out", , and pretty much none of them even took the time to send a rejection email.
Unless the major and independent theaters start getting involved with having weekly screenings of indie films, and developing an audience who will come to those screenings, then they are simply digging their own graves. Indie filmmakers kill themselves to get their films made. We can't be expected to do the job the theater should be doing. Which is attract an audience using their advertising avenues.
These are all great points. Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
First, I’d recommend broadening outside of America because there is a LOT going on that’s damaging the film industry. Right now the American system is so focused on supply and demand. Can we use that to our advantage? Since there seems to be a demand for meaningful and engaging cinema, can we find a right way to supply it? Cinemas may be slow to respond, so perhaps there’s other avenues. Digital ones maybe, in addition to local, community-based or grassroots screenings.
I love your idea of major and independent cinemas having weekly indie film screenings! Let’s try and make that happen.
And you’ve hit the bullseye that distributors and sale agents are going to be key to making this work. Until they get on board, I do think the burden of advertising and distributing indie films is going to fall on producers.
Great post with a lot of great ideas here. I love following this conversation on Substack. It's very inspiring, especially because I am, like you, also making a feature film totally independently this year and it can be quite scary and isolating in this environment. My thought on the whole issue is that filmmakers have to essentially adopt the "creator" model that has made Youtube so successful for a lot of influencers. Obviously, for filmmakers it will look a little bit different but as another commenter noted below, the theatrical environment is quite dire in a lot of the country so we shouldn't shy away from digital distribution in order to reach a broad audience, even if tech companies are pretty much responsible for the mess our industry finds itself in in the first place. If you're interested, I have a few more thoughts on it here as well: https://umlautproductions.substack.com/p/i-manifesto
Glad we're on the same journey! I'm all about community building so let's help each out out. I'll check out your Substack to start. Making a feature is HARD, so I'm going to be sharing how my journey goes if you want to follow along. Always happy to chat too if you want.
Absolutely! Followed back. Let's build the future together!
Thanks for the shout out, Andrew. I'm with you (obviously). Personally, I think our cinema industries are caught in a negative flywheel currently. We have neglected the necessary operational improvements to both the product and the process for about 40 years because most participants were persuaded that it was "good enough". This happens with most things unfortunately. SC-Indie stood for very little and neglected the sustainability of the art, artist, or system. Nothing happens overnight other than decay. There are systemic reasons why there is no "indie" theater chain or true federation, but we can work on that (and the other things that need to be rebuilt). Tomorrow will look far more different from this present than today does to yesterday.
I hate to be the negative realist. I see a lot of romantic posts about the future if indie filmmaking etc. But there isn't even an indie l/Arthouse circuit in America. The major chains are hooked on what the major studios feed them. And it's the major studios that are putting out the garbage nobody wants to pay to see. The so called independent local community theaters pretty much do the same. Unless you're paying upfront the rent the theater to 4 wall or, they're not interested in showing your indie film. I know, because I contacted 120 of them to see if they'd book my film "Clown. N Out", , and pretty much none of them even took the time to send a rejection email.
Unless the major and independent theaters start getting involved with having weekly screenings of indie films, and developing an audience who will come to those screenings, then they are simply digging their own graves. Indie filmmakers kill themselves to get their films made. We can't be expected to do the job the theater should be doing. Which is attract an audience using their advertising avenues.
These are all great points. Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
First, I’d recommend broadening outside of America because there is a LOT going on that’s damaging the film industry. Right now the American system is so focused on supply and demand. Can we use that to our advantage? Since there seems to be a demand for meaningful and engaging cinema, can we find a right way to supply it? Cinemas may be slow to respond, so perhaps there’s other avenues. Digital ones maybe, in addition to local, community-based or grassroots screenings.
I love your idea of major and independent cinemas having weekly indie film screenings! Let’s try and make that happen.
And you’ve hit the bullseye that distributors and sale agents are going to be key to making this work. Until they get on board, I do think the burden of advertising and distributing indie films is going to fall on producers.