DIY Filmmaking Sucks

Lessig suggests indie film is dead.

Lawrence Lessig says that there might not be a viable business plan for us DIY filmmakers anymore -- and too bad.

The lawyer/geek-rockstar/FOO (Friend of Obama) spoke at a company function today (yes, I have a day job) and indicated that culture and the arts change over time.

And our time may have passed.

During the Q&A segment, I asked him about his public policy thoughts on the effects of filesharing on filmmakers' ability to earn a living.

We're different than the music industry. Musicians make their money through live performances (so free and wide distribution of their recordings is a good thing), while for us filmmakers, recordings are our stock in trade. If recordings of our work are freely available, then no one will pay for them and we all have to get (or continue) day jobs.

His answer (in my view) boiled down to: take it.

To be fair, he also said that we need to decriminalize and encourage remix culture. Decriminalizing and ending the RIAA-style lawsuits will encourage kids to trust in the gov't again and have a healthy respect for the law. [Insert snark.] Then, as kids do their own remixing they will find out how hard it is to create high quality media and start respecting (and paying for) it.

Uh huh. And start eating their vegetables too.

But his main point was that the time for a viable business plan for a certain type of small-time filmmaker may have passed (indeed, for Hollywood itself, it may be passing), as it has for so many other forms of art.

Well, regardless of my own bitterness, he's right (and he's a nice guy promoting an important cause besides his copyright-related work: citizen financing of elections).

This gets us back the basic question: what shall become of us DIY filmmakers? With no viable business plan, we become like the handmade arts of embroidery, ceramics, and letterpress printing, whose fundamental business plans have been usurped by technology.

Now we are artisans and hobbyists.

We need donations and benefactors, not investors. (Memo to the major foundations: don't just fund documentaries! Us narrative filmmakers need your help too.)

And we stay with our day jobs or live at home with our indulgent parents.

Most of all, we don't expect to make a sustainable living wage -- much less ever hit the big time.

In such a toxic business environment, is there another way for DIY filmmakers to turn this into a profession?

One idea:

One path would be creating free webisodes that lead to discovery by Hollywood -- where a filmmaker builds up an audience up on the web, before leveraging that into a traditional TV or film deal. A few people have started to do that. But the initial webisodes would have be 100% free and -- most likely -- totally lost money.

What do you think?

Secrets of Sundance

I just came back from a weekend at Sundance.

I was a film viewer, not a filmmaker -- I didn't have a film at the festival. I was there to see new films and meet people.

Some quick advice:

- Anyone who wants to be a filmmaker should go. It's a great way to see quality work and also, above all, meet other filmmakers.

- Stay in Salt Lake City. $60/night rooms + rental car = a lot cheaper than staying in swank Park City. Just a 40 minute ride each way.

- By the way, who came up with the idea of putting on the "indie" film festival in one of the most expensive cities in the US -- Park City? Imagine a bunch of starving filmmakers trying to pinch pennies where an $8 vegetarian dinner costs $20 and the rich come to ski and frolic. Just saying.

- Fuck the wait-lists. If you don't have tickets, give up and see something else. Except if you're trying to get into the Eccles theater, which has over 1200 seats and thus usually enough room for wait-listers. Wait list lines suck.

- Best way to get tickets if you don't have them: wake up early, get to the box office at least an hour before it opens and get same-day tickets. Every morning they release more tickets for screenings for that day. When I tried that, I got tickets to every show I wanted to see that day. I also used the box office in Salt Lake City, so that might have helped too.

- Dress for cold. Very cold. Why can't it be in Mexico or Florida in January?

- Go to the Filmmaker Lounge. Even without a credential they'll probably let you in (I didn't have any trouble when I didn't have a badge). It's a great way to meet other filmmakers and chill out.

Marketing your film the web 2.0 way

When it comes to cultivating an audience, a film is really no different than any business, cause or organization.

The challenge is the same: identify your target audience, find a way to reach them and compel them to do something (buy a DVD, elect a new president, donate to the cause, etc.).

So DIY filmmakers know to beg, borrow and steal their marketing ideas from others, even if the ideas are from far outside the film realm. Use what works and don't try to recreate the wheel.

Life is short, time is precious and money is scarce. Find new ideas and make them work for you, without apology.

Web 2.0 tactics offer indie filmmakers perhaps the best chance to level the field. The tools are (mostly) free and if done properly, diligently and relentlessly, have the potential to propel quality filmmaking into the limelight.

What's web 2.0?

Blogging (like this), social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.), user-generated content (YouTube, Yelp, etc.) and other web experiences that empower users to build the value rather than simply pushing stuff at them.

A few MIT professors interviewed successful web 2.0 marketing execs and learned some of their secrets, which they published in the Wall Street Journal.

Check it out and think about how you could apply these lessons to your DIY film's marketing efforts:

The secrets of marketing in a web 2.0 world (MIT/Wall Street Journal)

How to get your music in a film

A former filmmaking student asked how his band could get their music in independent or student films.

Here's what I told him -- based on our local San Francisco scene (he was a UC Santa Cruz student, so I mention that too). If you're not in the Bay Area, you can use this a cheat sheet but fill in with filmmaker organizations and schools near you:

My suggestion is to basically do networking at filmmaker events. Your goal is to meet upcoming filmmakers and let them know they can use your work -- and get them your audio (online or via CDs).

Here are a few SF-oriented places to look:

- San Francisco Film Society - they have taken over the Film Arts Foundation programming (some of it anyway) including filmmaker events, under their "filmmaker services" department

- Bay Area Video Coalition - has classes and some events as well

- Colleges: obviously UCSC had a robust film department and you can try posting around campus near where the filmmaking students hang out and take classes. But in the bay, SF State has one of the top filmmaking programs. Also California College of Arts (the Oakland campus is the filmmaking school, I think) and Academy of Art have film/video programs.

- You can also go for some geurilla advertising: get on Craigslist and other local bulletin boards letting filmmakers know you're there. Plus you can contact filmmakers directly when they post to Craigslist looking for talent or crew -- and also try to connect up via Facebook, YouTube and Myspace.

It's very tough to get traction. Usually you have to have a connection with the filmmaker and you should assume they'll be using the music for free (i.e. they got no money and you should expect none).

But it's possible.

My suggestion: make your own damn movie and then you can do as much music for it that you want (see the great indie film The American Astronaut for example).