Here’s the conclusion of Pete Wassell’s Do-It-Yourself Distribution item.
What no one seems to understand is that there are artists working today who are changing the game entirely, making small, passionate, heady, visually stunning films on a dime. The market may be flooded, but the good stuff always floats to the top. It’s on the fringes that independent filmmaking will renew itself. DIY distribution isn’t new, but it’s never been so open and so available. Young filmmakers have the opportunity to put their films in countless numbers of festivals. You can put your film on Netflix, Amazon VOD, iTunes, Indieflix, Hulu. You can print DVDs for cheaper than ever before. You can put your $20,000 dollar passion film out there, and people will respond.
I compare it to the beer industry. In the late 1970s there were 117 breweries in America, many of them making one type of beer. That is, until Jimmy Carter signed a law making it legal to brew beer in your home. What followed has been a renaissance like no other. America is currently home to 1,989 breweries, making different styles of beer the breadth of which is an article in itself. What happened? Brewing became available, the supplies you needed were easily purchased and fans of different types of beers taught themselves how to brew, and brew they did. Introducing old styles back into the American palette, inventing new American styles and turning the beer industry on its head.
That is what independent film is doing right now. The digital age has dropped production budgets and opened up the channels by which people experience film. There is certainly an influx of new content, and much of it is not good, but a whole lot of it is. Not every craft brewery in the country makes good beer, but a bunch do, and they all have their beers on shelves and in homes, and out on the market…and so can you with your film.
Go out, raise yourself $30,000 from friends, family, investors, whoever! And make the film you want to make. I can tell you from experience, it’s hard work, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but the time is now. We are on the crest of a wave, one that is changing shape constantly, but we also have the power to shape it.
We are the ones who will write the history of the digital revolution.
Get out there, start creating.
Here are some links to great articles that will help inspire you, and get you started:
Film DIY: http://www.filmdiy.com/for-filmmakers
Film Independent: http://www.filmindependent.org/news-and-blog/you-made-a-movie-now-what/#.USfIj6Wzchw
