The World As We Know It Is Over? 10 Insights on the Movie Biz

6. Ted Mundorff on the changing roles of traditional media and the film critic.
Insight: The impact that a local critic in print can have on a film’s performance at the box office has not been supplanted by the internet.
“We’re scared to death that critics have gone away. Wire services don’t cut it. Those reviews, the aggregators, just don’t do the same job as your local critic does in all the markets in the country. Currently, when a local critic reviews a film positively, there’s a spike in box office. I have never seen a spike in box office because of an online critic.”

7. Christian Gaines on piracy.
Insight: The often long period of time between a film’s premiere at a festival and its eventual theatrical release can harm its success in an increasingly on-demand world by killing buzz and encouraging piracy.
“I think the long lag between the excitement a film generates on the festival circuit and then its eventual theatrical release—the three, four, five, six, ten month lag—can kill a film and open it up for piracy… I think the only thing one can do is have due diligence, have caution [to guard against piracy at festivals]... It’s the answer to a lot of things but it really has to do with education and letting people know that pirating something and receiving something that is pirated is a crime.”

8. Laura Bickford on the state of indie distributors.
Insight: Filmmakers have to be realistic about their chances of getting distribution through an indie studio which is even tougher now than it has been in recent years and budget accordingly.
“The bad news is, there’s a huge constriction. Most of the indie distributors have gone down as we’ve known it so there will be new ones… It’s a great time for new ones. But they take a while to ramp up so right now it’s very constricted for US distribution. As your financing model for film, you can’t really count on that as a ‘money piece,’ you can’t give a value to it, if you can get it. So that’s really, really tough. And at the same time the foreign buyers are not buying [like they were before the recession]. It’s devastated them so they’ve bough nothing this year… [Indie filmmmakers need to be] realistic about what the economic value of your film is so that you can price it accordingly.”

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9. Ted Mundorff on how the recession has affected theatrical releasing. Insight: In many ways, the recession has not affected box office performance and ticket sales are up from last year. “We’ve had only one week this year that’s actually less than last year… November and December—key months—were record months for Landmark theaters. It never was better. So it’s amusing, amazing to watch the depression, almost, that has set in that ‘independent film is dead.’ I think there’s a concern but there’s also a huge, huge opportunity in the marketplace… People want and will support the theatrical experience and we’re pretty happy right now.” 10. Christian Gaines on making your short film available online while submitting it to festivals. Insight: Film festivals are becoming increasingly more comfortable with accepting work that is already available online. “This is happening more and more lately. More and more filmmakers have been calling up the film festival [they’ve submitted to] and said, ‘My film is paying on YouTube right now. Is that a problem?’ And I think you’re going to see more and more and more film festivals make it not be a problem. And it shouldn’t be a problem, actually, because at the end of the day what a film festival should really be doing is providing as many opportunities as possible to the artist, to the rights holder, to the filmmaker… A few festivals still really do have a problem with you showing your film on the internet but more and more don’t. Sundance this year actually showed a few shorts that were on the web.” For more, check out the podcast of the entire panel discussion on the LA Fest website. Previous Page 2 of 2 Login to recommend this article » posted on June 23, 2009 Films to Snag Comments 1 ecufilmfestival says on November 5, 2009 at 7:46am I am the president of The European Independent Film Festival (ÉCU) – But more importantly I am still an indie filmmaker. I believe many festivals have lost sight of what is the most important thing - The filmmakers. It drives me insane when I attend other film festivals, sit on their panels and attend their professional forums and all I hear is people talking about the “content”. It is NOT content.  We are talking about peoples souls here. Making films is about bringing to the screen your dreams. An indie filmmaker dreams about making their film for years. They beg, borrow and max out their credit cards. The projects steals years as you create your film with passion, sweat and even a few tears along the way. Eventually you leave the edit suite with no friends, no life and definitly zero cash - and then people call your film, your dream - “content”? Nope that doesn’t ride very well with me. Our goal with The European Independent Film Festival is to discover the very best independent filmmaking talent from around the World, give it and audience and help to promote the filmmakers whose talent deserves recognition. There are many creatively directed, beautifully photographed and intelligently written films that don’t make it to the ‘Hollywood-swamped’ theaters because they lack financial support. We strive to find these independent filmmakers and give them the opportunity to screen their fresh, innovative and free spirited films in front of large international audiences. One of my primary goals is to ÉCU is a rewarding experience for the filmmakers (we don’t have the cash nor time for bling, bling). We’re offering workshops, discussion panels with the audience and the chance to network with the industry professional who attend The European Independent Film Festival searching for new projects and raw talent. I totally agree with Christian Ganes. Festivals need to return to their roots as a showcase for filmmakers works – we have the possibility to share time with the story - tellers of our generation - what a pleasure. Login to Leave a Comment »