Filmmaking is tough. Whilst technology has made it easier and cheaper to make films and upload them for viewing, raising funds and creating a sustainable business model are conversely more difficult. Why do we do it?
Because we love it.
Below are some excerpts from a conversation on Shooting People that inspires me. Filmmakers talking about film and all the ins and outs of it. I love it, and am going to come back to read it again later.
There is something in the vanity of the artist that while trying to achieve the incredible, we leave ourselves open to hubris and misconception.
passion can at times cause you to over-reach yourself.
– Patrick Astwood
Microbudget filmmaking: Ambition or Selfdeception?
Conversation on Shooting People
I discovered this conversation months ago, and am loving reading through all of the comments.
It’s a very simple equation: a film needs to be made for less than its market value; ideally sufficiently less for the producers to be able to keep on living and make another film on that small margin.
– Daniel Cormack
(Although I don’t agree with his subsequent anti-union/anti-collective agreement comments and comments on Producers)
(But then he comments on horse-trading deals and the effect on independent films finding cinema distribution)
film people would do well to take long hard look at the music industry. The same tropes- ease of both creation, dissemination, and consumption have reduced the financial value of the ‘product’ to the point where although ‘everyone’ can now ‘make a record’ the chances of making a living at it are harder than ever…The same thing is now hitting the film industry.
also be aware that when you do have to ask people to share the dream, you don’t also ask them to do the impossible. As a composer I’m now wary of working with the dreamers, they’re always the ones who assume that writing a ten minute score, to picture, for no money, in a day, is something I’ll really want to do, and I should thank them for the honour of contributing to their masterwork and working all night on it
.
– Tom Green
Commenting on microbudgets affecting the financial value of peoples’ work, and comparing it to the music industry.
If you know anyone who is actually doing it then keep them close, their failures are worth a hundred hesitations.
– Ben Blaine
Busy Times 