Are We A Bunch Of Idiots For Ignoring The Simple Fix That Could Save Cinema?
Please stop kicking the indie horse corpse.
For forty plus years anyone in the FKATheFilmBiz with an ounce of common sense has been saying to put marketing money into your indie film budget. There was even a time when they were saying bring on a “producer” of distribution and marketing from Day One. I said as much too, but also took more than a wee bit of umbrage at the producer moniker for those folk ( a producer originates and takes responsibility for a project from beginning until forever ends, period). Still though, none of us did the thing that would make our little bird sing. We generally ignored our own best advice. We’ve all paid the price too. We are riding a dead horse.
Long ago, our collective Plan A should have been our Plan D. We needed the Big Flip but we chose to ignore that dance step. If you want to see an audience show up for your truly bold film, the one that speaks truth to power, the one made on a shoestring but pulls on everyone’s heartstring, the one made for a specific and committed audience that loves a good parade or a community barbecue, well, you better prepare to do the hard work of marketing and distribution. You’ve known this for oh so long but there still seems to be a tremendous gulf between your thought and expression...
Wait. Stop! Hit “pause” please.
Do you know what you should be asking yourself right now? You should be wondering why I am telling you yet again what you already know too well, even if it you and the rest of the gang never went and changed that bad behavior of yours. Well it is time for an upgrade. I want you to ask yourself “Why this and yet again?” because I want you to look a whole f’n lot closer. You need to get serious, friend.
I want you to wonder why we’ve known this for so long and not done anything about it. Some of you may need to look away from the sunny side of the street if you want to see the truth. Look into the shadows. Go further and enter the shadow world. This is now the point in our story where the old man missing some teeth and strumming the banjo, looks up from his rocker, and drops the shocker that those folks you call your friends, aren’t. Not one bit. They suckered you, Jack.
I wish it wasn’t so -- but how else are you going to explain not just that we haven’t learned to do what’s best for us, our collaborators, and our work, but also that there’s something else just like the first point – or even two -- that we are neglecting alongside them. I wish the terror stopped there, but the road is long and chilling. Why? Because all those folks who supposedly are on our side have known this all along and chose to ignore it. These are the ones that want you to fail. Yes, you read that right. That’s what they are doing there: knowing you are going to fail, and smiling away. Worse than lending even a phantom hand, they are pretending nothing is wrong and they don’t have to deliver the fix. That’s their bliss.
The system that all indie filmmakers now swim in is a sewer. It is built for folks to lose money. It is built so the films don’t work. It is built to convince you to use the exceptions as the examples and to think you too are worthy and better than.
I got news for you, chum. Nothing in that water smells like roses. Your disaster is both a revenue stream for them and a justification for their being -- and neither truth fully paints the picture right. On one hand when we don’t demand more, why do they need to fix it? And on the other, it could be a lot worse: they aren’t looting the store for parts like their corporate counterparts. We still have hope.
I am sorry. Again. This is where The Blame Game really needs to be played. The folks that are supposed to be the shepherds and the stewards can’t keep kicking the indie horse corpse telling it to get back up and gallop down the trail. If someone keeps slipping you a pill, is it your fault you have a distorted reality? We have to leave this party now, even if we don’t want to be voted off the island.
Listen to me now and I will show you how it works and what simple things we can all do right now to right this ship before it too goes down the drain. It really doesn’t need to be a bumpy ride; just look ahead and call it for what it is.
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