Part Two of The New Distribution Method (For Non-Dependent Cinema). Catch up with Part One here.
Last week, I tried to publish this, but got a bit lost in the clouds. I thought I was warming you up for the softball I wanted to toss your way. I hope you are now ready.
If you want to make non-dependent cinema you must plan on everything taking a good long time. And by long, I mean a really long, long time. None of that is a bad thing; the time should be a note of appreciation. It demonstrates your devotion. And I for one respect that. In many ways this is quite logical.
Almost every aspect of culture is now slave to distraction. We have an over-abundance of everything and each bid on our leisure time, competing against a multitude of similarly compelling options. We have fallen into a system where we impulsively try to keep squeezing more things in every moment or opportunity. Each instance is considered for the multiple engagement points it may have. And they never let up. How are we supposed to even think or ponder?
The answer of course is we are not supposed to do anything close to such consideration. We are not only no longer being asked to wonder or ponder about our experiences, but also that they do not want us to think. They hope that if we don’t consider every morsel, perhaps we won’t notice that most is not worth the time of our consideration. That’s what this moment has been all about – increased consumption via increased distraction and the loss of consideration or contemplation -- at least when it comes to corporately engineered culture. Don’t think about what it’s worth. Just chew it up and move on to another bowl of next.
But let’s be real. Or at least human. I’d settle for that, wouldn’t you?
Any meaningful experience requires consideration; they are not just built for impulses or feelings, but also for points of reflection. Such moments extend beyond the moments themselves. They are their own pleasure and need to be recognized as such. They hold much joy. They provide the basis of connection. They can free us from isolation. That would be pretty damn sweet, right?
Fuck, yeah.
The problem of course is that both the system and the product are now designed for distraction. Some may see it as a problem that our current cinema ecosystem is not truly applicable to the consumption of non-dependent cinema. I see it as an opportunity.
If any part of what you want to make or support is outside the corporate commercial culture, you are going to need far more time to reasonably experience what it is all about. You need to give it time. T. I. M. E. TIME
Time is the oxygen for the fire you are going to start. And to get that time, to get that necessary fuel, you have to step out. You have to step away. You need to do things differently than the way it has been built. You need a new system. You need a system that is not dependent on the existing one.
If you are making non-dependent work and perhaps bringing it to market via one of those “festivals” that masquerade as anything than the delivery mechanism for the mirage of the hope of being a selling and funding flashpoint, you’ve made a very bad mistake. Or at least if selling or funding is what you are hoping to do at such a “festival”. You and your film require far more care and handling than can ever be delivered in such an interaction. You won’t -- or can’t -- be scooped up and whisked to the runway for some readymade launch. And why would you want to be in the first place? You are living a fantasy and we want you to come back to the real world. Please. I am sure I am not the only one who misses you doing that.
You might want to ask why you have been infected with this false dream. You might even want to find someone to blame. This virus could have been snuffed out with some proper action. But there wasn’t any, was there? You know you wouldn’t vote for a leader who kept a pandemic going with lies and poor choices, right? You put your trust in experts, you expect then to tell you the truth. If they don’t, you vote them out of office. Yet here we are. No leaders leading. Down in the hole. Doing the same thing over and over and over again yet expecting a different result. Don’t use exceptions as an example; look at the world beyond your fantasy. Make preparations to make sure your baby has the life they deserve.
Slow down.
Making and releasing mindful cinema requires commitment to a slow-moving train. As much as we seem to resist it, it is going to be that sort of ride that unlocks all the power such cinema holds. You need to pack right for such a trip. And yes it requires far more planning than chasing the bullet train version.
It is journey of months that turn into years. It is not the sort that moves you from here to there; you are going to climb off and on, sometimes without the train even stopping. It is a bit of a vagabond life, but sometimes you will be treated like long lost family. You will find new brothers and sister are right there with you, siblings you never knew you had. As you travel, realizations will start to swarm around you, recognitions of how to do it better next time. And the next time is tomorrow and the day after and the day after that too. They are forever woven together.
And you get better and the results are evident. You love your film. You love to help them love it back. You thought it was finished but it is also starting to flower. A whole garden of opportunity is springing up around it.
How did this waltz into magnificence happen? You slowed it way, way, way down.
What if you don't have time? (I speak from experience here) The reality is that our culture moves soooo fast that IMHO I wonder if indie filmmakers won't have to adopt a method of faster and smaller, instead of slower. I've always been jealous of song makers and painters who can crank out a piece of art quickly and respond to the cultural moment of Now. One of the jobs of an artist is to hold a mirror up to the culture -- but a mirror that is last year's news is just an old mirror. It's irrelevant, right?
The corollary to this is to consider, if you accept you will be spending a LONG time with this project as you guide it to its audience, you really should spend time refining the project to make it one worth all that time and effort. Stop rushing films to market quickly so that you can move on to the next one, even if the rough edges are cutting chances right and left. Stop trying to build a career with lots of films and put the best product you can out first, ride it well into the future and use its success, derived from the hard work and care of attention you put into it, to sell you as an artist for your next work.
I know far too many filmmakers cranking out films/scripts in a toss it at the wall and see what sticks fashion. They COULD be talented, but, the quality level they leave these early draft attempts don't show that potential, in fact, it could be deleterious.
Work on product that you will be proud of and won't mind living with for the next few years and beyond. That's the "new" path to success that Ted is speaking of here.