Sitemap - 2025 - Hope For Film

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Resources: Starting Out

Five Ideas to Strengthen Film Culture

"You really can’t do it alone as a filmmaker. You need to align yourself with people who share your taste and understand the film you are trying to make."

How do we win?

FilmStack Challenge Of The Month #4: my consideration on effective uses of sound in cinema.

Where are we now?

Cinema's Secret Formulas: How to win Sundance.

"the indie mindset: creative, tough, resilient, innovative, scrappy. And never waiting for permission."

"I wish I could go back and tell her that all the "no's," all the years of stagnation and rejection, don't mean anything about her skill or value as an artist.

Why all filmmakers should have their own newsletters (30 Reasons Why)

The FilmStack Manifesto v1.0 (and some accompanying tactics) perhaps?

Our Irritation With Hollywood Isn't a Bug In the System...It's a Feature

From Taipei to LA: What I'm Bringing Home with Me

Takeover Smorgasbord

The Radical Act of the Artist.

"The most fun we have ever had doing anything"

Imagine: the total & utter destruction of everything we have ever loved or admired

This is the game that moves as you play.

Cinema's Secret Formulas: How to advance up the professional ladder

Just a note to say...

Hello, Sh*tstorm, 2025 — how we make sure the sun shines brightly tomorrow

What is NonDē for?

All Films Are Political

What makes a movie great? ALL the unsung heroes!

5 THINGS I THINK ABOUT WHEN THINKING ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE MOVIES AND MOVIE THEATRES - OUR AUDIENCES

"I do not think that art needs to entertain anyone. "

Returning to the scene of the crime

20 practices to achieve an Optimum Production Mindset

Producing Well: Part 2 of The HopeForFilm Masterclass on Producing

Monthly FilmStack Challenge: How to turn someone into a film lover

5 Things You Can Do to Help Yourself and Make the (Film) World a Better Place

"almost like distributors try to gaslight filmmakers into thinking their films have no value! "

Q: How do you best prepare for your film's distribution? A: far, far, far in advance.

How To Avoid War in the Taiwan Strait, Watch the ZERO DAY series from Taiwan, & Start Talking About it Now, as we did at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2025

The JUST-RELEASED-FROM-JAIL-AND-NOW-WHAT Adventure

Five Additional Qualities Of Better Film

My Deep-ish Dive Into Theatrical Exhibition

What's the news today & how do we trust it

"if you keep throwing your hat in the ring usually something good will eventually happen"

Genius is not a noun -- but it can be found in a process.

What do I really want?

Reimagining Film Festivals

Build Your Audience, Own Your Future

"designed to help build the muscle of sharing"

Five Fun Ways to Break Free from the Algorithm - Before It Breaks You

"something surprisingly bigger than we anticipated and that matters beyond any one person or contributor..."

"We don’t have to pretend any longer that there’s a path we’re supposed to take!"

Let’s Reclaim The Language Of TheFKAFilmBiz

Stop whispering! The 13 new evolutions the FKATheFilmBiz needs to be SHOUTING about right now...

Why do we try to make it better?

An Introduction to Film Producing

Further reflections on working with Ang Lee

What Indie Film Has in Common With the Attention Crisis

"This is the inspiration we need."

INVISIBLE NATION Film Release in Full Bloom

Please value YOUR own attention even more than THEY do.

The hummingbirds come out in the rain…

25+ Tips For Packaging Your Project Successfully

How To Make Stuff Happen

If you change the system you are in, you will also change the work that you create.

Squeezing the lemon of cinema 🍋

"there’s infatuation, there’s disillusionment, and if you stick around long enough, there’s real depth and growth."

How To Improve The Moviegoing Experience... HFF's Monthly FilmStack Challenge #2

"“work creates inspiration” rather than the other way around."

Their lies & chaos inspire our collective action... but we should go play on another field, right?

Am I A Hammer?

How to destroy something beautiful... and build it back better... maybe!

What I Learned Producing Ang Lee’s 1st Breakout Hit

"Without chaos, there's no discovery. If everything is planned, everything is expected."

"they have rewired how I think about cinema's place in youth culture"

"When trying to express the intangible parts of your mind and soul..."

Your FIRST look at The Popcorn List 2025 Films!

A small feast of beauty, death, and revolution

Coming to peace with uncertainty

Resources: (Other People's) Advice On NonDē Distribution

Film Financing Masterclass, 2025 edition

"I fell in love with how a group of outsiders were taking media - music & film - into their own hands. "

"I did not listen to conventional wisdom, I followed my passion..."

Reasons To Be Cheerful (About The State Of Cinema)

Hate To Tell You… It’s Getting WORSE

Why we must change the goals of so-called "indie" film

25+ Good Ideas For The Cinema Industry

Short and fast. Get in, get out. Move on.

"vision, hope and plans... for building a better world"

"think of myself as someone bumping along on a bicycle when the powers that be have chosen to withhold keys to the car I might reasonably prefer to drive"

Let’s admit it: we failed… massively.

Throw out the old way. Time to learn how to do it right.

"The Point, Ted, Is They Don't Want To Fix Hollywood, or Indiewood, Or The System. They Like It As It Is."

TRU #11: How to win in Hollywood

The Bad Ideas That Have Infected The Film Industry

Are You Paying (For) Attention?

"putting out an indie film feels like being a 120 lb fighter in a heavyweight competition"

Why I will never be discouraged

Nothing foolish here today

What would YOU do if you ran a film studio?

How many ways can you say "it is time to make something happen!"?

How To Stay Sane In This Crazy Business

"Think of this list like a mullet"

TRU #9: Let's save EVERYTHING, okay?

Opportunity Is The Devil’s Playground

TRU #8: What works, what doesn't, and what to quit fast

What to do when bad shit happens

Cinema's Secret Formulas: How our industry thinks to pick the project and then market it well (enough).

The Film Business’ Recent Inflection Points

You say you want a revolution…

HFF's The5: 03.20.25 Edition

How to improve a director/producer collaboration before it even begins

Enjoy The Day!

TRU #7: 03.16.25 Edition

HFF's The5: 03.15.25 Edition

HFF's The5: 03.14.25 Edition "Takeover"

TheFive: 03.13.25 Edition

Do We Really Have To Set Film Budgets For "What The Market Tells Us"?

What would an ideal producer/director matchmaking service look like?

TRU #6: the evidence is in

"This film is a huge piece of my heart. To me- that’s art. It’s giving your heart in the hopes that you reach someone else’s."

Check it out! The Rushfield Lunch with yours truly.

Do Most Film Directors Actually Want A Partner In A Producer?

Flip it, toss it, weave it, share it.

"Long Live Independent Film!"

Cinema's Secret Formulas: How To Save Money

"Stand behind your art, nobody will represent it like you."

The Big Messy: a cinema style that I want but rarely ever get

Sorry to bum you out a bit, but...

May the corporate cinema style of today now die a rapid death please

Cinema's Secret Formulas: Why Non-corporate Cinema Has Tremendous Power

Where Have We Failed: Staged Financing

How to get hired on a great 1990's NYC indie

"It’s the contradictions that lend itself to more layered storytelling, where one code can masquerade as its opposite. Just as a joke can contain contradictions, the lies can reveal the truth. "

All films are political, Part 4

These days, everything begs to be a movie.

"We were actually blessed to have no financial support in the beginning. It meant that all the filming was done by friends who were deeply passionate about telling this story."

TRU #5: 02.14.25 Edition

All Films Are Political, Pt 3

Recategorizing The Bad And Negative

Cinema's Secret Formulas: How to work with "The Best"... And....The5: 02.09.25 edition

Checking In!... with 2024's The Popcorn List's Films

TRU #4: 02.07.24 Edition

All Films Are Political, Pt 2

All Films Are Political, Pt 1

TRU #3: 01.31.25 Edition

Substack’s Cinema Community has arrived!

HFF's The5: 01.28.25

With So Much To Do, Where Do We Begin?

Cinema's Secret Formulas: The Differential

HFF's The5: 01.25.25 Edition

The Round Up: aka TRU: #2

What Should We Have Read Last Year About The State Of Cinema That We Shouldn't Delay Reading Any Longer?

HFF's The5: 01.21.25 Edition

We've Really Got Our Work Cut For Us!

Cinema's Secret Formulas: Why We Don't Think Clearly

The Round Up

How do communities deal with colossal loss and disaster?

The Five: 01.14.25 Edition

If We Addressed The Problems In The Cinema Ecosystem, Would It Better This World?

HFF's The Five: 01.11.25 Edition

HFF's The Five: 01.09.25 Edition

Is It A Mistake To Dream?

The Five: 01.07.25 Edition

The GOOD Things: Some Additional Add-Ons

Cinema's Secret Formulas: Why Artists/Entrepreneurs Need Better Routines

We Have Plenty Left To Improve In Today's Cinema Ecosystem

The Five: 1.02.25 Edition

We Need To Rebuild -- And Build It Back Better