| If you have a good story to tell there is no reason | | | | submitted to film festivals, then people will take |
| why you should not make it into an independent film. | | | | notice. If a buzz is created about your movie, it can |
| With the right film production techniques, the right | | | | lead to a distribution deal that is worth many times |
| script, the right people working with you and a | | | | more than the money you invested. |
| relatively small amount of money you can make a | | | | After you have finished with all phases of the film |
| low budget movie that can compete with the best | | | | production process you need to find places that will |
| of them on the festival circuit at places like Cannes, | | | | show your film to the public. There is a thing called |
| Toronto, Telluride and the Sundance Film Festival. If | | | | the film festival circuit and it is the last bastion of |
| your story is compelling enough people will forget | | | | hope for people who want to make independent |
| that the production value is a bit challenged. | | | | films. Sure, the celebrities and big studios have |
| There are people all over this world who never gave | | | | recently invaded the larger events like Toronto, |
| up on their dreams to make films, despite the | | | | Cannes and the Sundance Film Festival, but they still |
| difficulties that came with working outside of the | | | | make room for the little guys. Independent |
| mainstream film industry. They are passionate | | | | filmmakers are still the focus of film festivals no |
| filmmakers who believe that anyone with a | | | | matter how much publicity they receive. |
| compelling story to tell has a right to make a movie. | | | | Films like The Blair Witch Project are a perfect |
| Through their struggles these diehard filmmakers | | | | example of how a film with a very small budget but |
| have created cheaper ways to make movies. This | | | | a very clever story can make it to the big time. |
| revolution was born out of frustration due to | | | | This very independent film was a big hit at The |
| decades of having their creative voices shunned by | | | | Sundance Film Festival in the late nineties and it was |
| the big film studios who favored commercialism over | | | | all because of the storyline. The Film was shot and |
| creativity. | | | | edited on video and transferred to 16mm film only |
| The commercialism associated with the films that are | | | | for the print that was needed for screenings at the |
| being released by the major Hollywood film studios | | | | festival. The independent filmmakers that made this |
| these days is very frustrating for any filmmaker who | | | | film only spent about 40,000 dollars to make it and |
| considers their work to be art. Nowadays movies are | | | | get it ready for Sundance. The production value was |
| tested extensively beforehand to ensure that the | | | | very poor but people could not stop talking about |
| studio committing hundreds of millions of dollars to it | | | | how the story ended. It received a lot of publicity |
| will not lose money. This kind of testing tends to | | | | and was subsequently sold to a major film studio for |
| narrow the field down to only a few kinds of movies | | | | one and a half million dollars. The studio made 150 |
| that they will invest in which means there is no room | | | | million dollars on the film when they blew it up to 35 |
| for new ideas. True artists can never be happy when | | | | millimeter and distributed it to theaters nationwide. |
| there are constraints imposed on their methods and | | | | Film festivals are places where the playing field is |
| subject matter. | | | | leveled for all the players in the film industry. It is a |
| Although the film industry is a merging of story telling | | | | strange nexus between people who are hungry to |
| and commerce, the story telling part has always been | | | | get into the film industry and people who have had |
| the most important half of the equation for the | | | | too much of it and just want to be a little less full of |
| audience. The big movie studio executives seem to | | | | it. They long for the days when filmmaking was more |
| have forgotten this fact as they continue to produce | | | | of an art form and less commercialized. The result is |
| movies that have more style than substance. People | | | | that they embrace independent filmmakers in their |
| would much rather see a good movie with a low | | | | raw form. When this happens there is always a |
| production value than they would a bad movie with a | | | | chance that one of the little guys could be suddenly |
| high production value. | | | | held up to the spotlight by the big players and |
| Talent and a good storyline are generally worth more | | | | glorified. If this does occur it is always because the |
| to movie audiences than an expensive look. If you | | | | storyline of the film created a buzz, not the |
| can just get a good story committed to film and | | | | production value. |