Small is Beautiful Filmmaking
SIB Movies
What is Independent Filmmaking?
Small is Beautiful
Making Movies as if
Filmmakers Mattered
This is the most intelligent writing, most encouraging movement
and best work that I've seen regarding independent film production maybe ever.
-Ron
Levaco
Producer/Director
Professor
and Chair Emeritus, Cinema Department,
Welcome! If you've found this page, then you've most likely been directed here by your interests in independent filmmaking. Well then, great!
My work was formed through my own, my friends' and acquaintances' common frustration in trying to break in to "the business," ie: the studio system. Long story short, you can read the distillation of my thoughts on why it's impossible for someone on the outside of the studio system to break in and what they can do to stop wasting their precious energy pursuing that pipe dream, and begin to chart a new course. A course of fulfillment and self-empowerment.
Is it a ton of work? Hell yes. But then again, so is working a dead-end job and trying to pursue filmmaking on top of it all, much less balance family and a social life. Or worse, getting caught up in Hollywood's dirty little secret of slave labor, where people invest tons of free labor and time slaving for studios, prodcos, distributors, agents/agencies, managers, pr agencies... because they're hypnotized by Hollywood's glamorous allure. After all, John Landis started in a mailroom, right?
Why is it so impossible for outsiders?
In short, because trying to get into "the business" when you don't have a direct connection in is playing a lottery. A direct connection is here defined as:
1) You know - and I mean *really* know - someone on the inside with juice, are on good terms with them and, perhaps most importantly, they're willing to do something for you;
2) You're related to someone on the inside of the studio system who has juice, are on good terms with them and, again, they're willing to do something for you and/or
3) You're romantically involved with someone on the inside with juice, etc etc etc as above.
That's it.
Every once in a blue moon they'll let in a Spike Lee so they can point to him and say, "See, this is a meritocracy."
It isn't.
As my patron saint (joke intended) George Carlin said, and I paraphrase, "The owners of this country DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU." (emphasis mine)
The system in place - the studio system - is in essence an oligarchy. I deconstruct it and provide new paths for thinking in my article...
While I understand the argument for "change does not come overnight," it seems more futile than ever. Justin ("Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift") Lin "making it" into the studio system is no more emblematic of real change beyond its symbolic and anecdotal worth. In fact, I believe it can and should be persuasively argued that things are much worse; how and why are the keys.
When a film student (or acting, theater, writing... student) graduates/survives
school, they are unequipped to deal with the real world, the way the business really
runs. Basically, they have no working knowledge of the three key things
that, without, they have little to zero chance. They are: 1) Finance, 2)
Marketing, and 3) Distribution. I'd add to that knowing that nepotism
rules the day and examples of DIY that demonstrate entrepreneurial successes
and analyze how it was achieved. Instead, young people pursuing a career
in art are filled with idealism and "art for art's sake." This
is a disservice.
Some 30-40 years ago, there were about 50 mass-media companies (film, music, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books [there was no web, but there was an Internet, such as Arpanet]). Today, there are SEVEN (and they of course have major plays on the web). That is a stunning - and alarming - conglomeration of power. Meanwhile, the artists are atomized, alone, "touching base" and "networking" at seminars, workshops, and yes, even protests.
There IS a silver lining, and it doesn't lie with chasing pipe dream jobs with
the conglomerated studio system. It lies in each other, in synergy, in
conglomerating, organizing ourselves. Ask yourself, why do you
think big corporations conglomerate, for laughs? A cogent example along
these lines is pro sports. Take the NBA. The owners, first and
foremost are organized and have so much power cities provide tax incentives for
them to do things such as build new arenas on taxpayers' backs! The media
conglomerates - which drive pro sports in this country - are as we've seen obviously consolidated.
The advertisers are industrialized and have their trade organization.
Vendors are obviously all organized, the proof of which is they spam us
incessantly, most notably on television, radio and magazines, but also in the
arenas, programs, on the billboards, and on the feet of the players. But
who's the one group that ISN'T organized. That's right - the fans.
See the analogy?
And I've heard all the arguments about the unions - DGA, SAG, WGA... but those exist
for the players, the tiny minority (quantitatively) population who has
matriculated into the industry. They, of course, are interested in
"the system," because that's where they have plunked down their chips
to gamble, are mesmerized by Tinsletown, or whatever. They are , as Malcolm would say, the house
negros, so thoroughly colonized that they have literally no conception of DIY
let alone a notion of freedom outside of the studio system.
That's what the owners of this country want – it helps explain why education
sucks in this country, because the last thing the owners want is for the
plebes to be able to pull back the wizard's curtain, peek around and understand
the real principles at work. Maybe then the hopeful would begin to
realize the sheer odds, if nothing else, of chasing "Hollywood." Therefore, it makes perfect
sense that film students are given no real knowledge about the way the
business works, DIY entrepreneurship, much less the way the owners all
conglomerate to solidify power.
The "Hollywood Dream." It
reminds me of a classic George Carlin line that's apropos about "The
American Dream," here re-worked,;
It's called "The Hollywood Dream," because you have to be asleep, to
believe it.
JP Kaneshida
LA, CA
To download a PDF of my article, "Small is Beautiful: Making Movies as if Filmmakers Mattered," (as of May, 2008) click ---> HERE.You can read it here on the web, but it is NOT the most recent, updated version; it's an earlier iteration. I simply haven't anymore time/energy to update here, even in this humble abode. HINT: download the PDF.
I enjoy hearing from others, and if you'd like to write, by all means, do so at lordonlow@gmail.com, and please sign my GUESTBOOK which is linked here as well as above on the nav bar.
My work is offered for free here, in the spirit of kick-starting the Next Wave, those filmmakers who will begin to invest in themselves and each other. When you're an outsider, that's really all you've got. I'm also available - subject to schedule - to speak to interested groups about the "SIB Way." You can read a list of my speaking credits in my bio at the very end of my article.
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