A novice filmmaker. An unheard name. An unusual plot.
In this recession-hit economy- Hollywood not be to left out- when the entertainment industry is equally suffering as any other industry, big studios are not in a position to give a trial to some new filmmaker or an independent movie.
From The New York Times:
After an exceptionally strong start in the year’s early months, the domestic box office has been down for the last four weeks. So far this year, overall revenue is up about 7 percent, and attendance has risen a little more than 3 percent, according to Hollywood.com Box-Office.
However, new media and clever tactics have paved ways for independent films and filmmakers, giving them a platform to reach to their potential audience. Thus, they are not relying on big studios or spending big bucks to get their movies noticed by big studios. They are doing it themselves.
A New York Times story writes on how independent filmmakers are paving ways on their own.
The glory days of independent film, when hot young directors like Steven Soderbergh and Mr. Tarantino had studio executives tangled in fierce bidding wars at Sundance and other celebrity-studded festivals, are now barely a speck in the rearview mirror. And something new, something much odder, has taken their place.
Here is how it used to work: aspiring filmmakers playing the cool auteur in hopes of attracting the eye of a Hollywood power broker.
Here is the new way: filmmakers doing it themselves — paying for their own distribution, marketing films through social networking sites and Twitter blasts, putting their work up free on the Web to build a reputation, cozying up to concierges at luxury hotels in film festival cities to get them to whisper into the right ears.
Unheard movies such as “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” a documentary about a Canadian metal band, is making it big in its own right. According to the Times’ story, the film’s director, Sacha Gervasi, took a second mortgage on his house to reach out to his audience.
As “Anvil” didn’t find any big distributors after being showcased on Sundance 2008, Gervasi distributed his movie through a company called Abramorama and sold the DVD and television rights to VH1. Also, added was the new promotional idea: the band members of Anvil played at the theaters. And in no time, Courtney Love, one of the band’s celebrity fans, gave her thumbs up through the Websphere, and social networking sites also began flooding with comments from other fans.
The idea behind this sort of guerrilla release is to accumulate just enough at the box office to prime the pump for DVD sales and return the filmmaker’s investment, maybe even with a little profit. “Anvil!” has earned roughly$1 million worldwide at the box office so far, its producer, Rebecca Yeldham, said.
While the new wave of filmmakers are trying to do it on their own, they still hope for the big break through reputed distribution companies.
Some big companies will still be on the hunt in Toronto this year, where the annual festival is scheduled to begin Sept. 10.
“We’ll be there in full force,” said Nancy Utley, a president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, which last year acquired rights to “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Wrestler,” both screened in Toronto.
