Thursday, May 19, 2005

The Whole Equation

I'm loving this book. He addresses film school, briefly:

For any young person eager to make films, film school is a sensible destination not so much because of the teaching it provides but because it will offer equipment, film stock, and the support of other people who have skills you lack. The film studio is the same model, writ larger, because it offers the best professional company and the resources of basic labor and serious money you will need....a studio offered the money, and then provided something far harder to obtain than 100,000 g's: a nationwide system of distribution and marketing, so that your film might be seen by "everyone." In turn, some of the box office revenue would serve to fund your next film.

Does that sound unreasonable, or isn't it the kind of system any commune of wild artist filmmakers would have come up with, granted the individual urge to make films and the communal pleasure in seeing them?

Interesting stuff. Especially with respect to distribution. Think about film school without screenings. Utterly worthless. We're paying to get our movies seen, not made.

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