This program is great and I'm grateful for being allowed to even study here. I'm getting tons of writing done, some of the best I've ever written. Their job is to help us write something we can sell. This is a business after all. I've purposefully chosen to write a feature that's a little more broad than what I normally do. It's commercial, has a strong hook but features the kind of weirdness that I enjoy. It still feels like something Collin and I would write.
On the other hand, part of me struggles against this, wanting to write weird stuff (like serial killers with sassy talking parasites in their brains) that I know for a fact will only have a cult appeal and not make me as much money. The splintering of American culture and the niche marketing available online tells me this is okay. If I can find "1,000 true fans" then screw the masses. They're the ones who refused to watch "Arrested Development" and therefore cannot be trusted.
I think all artists struggle with this. I like to complain about the business aspect of filmmaking, but it's no different than the painters of yore who had to paint religious subjects in order to make cash. You follow the market or you die broke in a gutter and are only recognized as a trailblazing genius years after your death. I really don't like either option. But I'm not young and idealistic and fresh out of film school, ready to conquer the world. I'm becoming much more practical (mostly because I'm not sure how much longer I can go without finding a way to make money at this).
The internet is revolutionizing the way we create entertainment to a degree that no one has fully realized yet. Even small indie films are costing $30 million these days. The indie boom of the 90s is long gone and the internet is so full of crap that you really have to wade through to find anything decent. But it's there and it's growing. I think we have a shot at doing something unique and finding a place for it online. The webisodes we're shooting this summer will be the first step of bypassing the studio system altogether.
Something my Producing professor said really stuck with me. He said television is different because it goes through so many layers of involvement. There is no "El Mariachi" of sitcoms, made on a shoestring budget and so impressive that people had to stand up and notice. I think"Anarchy for Breakfast" can be that project. Lots of stuff online has been picked up for actual network broadcast (No One's Watching, Quarterlife) but none of it's worked. If we can find a way to make it work, or better yet, figure out a new paradigm that works, then the money will follow.
Cult appeal is okay, I think. As long as I can live comfortably and continue making projects, I don't need lots of money or even fame. If we make entertainment that we like, the right people will find us. I know that there's at least 1,000 people out there with our weird sense of humor. And we will find them.
So here's to the future.
3 comments:
There is no golden formula to a surefire hit. Internet or otherwise. Movies about brain parasites could surpass Judd Apatow movies. That's why it's important to stay prolific and patient and see what sticks.
I'm actually 100% behind Collin's comment on this.
I think your weird long titled brain parasite movies are freaking awesome --- and I actually think they are way commercial. I just think people have to see it, to get it. And it is kind of hard to see it without the budget. Obviously. Freaking money.
To me one of the worst things you could do is start going to mainstream and getting lost in the shuffle. Unless you are doing it to make money to fund a parasitic type project.
I state the obvious. But I like to type. It makes my fingers happy.
Patient but proactive.
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