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Why Won’t [the Internet] Save Indie Film?

Earlier yesterday Ted Hope twittered a link to the Top 12 post of 2010 rundown on Filmmaker Magazine - I sent all 12 post to my Instapaper queue, as I had somehow managed to not read a single one of the listed post, but - one that caught my eye was an article by Anthony Kaufman titled Why Won’t Kickstarter And Twitter Save Indie Film?. I’m not really quite sure why of all the film-related post written between the months of January and December that this stood out on anyone’s radar in particular, but it was amazingly frustrating to read. I was surprised to later find that Kaufman is fairly young, at least young enough to know better, not the 70 year old disgruntled film-vetern he first appeared to be. 

I’m going to list a few of my favorite snippets from the post: 

via The Filmmaker Magazine Blog

Internet-enabled DIY filmmaking-and-distribution model is far from guaranteed. At this early stage, the successes are few and far between.

“I think it’s completely overwhelming and totally worthless,” says [Joe Swanberg]. “I don’t think a Facebook message or a Twitter update translates to asses in seats.”

“Doing the distribution took a lot of precious time away from our other projects,” says [Mynette Louie]. And the team’s Kickstarter campaign to help fund self-distribution failed, garnering just $1,430 of a $5,000 goal. “We [were] sort of relieved about it,” Louie adds, “because we were dreading having to ship large posters and signed DVDs to [our contributors].”

It is possible I’m reading this entire post all wrong, perhaps for every counter-argument made against Kickstarter / Twitter / Facebook / a.k.a., the Internet as a whole, there shouldn’t be an assumed argument in favor of traditional marketing and distribution for indie film. It does read that way - but in his defense, Kaufman is never specific on why the internet, when compared side-by-side with an assumed traditional marketing and distribution approach, why the internet fails. Apparently, it just fails. 

In no particular order of misinformedness, I’m going to start with Joe Swanberg and his claim that twitter and facebook updates don’t translate into audience - even if we ignore the reality that just 5 years ago Google was the top referrer of traffic, compared with today and Facebook being the top referrer of traffic, i.e., people now control distribution - aside from that, what does this say about the importance of word of mouth? Or does word of mouth just not count when it’s online? 

Then there is Mynette Louie, quoted as being actually relieved when her own Kickstarter campaign was unsuccessful - I have yet to see her film, Children of Invention, and I’m sure it’s a wonderful independent film, but I’m sorry, if you, as a storyteller, are too damn lazy to directly communicate and build a real relationship with your audience and supporters, then you really have no place on Kickstarter or Facebook or Twitter or any other number of sites built for doing exactly that. Considering that Louie wasn’t ready to snail-mail DVDs and posters directly to her audience, *even* when her audience paid her in advance to do just that, I think it’s safe to say she and the team behind Children might not have put their full-effort into promoting their Kickstarter campaign. 

And now for my favorite bit of wisdom from Kaufman: 

“…successes are few and far between.”

It’s hard to tell if by “success” Kaufman means financially, or in theatrical release, or something else - but success for a filmmaker working outside of traditional studios is like any ambition in life, you get out what you put in. There is a reason that months before Avatar or Transformers is released, everywhere you look you see billboards, TV spots, action figures, cross promotion with cereals and drinks and fast-food and coloring books; there is a return on investment, RIO, for what these major studios put in to promotion. So, yes, in a very narrow sense, what Swanberg said above about “asses in seats” is correct, an individual tweet or update will most likely not translate into an additional ticket-sale for your film. It requires a consistent and honest level of engagement to build an audience - and I mean that mostly for indie storytellers, honesty isn’t necessarily an important aspect of promotion for larger studios. 

“…DIY filmmaking-and-distribution model is far from guaranteed…”

What in the hell has ever been guaranteed in filmmaking? What golden age model of filmmaking and distribution is Kaufman comparing the internet with? Because I wasn’t aware there was a guaranteed era of filmmaking in Hollywood until the Internet came along and pissed on everyone’s parade. 

The progression of the Internet has been *the* closest we have ever come to a guarantee in not only filmmaking but storytelling as a whole; there is no gamble of hit-or-miss pitch meetings with producers on the Internet, there is just you and the story you are passionate about sharing, and access to the entire world and a mass of people who might just being willing to invest their time, energy and even budget behind your film if you only care enough to build a relationship with them.