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Truly Free Film

It Broke My Heart But The Mission Remained Intact

You’ve given me the support I needed to go forth and try to get this done. Granted, I had enough support from the beginning to actually believe there was a chance I could not just make movies, but make good movies. That is a real gift, an advantage few have. Courage, faith — those things were there, but so was doubt and fear. Love and hate. The wolves in battle.

What if it didn’t work? And then when that was true, when it did stop working, or at least start to stop working for most, what made me think I could help build something better?

What gives us the strength to make big decisions? To change our path? To take on new burdens?

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Truly Free Film

The 360 Equation: The One Business Model Every Filmmaker Needs To Know

By Marc Schiller

One thing is clear; for independent cinema to grow and thrive, it needs to find a more sustainable business model. And while there’s been a lot of hype around new forms of “alternative” distribution, few people have an answer to the question: “How does this new approach to distribution make more money than the more traditional approach?”

Akin to the old catch-phrase “Where’s the beef?”, today smart filmmakers are asking “Where’s the business model?”

Having spent the last three years analyzing all aspects of independent cinema in incredible detail (from production to marketing to distribution), I’ve developed my own answer in the form of an equation. With the recent launch of BOND360, I’m calling it the “360 Equation”:

Community + Data + Content Bundling + Dynamic Pricing = Revenue

Treated separately, none of these elements (Community, Data, Content Bundling, and Dynamic Pricing) will bring financial success on their own. They are only pieces of a much larger puzzle. But when you put all of them together, and execute them well (that’s the hard part,) they form a very potent combination. And if you develop and distribute your film in a certain way, adopting the 360 equation will definitely bring in more revenue for an independent film than any of the traditional alternatives.

So first, let’s break down each component:

Community: Today when people hear the word “community” they immediately think that their community equates to the number of fans and followers their film has on Facebook and Twitter. And while this is indeed a form of community, in itself its not at all what community is about.

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Truly Free Film

5 More Qualities Of Better Film

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I can’t seem to leave good enough alone.  Previously I worked hard to list out the qualities that I felt lifted a mediocre work into something more crucial, and ushered a good one into greatness.  I hit 32 qualities of better film.  But I have known I have left some things out.  Today I will try to expand the list. Luckily I had some helps from the good people on the comment section too.

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Truly Free Film

A 180 Degree Shift Of The How And Why We Do Things

Maybe they just built it completely backwards… Or rather: the way the world is now compared to the way it was then is so profoundly different that it might as well be the Bizarro world where red is yellow and yellow red. Backwards is forwards, and forwards backwards?

It certainly seems like it is backwards.  We spend all our money and effort to get people together AROUND existing content.  We try to make them WANT

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Truly Free Film

The Discovery Of Good Movies Is A Job For The Community

If you make films, it is your responsibility to help others discover what is good to watch.  If you love films — or a particular type of film — it is your responsibility to help others learn to appreciate those films too.  “Discovery” is not something you can expect others to EVER do unless you yourself embrace the practice first.  “Spreading the word” is part of a filmmaker’s job description, albeit sincerely & authentically.

HopePinterest

Independent filmmaking must be a community activity if it is to survive.  You can’t leave good films alone. You have to make it your battle to get those movies seen.  If you don’t accept this as your mission, you are helping to hand indie it’s death sentence.

I love

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Truly Free Film

The Thrill Of Losing Your Independence

It is pretty great to be part of something, to no longer be truly independent. I have made & released my movies with great teams of collaborators, so I can’t say I have ever really been independent, but those are all in service of a single goal.  Since coming taking a hiatus from that life, I have a multiple series of goals and a team to work with to execute them, and you know what?  

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Truly Free Film

What Can Indie Film Learn From Etsy? Let’s Make A Pledge

Etsy ran at a profit for the first time last year, and the NYTimes recently ran an article examining how well they’ve managed their growth while still creating a community dedicated to having their buying habits reflect their values.  With 7 million users, revenues possibly as high as $50 million, Etsy certainly has a lot to teach other non-corporate creators.

Etsy looks at Ebay for lessons and the big takeaway appears to be to keep the focus on community and not to get hung up on increasing profits.  It has always felt to me that the major difference between Art Film or Indie Film and Hollywood’s product is the community experience.  It was the community part of the infrastructure that the industry allowed to rust as they adopted the Hollywood practice of pursuing profit margins first and foremost.  It is the community aspect that we need most to focus on if we want a sustainable creative community in this country, IMHO.

Like Etsy’s efforts to create an intimate relationship between buyers and sellers, if we want a Truly Free Film culture to flourish, we need to increase the intimacy between audiences and creators.  We need to erase those lines so it is a truly united community.  Etsy works to do this through daily emails:

Etsy is working to ensure that as the site gets bigger, it still feels more like a treasure trove of goodies than a chaotic sidewalk sale. The company sends out daily “Etsy Finds” e-mails that are usually put together by a staff member or a popular merchant. These display a handful of items arranged around a central theme or color scheme.

When I say that being a filmmaker requires being a curator, I am speaking of the responsibility of filmmakers to get others’ good work seen and appreciated.  You say you made a film in the last two years?  Well how many movies did you also actively encourage your friends, family, fans, & followers to watch? And how did you do that?  What if you made a pledge to this year write up at least two passionate pleas to watch a new truly independent film this year.  And what if you wrote in such a way that actually put in both a cultural and personal context so it might really resonate with readers.  And what if we found a way to get that out to the community?  If I got fifty pledges from filmmakers to actually do that, I will make sure we got a good platform (starting here) to launch it further.

Update:  12/28 648PM EST: It was just pointed out to me that Brian Newman ran a nice post back in November on Etsy’s doc profiles on their various artists.  It’s great work and Brian was right on with his post.