wither distro thread

I started this discussion via email, but it's bursting the seams.  So I took the plunge and started a blog just to keep it manageable.  We'll see where this all leads. I'm not trying to plant any flags with this blog just yet.

here's my original email i sent to  several buddies.

I've spent the last week post sxsw pondering the state of things; both in indie feature and doc film making world and the media world in general as we experience various unwindings, be it artistic, commercial and economic.

Of course one major topic of discussion is revolving around the idea of mumblecore; but in a marxist way the issue is about consumption and production of media content - we now have a younger audience that sees no moral imperative to hold on to the outdated model of Auteurist cinema, feature length movies, or even decent production value as sacred concepts of what to do with your 90 minutes on a friday night.

Naturally, I'm not the only one wondering "wither mumblecore, whither distribution, whither Auteurist cinema, etc?"  

(see link below)

Here is an audio recoding of the same general discussion featuring Ted Hope, who probably gets some of the best ideas across - he mentions his eight year old boy wants to grow up to be a "movie designer" by which he means he wants to create things like POKEMON, ie, the whole concept from toy to movie to trading cards to video game to theatrical feature.   Wave of the future indeed, and if anyone is the next Uncle Walt Disney, it's going to be ted's kid.  

http://cinematech.blogspot.com/

scroll down to "Audio: Talking About the Future of Indie Film, at SXSW"

(apologies for not knowing how to make links work better yet)

it's a lousy audio recording but if you put on headphones these people do bring up all the relevant points that are on all film makers' minds these days. 

this big issues seem to boil down to a few concepts:

how do film makers make a living now that everyone is used to free content?

how are "audiences" changing as they get younger and more used to new media, and is audience the right term?  isn't in moving towards "community"

what are the experimental models that are showing the most success - bit torrent, you tube, etc and how does one make a living from that if the best things are free?

are there "too many movies?"  

if the Peter Jackson model of making more expensive, longer and grander entertainment is supposedly success, why is the real trend in the opposite direction - no one cares about production value so much anymore, and you tube videos are 3 minutes long or less

okay well, garbage in garbage out...  but it was fascinating to me and someone is going to come up with some smart answers soon....

take a look if you dare