Do you think we’ve all seen too many movies? Has it warped how we look at the rest of the world? No, I don’t mean politics! “That’s a whole other thing,” as the expression goes. I’m referring to bold face comments by putative leaders of the independent film community.

Here are two headliners:

Mark Gill: “Yes, the Sky Really Is Falling”      [link 1]
Ted Hope: “A Thousand Phoenix Rising … From The Ashes” [link 2]

Oh Please! If these were scripts for overwraught dramatic episodes, would you even care? The drama of the business seems to be getting in the way of clear thinking. That’s too bad.

Let’s try looking at all of this dispassionately, standing off a bit where we can try to see all the things that are happening that are changing the world of independent film.

1. Technology is not only offering new options, it is radically changing old venues. It is
    destroying old economic platforms, reinvigorating others, and offering the prospect of
    new ones. How amazing and important is that?

2. Social fragmentation undermines mass media from the bottom, but doesn’t necessarily build
    anything in its place. Traditional media exploits fragmentation by seeking the lowest
    common denominator in content and presentation.

3. Production values soar while production costs plummet. Production skills spread giving rise to
    myriad new voices.

4. Global communication promotes a variety of visions of the human experience that parochial
    village dwellers have never imagined.

5. Artists struggle to find ways to make enough money from their art to survive, and thrive
    and create. They need to build and sustain careers, else why bother?

6. Commerce — the market of buying and selling — erodes the pillars of philanthropy, corporate
    grants and individual donations. And it supports the vast expansion of independently
    produced films by filmmakers not part of the studio structure.

I talked with a filmmaker team this weekend about their work, and they pointed me to the story of Ballast, an interesting film from an interesting, first time filmmaker, who unsatisfied with his IFC deal, determined to go the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) route that is popular among some indie filmmakers. The filmmaker, Lance Hammer, is a determined, experienced professional, 41-years old — not part of the self-conscious crowd around the DIY movement out of Austin, Tx. His decisions about his film feel like a part of his artistic commitment and partially the result of not finding a home for his film and a partner to work with in distributing it.

DIY is a response to the changes in the environment for independent film. The tools of production and distribution, including access to money, used to be centered in the hands of the studios who became units of media conglomerates and powerful engines for licensing and merchandise promotion. But with a new world came new points of entry, and those companies do not have the control they once had.

DIY, however, is not the answer. The romantic image of the lone filmmaker riding off into the sunset to bring his film to its eager audiences might be a scene in a crummy movie, but it doesn’t work as a business plan in the new world.

Filmmaker-distributor partnerships point the way to a new model, and there are companies emerging that are adopting that model and the techniques it provides for the presentation of works across the range of the independent film catalog. I want IndiePix to be part of that and to the greatest extent possible, limited only by our resources and abilities, to be among those that lead this change in our industry.