Hello! No interview today. Instead, I have a big essay that I’ve been thinking about for a while. In it, I propose some ways we might better find audiences for the work we’re making so that all of this might be a little more sustainable. You might love my ideas or you might hate them, but regardless I’m hoping it gets a conversation going. A piece like this — and really, the entire project of this newsletter — takes a lot of time and effort. So I’ve put part of the essay behind a paywall. I’m so grateful to everyone who has already become a paid subscriber, and I’m hoping a few more of you take this opportunity to do so. Ideally, $5/month is an affordable rate. If it truly isn’t, you can email nothingbogus1@gmail.com and I’ll get you comped.
Anyway, before I get into the big essay, here is the…
SCREENING OF THE WEEK
M. Night Shyamalan Double Features
All week, Film at Lincoln Center is doing an M. Night Shyamalan retrospective, pairing his work with films he’s chosen. It’s 2-for-1 pricing. I personally have my eye on today’s screening of The Sixth Sense + The Haunting.
THE FEATURE PRESENTATION
There’s a Party. Let’s Let People Know It’s Happening
If our little movies are going to break through all the noise, we might have to band together.
If you’re young and you make independent films in New York — or probably LA — right now, you’ve probably noticed that something’s happening. I don’t know if it’s right to call it a movement, a scene, or simply a community. But what I see happening is this: As it’s gotten increasingly difficult to make feature films for real budgets, a bunch of talented filmmakers have taken matters into their own hands. They’ve cobbled together smaller (often micro) budgets and they’ve adapted to the minimal resources at their disposal.
This isn’t exactly new. I wrote a version of this story for Esquire in early 2023, when I was first noticing what was playing out. Back then, I was focused on technology. Equipment had gotten better and more accessible. These microbudget features looked much more professional than the mini-DV shot mumblecore films of yore. I wasn’t wrong, but I no longer think that was the crux of the story.
I’ve come to think that the real crux of the story was people and networks. What connected the movies that were emerging wasn’t so much themes or style. It was that there was a ton of overlap in terms of the people who were making them. Even when there wasn’t direct crew overlap, a lot of the people making these films knew each other and were friends. And, ultimately, it was people who were enabling these films to be made well and for such little money — friends doing favors, or hungry newcomers rallying for the love of the game. Additionally, these filmmakers were dreaming up their films with an eye towards production — thinking not just about where they could shoot for cheap and how they could reduce cast and crew size, but how to keep days short and a shoot manageable so that underpaid (or unpaid) crew had a positive experience.
A lot of strong work has emerged from this movement/scene/community, and more is on the way. At this point, the code has pretty much been cracked with respect to production. There’s a framework — and a certain amount of infrastructure — when it comes to making solid to very good work for cheap.
What no one’s really figured out yet, though, is what comes next. Which is, how to get people to care. And by care, I mean show up and buy tickets. There are exceptions, of course — your Hundreds of Beavers and Skinamarkinks’. But for the most part, these movies struggle to recoup their meager budgets. Most of them tend to cap out — and this is a real success — at around $500K at the box office. And if that’s the ceiling, it means that this whole mode of working is unsustainable.
The distribution tactic I’ve seen most of these film teams taking (with or without a distributor) essentially boils down to hustling. Typically, they’ll tour the film around as many indie-friendly US theaters as possible, doing post-screening Q+As and hopefully getting some positive press.
It seems like some goodwill and recognition has slowly accrued for the filmmakers and production companies who have done the rounds with their films a few times. But still, it’s marginal. I have many friends from high school and college who love movies but have never heard of, say, Omnes Films or 5th Floor Pictures, let alone the individual standout filmmakers within the scene.
Probably when you’re working with a microbudget (or even a moderate low budget) there’s a limit to how wide your movie can resonate. But I have a hard time believing that we’re hitting that limit. I’ve often wondered what the box office would be for some of the stronger and more accessible low budget indies if you gave them the marketing might of a Hollywood blockbuster.
But until some bored crypto king decides they want to help run that experiment, I think that when it comes to branding and distribution, we’ve got to A) get smarter and more creative, and B) get more collective. With respect to the latter, the question I’ve been asking myself is this: How can everyone in the movement/scene/community help each others’ movies find audiences? Is there a way to band together? You know, rising tide lifts all boats.
Here are a couple of thoughts:
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