In culture, money is pretty big factor. Considering the field of art maybe it is the cheapest to be a writer, and the most expensive to be a movie maker. That’s why it’s important to see what is really possible to do as an independent artist.
First of all, there are professional and amateur artists. This is also a strange subject which deserves special set of blog posts, but if we focus on professional artists, independent means that they invested their own cash to make a thing they want to make. Right? Well yes, and no. If some camera rental company borrows you their camera and set of lights, they are spending their potential profit so you can have that for free. Is that really not sponsorship?
Ok, not to go into small details like this one, we believe that it is almost impossible to make a great product with no money or with your personal savings you kept for the new car. It’s just not enough. Here we are mainly talking about moviemaking because it’s the most expensive thing to do in art, and we are familiar with it.
Does that mean that every filmmaking project is sponsored in a way?
Yes! But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t independent.
For us, that means something else, doesnt matter if you are college-educated or just an ambitious artist. It means that your story is independent.
Real difference between “good” and “bad” production is in the choice of actions that are not instructed by the sponsors of the project. So even if you have a really good story in your hands that you want to shoot, it can turn into disaster if your sponsor (and by sponsors I also mean on movie studios) tells you to cut some scene because it’s not appropriate or to limit the duration to just 100 minutes, or to remove violence scenes completely. Imagine your baby movie that you’ve dreamt about for years being massacred because you got some ammount of money. Would you rather wait a bit longer or shoot it as a no-budget movie? We would do a second one surely.
On the other hand, is it good to have a bad looking product because you didn’t have enough money for that drone shot or some high-quality blood? Yes, it’s sure a tough question. But, as long as the story is good, the chances of movie to succeed are greater, because deep in ourselves we are all children, just wanting to be entertained or taught. And that can be done with a simple story around a campfire, not a million dollar scenography behind the shot.
So, to conclude this part of the story: one of the main factors of independent project is the story, visual, musical, written or painted. It is important to be intact. Everything else is in the second place.
We will get more on to this subject, soon. Long posts are so passé.