A funny thing happened this morning when I was powering through my morning online routine: a random click revealed that CONVENTION, the film I made with a bunch of good friends in the summer of 2008, was to premiere tonight on the Sundance Channel.
Funny not because I didn't know that tonight was the premiere, but because I didn't even know that IFC Films (to whom we sold the worldwide rights to CONVENTION) had, in turn, sold the broadcast rights to their sister company, Sundance Channel.
Truth be told, tonight could have passed by quite easily with me being none the wiser (someone took Sundance Channel off our DirectTV rotation) and I have a feeling that most - if not all - of my collaborators and our subjects would have moved into Tuesday blissfully unaware that something they did two Augusts ago had been beamed/cabled into living rooms.
It made me think back to my first film, GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS), and how my producer and I were so actively involved and on top of every new development with the film - a one night screening in Sheboygan? We knew about it and had probably lobbied the local arts reporter at the Sheboygan Press (actual paper) to write about it. We talked to our distributor every day (at least up until they went bankrupt) for the latest news of ticket sales, reviews and prospects for future engagements.
This happened less so on my second film and now seems altogether quaint as I think about CONVENTION. Part of this is what happened to indie film, alternative weeklies and the like in the intermediate eight years (as they like to say, the bottom dropped out) - it became more difficult to stay on top of the ever changing/degrading environment. Part of it was the brutal combination of sheer exhaustion and lack of income - a new job/new film/new project/new paycheck seemed to hold more promise than the beating of the last horse, dead or otherwise.
What's happened has been something different, something less substantial than I maybe anticipated - and there's no one to blame, really, it's not as though there were a lot of promises made that weren't delivered on. It's just that the film became a cog in a machine that didn't really need a handler, didn't need to involve the makers in its process. It's just fine as a distribution mechanism - and I doubt that a more active approach on my part would have changed much - but it's a far cry from the total involvement/commitment of the first film or the kind of thing that Ted Hope and others have been so dogmatic in espousing the past couple of years.
Maybe it's a lesson - a huge corollary - the less you're involved, the less the returns, the less you are told, the less you know. Maybe it will make me want to take a more hands on approach the next time around.
Or maybe this is the new normal - you get just about what you get, no matter the amount you put in. Maybe it's just about a little bit of magic, lightning strikes and sheer luck - the right combination of filmmaker, distributor, critical acclaim, subject, publicist and zeitgeist. And every once in awhile, a few filmmakers are able to grab hold and take it where it may.
In any case, sometimes I meet folks who talk to me/look at me like I've got this racket all figured out, that I understand the landscape, that I know all.
This morning was a reminder that there's knowing and there's not knowing - and my life is filled with equal parts of both.
as someone who just made his first film and is currently navigating the distribution waters (but constantly yearns to drop it all and just move on to "the next"), this was the most interesting perspective i've ever read. thanks for writing.
Posted by: RW | October 27, 2010 at 10:57 PM