Hollywood Breakdown: Studios Muck it Up, Pt 2

The independent film scene is in trouble. Well reviewed and well made films like In Bruges tank at the Box Office. Well crafted and well acted films like The Visitor can’t find an audience. The average film goer to the local art house is seeing more and more films with poor story lines or puerilely executed productions. There is plenty of money for small films. There is ever decreasing costs for making these films, but the quality is just not there. Too many think they are Godard or Truffaut or Tarantino and they don’t understand how to tell a cinematic story.

The upshot is easily quantifiable. Fewer people are going to see more films. Yes, they are a few breakthroughs every year, but how many Junos can there be?

Who’s to blame? The studios.

I know,  it is easy to blame Hollywood and the culture of avarice that exists out there, but this has less to do with greed and more to do with lack of vision.

The problem started when the big studios saw small, indie films as a money making division. They realized “indie” films could be their ‘farm system’. New directors, new talent could make a smaller films and then graduate to bigger productions. This would mean they could make much more money with the bigger film and with talent allied with them.

Then a curious thing happened. Big name stars looking to keep or get their acting chops up or looking to get ‘street cred’ within the industry started working for scale in smaller films. The reviews were usually good and folks applauded them for helping the indies. Bruce Willis would be an example of that. Going indie became cool. All of a sudden “indie’ films had name stars or recognized talent behind them

If you need further proof of that, just check out the Independent Spirit Awards the day before the Oscars. The only difference in the awards is fewer tuxedos, lesser amounts of gratuitous skin hanging out and more expletives spoken.

It gets worse when you think about how the ‘indie’ films are distributed. The people running these spin-offs of the studios are industry veterans. They use a distribution model known as ‘platforming’. It has been around for years, but it has recently been refined. A film will be released in a few theaters. If it gets a good response, more films are added to a ‘break’. There is nothing wrong with this model, but the boutique distributors are now spending millions of dollars in publicity and advertising to get the word out.

With an investment like that, an independent film needs to perform, to garner good box office. If it doesn’t, it gets dumped. The adage in the business is ‘two and out’. If the film doesn’t make enough money the first week, the contract will be honored for one more week and then it’s back to the warehouse. There is no attempt at building an audience.

Some years back, when I was a film booker for art houses, we prided ourselves on developing films. We’d find a film we believed in and worked the audience until they found it. In Boston, this meant films like King of Hearts, The Harder They Come, and Harold and Maude became cult hits. These days that cannot happen. The film finds an audience immediately or “see ya’ later baby.”

What is the future?

That’s hard to say and many people are pondering the question. The reality is,  we are facing is that the old definition of independent is no longer applicable. The reality is,  the old methods of getting films to the public are tipping over. The reality is,  whatever happens to the independent movie will be a precursor as to what will happen in Hollywood.

Independently created films will still be made. Some will be bad. Fewer will be good. How and where we see them is the question. Stay tuned.

Garen has been sitting in the dark for over 30 years as an film exhibitor, consultant and reviewer. You may have seen him on NE Cable or some other Boston station.  More likely you heard him pontificating about films on FrugalYankee. com, NPR, TKK, RKO, New Hampshire Public Radio, or any number of other stations he's been on, but one thing is certain, he loves, and knows, film. You can also check out Garen's other passion, frugality at www.FrugalYankee.com where he shares savvy tips and more.