Playing the Sundance game
If you want a good primer for the rough-and-tumble world of independent film - and the role of the Sundance Film Festival in that struggle - then read this recent blog post from screenwriter John August.
August (whose credits include "Big Fish," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Corpse Bride" - all for Tim Burton) made his directorial debut with "The Nines," a complex Hollywood drama starring Ryan Reynolds and Hope Davis. The movie premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, then sank almost without a trace.
In his no-bull post-mortem, August details what he, his producers and distributors could have done differently: Ignore the Sundance "buzz," forego a theatrical release, shorten the window between theatrical release and DVD release, or even encourage piracy. (August followed up his blog post with a second clarifying post with the provocative title, "I never told Robert Redford to suck it.")
"The odds of getting your scrappy indie in front of paying audiences are pretty low, and the odds of really making money at it are subterranean," August concludes. "But I stand by my earlier observation that there’s a lot of success to be found in that high failure rate. 'The Nines' didn’t make a big splash, but it has a fair number of super-fans, including some filmmakers and critics. It has led to new opportunities for me and its stars, and a solid credit for the folks who worked on it."
And while the number of movies that make a success out of Sundance is discouragingly low, that doesn't keep people from trying. For example: The makers of "Triabetes," a documentary about a dozen diabetic athletes training for the Ironman triathlon, are trying to raise the finishing funds to get their movie to Sundance.
Sundance may be a long-shot, but for a lot of filmmakers it's worth the risk.
August (whose credits include "Big Fish," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Corpse Bride" - all for Tim Burton) made his directorial debut with "The Nines," a complex Hollywood drama starring Ryan Reynolds and Hope Davis. The movie premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, then sank almost without a trace.
In his no-bull post-mortem, August details what he, his producers and distributors could have done differently: Ignore the Sundance "buzz," forego a theatrical release, shorten the window between theatrical release and DVD release, or even encourage piracy. (August followed up his blog post with a second clarifying post with the provocative title, "I never told Robert Redford to suck it.")"The odds of getting your scrappy indie in front of paying audiences are pretty low, and the odds of really making money at it are subterranean," August concludes. "But I stand by my earlier observation that there’s a lot of success to be found in that high failure rate. 'The Nines' didn’t make a big splash, but it has a fair number of super-fans, including some filmmakers and critics. It has led to new opportunities for me and its stars, and a solid credit for the folks who worked on it."
And while the number of movies that make a success out of Sundance is discouragingly low, that doesn't keep people from trying. For example: The makers of "Triabetes," a documentary about a dozen diabetic athletes training for the Ironman triathlon, are trying to raise the finishing funds to get their movie to Sundance.
Sundance may be a long-shot, but for a lot of filmmakers it's worth the risk.
11:09 AM
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1 Comments:
Thanks for your words of encouragement. I am the producer/editor of the Triabetes doc along with others who are donating their incredible resources and talent to this project. Wish us luck. Sundance or no Sundance.
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