Mark Duplass's Tips for Independent Filmmaking

A few days ago, at SXSW, Mark Duplass delivered a keynote speech that brought the house down. His tips for independent filmmakers were rooted in his own experience and cognizant of today's shifting film marketplace, and he inspired the audience to make movies and monetize their careers. 

Oakley Anderson-Moore of No Film School's did an excellent job of capturing Duplass's point-by-point advice in this article. Two points that are especially valuable are about monetizing a sustainable career :

• VOD is a viable and accessible income stream for indie filmmakers
• Filmmakers should work to license - not sell - the work they produce.

This is how you build an independent career in today's film landscape. 

The added benefits here are creative control and a higher return on investment (since you can make work on your own terms and aren't paying for theatrical distribution). 

How does this happen? Revisit Artel's and Forest's blogs! Artel is building Project Catalyst - a distribution platform to help multicultural filmmakers reach their audiences, and Forest is thinking through how to help filmmakers license their work to aligned brands. The tools they're building will help filmmakers follow Mark Duplass's advice, and join the ranks of full-time, not-starving, creatively-inspired independent filmmakers of today and tomorrow.

Weissman & Hirschhorn on Disruption in Film and Media [VIDEO]

In THIS talk, Andrew Weissman (Union Square Ventures) and Jason Hirschhorn (Media ReDEFined) discuss the new tools available to filmmakers in this brave new (internet and social) world. It's well worth taking the time to watch the whole talk but if you can't, my three takeaways:

1. The cost structure of releasing films needs to be challenged. The biggest opportunity is in marketing and using social media to reach people more cheaply and efficiently. These changes will be difficult and painful as the current cost structure supports an entire industry.
2. Windowing allows revenues to be maximized but it hurts the user experience. The industry needs to be much more focused on giving a better experience to the fans.
3. Filmmaking is more entrepreneurial than ever as artists have to be creative on the fund raising, storytelling and deal making sides of the business.