

RED is going to change the game for indie films - TrevorJ
http://borderlinetheory.com/?p=115

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snorkel
Cameras are to indie film makers as laptops are to web startups: important to
have but not their biggest concern. Pro cameras can always be borrowed or
rented if need be. The bigger concerns for an indie film are paying for a
lighting crew, a sound crew, line production, then months of editing and post
production, and then trying to get anyone at all to distribute the finished
product. Nice camera? Yes. Game changing? No.

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papersmith
I think for a lot of indie films it's a bunch of guys in a profit sharing
scheme living on ramen noodles. Back when I was applying to college I looked
into film school, the 35mm film costed $600/minute, and since they're photo
films you can't overwrite them. If you screw up you throw them away. So in
effect the medium is the weakest link for a lot of indie people, especially
ones on the low end of the spectrum.

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DocSavage
Here's a link to the company's web page: <http://www.red.com/nab/scarlet>

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dood
I think the reality is somewhere in between the excitable article and the
downbeat comment; being able to shoot more cheaply is nice and all, but still
does not mean indie filmmakers will be any more welcomed into theaters (many
of which still require prints anyway).

Much more interesting than the improvements in price/quality of digital
filmmaking is the possibilites of film distribution on the net. It isn't
happening as quickly as I'd hoped, but as bandwidth gets cheaper and faster,
and televisions get more connected to the net, I'm expecting the film industry
to change quite dramatically. The emergence of cheap digital filmmaking and
web-based distribution networks will be similar to the recent change in
dynamic of web startups. And the longer the big studios avoid exploiting this
model, the more chances it has to be seized by independent filmmakers (and
startups ;).

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TrevorJ
It depends on the market, locally, the owner of a major theater chain has
adopted digital projection on something like 35+ screens in the greater metro
area and has really been open to some of the smaller indie films. Many times
it takes a lot of vision on the part of the theatre owner/manager because
indies can really depend on the "long tail" when it comes to theatre
audiences. They don't have the money to advertise so you run the film for a
week and hope those people tell their friends and they tell there friends and
pretty soon you start to see some steady returns as the word gets out, but
this takes some guts and patience from the owners.

Net distribution will be a great avenue as well, given how reticent the
studios have been to band together and provide "one" place where people can go
to rent/buy films online.

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dood
I'm hopeful that net distribution will eventually feed-back into theatres - so
films can build small followings online before getting theatre runs.

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TrevorJ
That is a really good point!

