The Squid and the Whale Attack
The bad economy has impacted the indie film industry for all sorts of reasons, but one is left unstated: Indie Films Suffer Drop-Off in Rights Sales
For decades, independent movie producers in the U.S. have routinely been able to fund their films by selling the rights to distribute them abroad. If the production featured a big-name actor or director, the rights were often sold before the movie was finished, providing producers with 50% or more of their production budget.
But today, due to factors ranging from the credit crunch to burgeoning online piracy, even the biggest names aren't always enough to sell an American film abroad.
They forgot to mention another problem, which is that indie films have sucked the last few years. It's hard to pinpoint when this happened (the release of the "Royal Tennanbaums?"), "Indie" movies have gone from entertainments like "Pulp Fiction" and "O, Brother, Where Art Thou" to depressive academic works like "The Squid and the Whale."
Not only that, the whole notion of "indie" has been co-opted by the studios. "Independent" has come to represent a particular style, rather than an effort to make art outside of the studio system. If your movie has Johnnie Depp in it, it really shouldn't be called independent, simple as that.
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