Making Stuff Isn't Enough: Ted Hope on the Challenges (e.g., Getting Your Movie Seen) and Opportunity (e.g., Authentic Participation With Authentic Stories) of New World Indie Filmmaking


On July 25th and 26th, 2013 legendary indie film producer Ted Hope posted to his Truly Free Film blog about the new approach to filmmaking required by the way that films are being made, shared and monetized in the 21st century.

The two posts should be read in their entirety, but here are some excerpts:

"We have to recognize that the challenge now is not how to get a film made, but how to get it seen."

"If you’ve been reading this blog you probably already recognize the old indie filmmaking model is obsolete. You’ve been trying to figure out how to shift from a focus on mass-market storytelling to one of niche audience world-building. You recognize that you need to build extensions, collaborations, and expansive discovery nodes into you storyworld architecture. And of course you know that the only logical response to this world of inexpensive high-production value abundance of content is to be more prolific, more ubiquitous, and thus radically collaborative."

"In an era of abundance, access, and distraction, we need to foster deeper and longer engagement, great[er] identification, and authentic participation with authentic stories. The film form, in its stand-alone one-off manner, will no longer suffice to provide most of this."

"We need to acknowledge that nowadays we are not yet done when we can tell the story in a manner that sparks others imagination and entices them to want to be involved. What a remarkable and satisfying feeling that was! We told a story, leaving room for more, and they heard it and got it and wanted to be involved. It was lovely. But now those that think that is enough, I don’t want to work with. Their method won’t work. The movie won’t get made. Or if [it] does[,] it won’t have the cultural impact I aspire to. It has to go further. Both the tellers and the listeners need to recognize we need more now."

"There are far more great stories than our current infrastructure can effectively consume or engage with. There is however a shortage of well developed storyworlds. We have to show how and where and by whom those worlds can be built. Today’s pitch needs to reach to those further realms where our tells don’t just inspire others to listen in their seats but to get involved and add on and riff, build a balcony and... build a swing – whatever it is, it must get us out of the rut and the ditch and show a universe of new paths."

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