blog
01/28/2009
change is in the air for the movie industry
Posted by Steve Woolf

Still of Freida Pinto as Latika from Slumdog Millionaire

I couldn't help notice the number of relatively small films that were nominated for Oscars this year. In the Best Picture category alone, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire are up against movies with huge budgets like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. "Small" is a relative term, since these films all had budgets in the millions. But I'm getting hopeful that we're seeing the start of a new trend in studio filmmaking; one where we have massive $200MM tentpole projects like The Dark Knight and a myriad of small films designed to be profitable by new methods of marketing and distribution online.


Still of Mickey Rourke as Randy "the Ram" Robinson from The Wrestler

It might be wishful thinking on my part, but I think the studios would be smart to diversify their budgets and help launch dozens of smaller films instead of 10-12 massive projects each year. I love tentpole projects like Batman and Harry Potter, but since the independent film movement of the 90's has pretty much been subsumed by the studios, it's difficult to get projects in the 5-10MM budget range made.

I'd love to see a visionary studio step up and make itself into a "friend" of the independent filmmaker. No one is saying they shouldn't throw a billion or so at your 5-6 annual tentpoles, but then take another half billion and spread it around to 30 smaller original projects that focus on exceptional quality and daring material. Not only will this advance the form, but the studio will build a reputation of being a place where quality gets a chance to emerge and filmmakers and actors get tons of work. HBO has branded itself as the class of cable television this way, and although it's a different business model from theatrical film releases, content creators regularly go to HBO and work with much smaller budgets on their projects because they know they will be able to see their vision through.

I can already hear the beancounters talking about the difficulty in turning a big profit on small projects. Well, to that I say be daring and look for new distribution opportunities online. Pioneer a business model and maybe you make a huge land grab along the way. Have your filmmakers devote their time to projects that can become multiplatform. Maybe a hit television series emerges from a small, quality film, maybe an online sensation is born that becomes the first viable financial property.


Still of Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz from The Reader

I'm opening up a bigger can of worms than I intended, but with so many small films in the mix for the highest honor the film industry bestows upon itself, I'll enjoy watching this year's Oscar telecast, which will be February 22nd on ABC. I'm really hoping that with the economic downturn affecting entertainment through 2009, that some leaders with vision will look for new ways to make money by embracing online distribution and developing more projects with smaller budgets. No harm in wishful thinking!