Indie Film is Dead (?)

Here is an interesting, yet hilarious and slightly bitter article about DIY distribution from the king of anti DIY filmmaking, www.diysucks.com

Lessig suggests indie film is dead.

Lawrence Lessig says that there might not be a viable business plan for us DIY filmmakers anymore -- and too bad.

The lawyer/geek-rockstar/FOO (Friend of Obama) spoke at a company function today (yes, I have a day job) and indicated that culture and the arts change over time.
And our time may have passed.

During the Q&A segment, I asked him about his public policy thoughts on the effects of filesharing on filmmakers' ability to earn a living.

We're different than the music industry. Musicians make their money through live performances (so free and wide distribution of their recordings is a good thing), while for us filmmakers, recordings are our stock in trade. If recordings of our work are freely available, then no one will pay for them and we all have to get (or continue) day jobs.

His answer (in my view) boiled down to: take it.

To be fair, he also said that we need to decriminalize and encourage remix culture. Decriminalizing and ending the RIAA-style lawsuits will encourage kids to trust in the gov't again and have a healthy respect for the law. [Insert snark.] Then, as kids do their own remixing they will find out how hard it is to create high quality media and start respecting (and paying for) it.
Uh huh. And start eating their vegetables too.

But his main point was that the time for a viable business plan for a certain type of small-time filmmaker may have passed (indeed, for Hollywood itself, it may be passing), as it has for so many other forms of art.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.diysucks.com/distribution/