Brandon Harris of The New Inquiry posted “There’s No Money in Movies” recently.

In it he discusses Abel Ferrara‘s unsuccessful attempt to crowd fund his latest film. Ferrara is a “notorious New York independent filmmaker” who wanted to raise half a million dollars on Kickstarter. And managed $20K. Harris writes:

“As traditional sources of specialty film financing have become harder and harder to come by connecting with audiences and donors through crowdfunding has become a burden many filmmakers of Ferrara’s generation have had to take on to continue working. The results for many of the elder statesmen in this new media landscape have been mixed.”

He then moves on to discuss Independent Filmmaker Project‘s Amy Dotson keynote speech at the Seattle International Film Festival.

It’s a fascinating speech. One favourite bit:

“We have to try to stop adjusting our realities to hold onto the ways we consume stories before rather than allow new forms and ideas to take hold.”

Harris takes umbrage and concludes by lamenting:

“Is this what every independent filmmaker should want? To be embraced by corporations and the entertainment mainstream? To have to be good at three or five different disciplines instead of just one? In Dotson’s telling, it’s unavoidable. These well-meaning artists will have to adopt another stance, as filmmakers are analog, too serious, and not platform-agnostic enough to allure corporate suits.”

My take: surely the new economics of film is not news and only further proves that the Long Tail now rules the mediascape. A handful of media companies/franchises/directors get the majority of the money/tickets/attention. The bad new is that there is less room in the middle for small, esoteric ventures to make an economic go of it. The good news is that the rest of us at the shallow end can now play digitally and globally — and just stop dreaming of dollars.