The D-Word's life is one of glamour and riches, as only a documentary filmmaker can live it

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Packing for Sundance
January 17, 1997
1:22 am

I leave for Sundance
tomorrow. They're flying me out to be on a panel called The Internet Without the Hype: What Filmmakers Need to Know Now.

Heh, heh. Just seeing if you're paying attention.

They want me to talk about how y'all can use the Net to finance and produce and distribute your indie films. It got me thinking. I'm doing a documentary that has the internet as a subject, so I'm kind of a skewed example, but I can't say I use the internet all that much to make the film. Or do I? Lemme see...

• I browse the Web every so often to read up on the sites of some of the people I'm following in my film: Justin's Links from the Underground, Electric Minds, Feed, HotWired, Suck, Geek Cereal, Cybergrrl...
• I'm producing a Web site that goes hand-in-hand with the film, even as I struggle to make it. So I occasionally check out other sites for ideas and inspiration for my own -- sometimes for design, sometimes for content. Lately, I've gravitated towards some of the better online journals I've found, usually through a Justin link.
• And, of course, I use e-mail all the time. For keeping in contact, getting and exchanging info, handling production logistics.

In my web youth (like, say, early last year) I had high hopes that the Web would enable indies to bypass distributors and pipe their work out directly to audiences starving for alternative media. Then common sense took hold. Even if the bandwith were here, why would even discerning viewers opt to download a film they've never heard of vs., say, Fargo or Trainspotting or The Brothers McMullen?

No, the internet doesn't solve the time-honored problem of gaining name-brand recognition for a film. It still requires a costly theatrical release. It still means landing a distributor with the clout to muscle it into theaters. And it still needs critical acclaim and great word-of-mouth. For documentaries, multiply the struggle times a hundred.

Maybe someday the i-net will be the panacea, but I seriously doubt it. Making films will always be a struggle.

Coincidentally, I came across the single best use of the Web for filmmaking purposes just this past week:

Return-Path: 

From: AMORA23@aol.com

Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 23:53:50 -0500 (EST)

To: dbblock@el.net

Subject: hi!

 

Hi!  I'm actually wondering if you can give me any help 

or advice.  I am an indie filmmaker, and trust me, most 

people don't know the meaning of the word.  I'm 16, 

and making a documentary.  I'm also practically broke.

Editing, producing, this is all very new to me, and it's a 

lot of work.  Could you give me any advice on how I 

can use the Net to help me?  Any advice would be 

greatly appreciated, thanks.

I immediately replied:

    To: AMORA23@aol.com

           From: dbblock@el.net

        Subject: re: hi!

 

The best way is probably exactly what you're doing-- 

e-mail other filmmakers out of the blue and ask for 

advice.  Most are very generous.  But we don't have 

much time so you have to be specific with your questions.  

If you give me some specific questions, maybe I can be 

more useful. 

 

Some questions to you:  Where do you live?  What's 

your doc about?  Why do you want to make it so badly?

 

Best of luck,

 

Doug 

Amora23, at 16, intuitively gets it. She (or he) knows that the internet is about connections. Amora23 doesn't have the usual showbiz connections or film school connections, so she, I assume, does a Web search under "documentary" and finds The D-Word. And, maybe, without her even knowing it, I tell my small band of loyal followers to drop her some advice if they have any.

She hasn't responded yet to my reply. Maybe because she's hasn't figured out the answer to my last question. It's the biggest question of all for any filmmaker.

What gets me most excited about the internet is the Web's potential as an artistic medium in its own right. Hypertext links are a profoundly thrilling concept to me, and I plan to spend a lot of my creative energy experimenting and exploring new forms of hypertext narrative. Perhaps it means searching for new kinds of collaborators. Maybe it'll be in playing with multiple perspectives. Maybe I'll work with strangers from around the world.

Maybe by then we'll be able to pipe the work out directly. Maybe there'll be an eager audience. Maybe I can actually sustain a living from it. Who knows? Amazing times we live in, and I, for one, am glad to be alive at this moment in history.

These are my thoughts as I head out for Sundance. I've been there twice with films and both times they won jury prizes, but I won't miss the competition aspect one bit. I hate that part of indie filmmaking.

I'm in the middle of making a film I love. That's what's important. That's what counts.

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