I am reading Mike Curtis at HD for Indies flipping out (via Kent Nichols) right now. It is long, and, well, ranty. But his 'anecdote' regarding career development piqued my interest:
"Anecdote - it used to be that the hot new movie directing talent came up through commercials and music videos - think David Fincher. McG is, I think, the last name I can think of that came up that route that has achieved commercial success. Anybody else? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? There was a list of top 50 hot talent something or other. Nobody under 30. Where’s the new talent coming from? Not from music videos anymore - there’s barely a market, and certainly no real money, in that anymore."The reason this jumped out at me is because I had just seen another one of those "win a marginal amount of money for creating our viral ad campaign for us" contests. I have been generally down on this type of thing in the past, mainly because you really are guaranteed to forfeit all ownership and rights to your work upon submission, with only a small chance of any compensation. Further, most of said contest yield so much garbage, even the lucky winner.
However, with the supposed decline of one development path for filmmaking talent, and no end in sight for theses contests, could the latter serve as a possible replacement for the former, at least in a very small way? Probably not, but if a young/student filmmaker were to scour the web for contests that suited his interests, deconstructed the judging criteria, product in question and marketing strategies, and use these elements as real world exercises for honing their craft, it might pay off. Call it the Lazlo Hollyfeld film school.
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3 comments:
The web has really changed how everyone does business today. Even filmmakers are seeing the change. Like you mentioned, there are a variety of websites offering compensation for filmmakers to design a variety of ads. It's a great revenue source, if you can find contests that suite your needs and interests.
Great post.
Timothy
Boston,MA
Boston Digital Imaging
After thinking about this a little longer, I really think this is a case of getting as much out of an activity as you put into it. If you see these contests and such as providing direction you might get for client or agency work while still being able to write, direct and produce your own projects, they could form a very effective first step in turning filmmaking into a career. I am sure there are lots of other activities that could have the same effect. I will have to see if I can come up with more.
Anecdote - n. A short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident.
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