Bill Mechanic Talks Indie Film
Former Head of Fox Films Gives Independent Film Keynote Speech
Oct 4, 2009
Bill Mechanic, former head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, recently gave the keynote speech at the 2009 Independent Film & Television Production Conference. The speech gives great insight into the independent film landscape, the movie business in general, and how Hollywood works. Or how Hollywood doesn't work, as the case may be.
The full text of his speech was posted online. While some of the speech reads like self-promotion – perhaps inevitable in Hollywood and itself an insight into the industry – it still hits on some stark points familiar to any businessperson.
The Movie Business Must Entertain Audiences
"Hollywood in the broadest sense of the word is much like Detroit. It's a manufacturer's mentality that reigns, seemingly indifferent to the consumers it serves. Ignore whether the consumer likes our product as long as they buy it."
Among the most resonant sections of the speech is the one he devotes to major movie studios and their mistakes. It reads like the wrongdoings of any calcified industry giant – ignore the wants of the customer, stick with the known path, avoid risk, rely on historical performance as an assurance of success, among many others.
Mechanic also gives credit to movie audiences; he notes that audiences can differentiate between original movies and copies. He discusses several of this year's hit movies – noting their uniqueness and their lack of stars, in defiance of industry wisdom that such stars are essential to success. In his view, creativity and originality are in short supply among films produced by major studios. This should be the perfect void for indie films to fill, but he believes they've failed, too.
Mistakes of Indie Filmmaking
"With the influx of hedge fund money, the past decade saw a glutting of product, again most of it with no idea of who it was for or how it could be sold. Whether some of these movies had artistic integrity or not, there is no question there was no audience appeal."
He catalogues several mistakes of indie filmmaking, but in short: independent films have failed to take audiences into account. It's all well and good for a movie to have artistic integrity, but if no one wants to see it, producing the film doesn't make business sense. And filmmaking, even indie film, is a commercial endeavor. It's not worthwhile for investors to put up money if that money will simply disappear. Independent film is not a charity.
But what of meaningful films that need to be made, those that win Oscars and prove their worth? While independent films have dominated the awards ceremonies in recent years, the Oscars have even changed their rules to make this less true. The Academy now allows more films to be nominated, with the hope that more popular fare will attract a bigger television audience.
Mechanic mentions that the year of Titanic was the awards ceremony's biggest audience in a long time. Audiences for the broadcast have recently languished, in part because vast swathes of the country have never seen most of the movies being honored, nor would they likely want to. And while winning Oscars used to give films a significant DVD bump, that's less true these days. The movies aren't making money, the awards ceremonies aren't making money…a business can't survive when no one makes any money.
Indie Film Should Be Different
"That's been the oddest lesson of this period for me. That the independent world, which should be aiming to do things better and different from the Studios, doesn't have that as a mandate at all."
But independent film has not simply failed to take audiences into consideration. Mechanic notes that indies don't even attempt to be different from releases of the major studios, save perhaps in scale. Independent films follow the lead of the majors, who themselves don't have a fix on their audience. Thus, he says. most indies are doomed to fail before the camera even rolls. To be successful, films must offer moviegoers something they haven't seen before; they must be unique. Mechanic discusses a few films that have captured audiences because of just those kinds of differences. Doing what the major studios can't – or won't – should be the forte of indie film and yet it's not.
The Future of the Movie Business
"Excess product will go away, the people who don't take the business seriously will go away. Hopefully those who make crummy movies will also go away, but that may just be a personal wish."
Despite listing many ways the independent film business is in dire straits, Mechanic is still optimistic about filmmaking's future. Periods of economic struggle cast off weak players, no matter the industry. He predicts the same will happen with movies, even going so far as to contend that two of the major studios will be sold or consolidated by 2015. Unoriginal movies will languish, while creativity will reap rewards, even if the whole of the industry is down. Quality individual movies have no limits – they can achieve anything. If they can just get made.
Nikki Finke posted the full Bill Mechanic indie filmmaking keynote speech. It's well-worth the read.
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