For the life of me I cannot understand why so many micro Indies try to do mainstream plots... conventional characters... who act and behave like boring mainstream movies or streamer fare. I'm a big fan of micro Indies... like no budget features... not shorts... features. What I want to see in a good micro indie is interesting script, good acting and just simple clean direction... nothing fancy, nothing out of whack with the material I'm watching. Sure genre is good, like horror or rom coms or whatever, but even before that, is this holding my attention, do I care about characters, do I have keep watching even though I have better things to be doing with my life. It's like the creator is saying, 'hey please streamer /BFI, let me in, I'm a safe pair of hands and will follow your woke creed... I'll make sure the white irritable male is an abuser and the black street kid is poetic and misunderstood... please let me in and help me pay off my student loans, my credit card debt and let me just be like you... and the creatives you hire. I desperately want to be in your gang and I love you so much... and what you do... and the way you care about people and the environment "... kiss kiss kiss. I don't understand it because they are not looking for micro Indies to look like cheap imitations of what they back, well maybe they are (as most are moronic) but I suspect you just got to twist the screw here a bit because these micros have no real production values to distract you, no sumptuous scores, the sound is usually a bit dodge, the grade not fully up to spec, so something has to be going on that's different... you want to join a club that has no vacancies, you have to take a gamble, not play it safe because a micro feature should not be an inferior version of what we already have to stomach. Cause all I see now is massive opportunities because the standard is so bad... ever since like 2018... the standard has plummeted, it has... I have no idea why, you could blame covid but does covid infect the brain, so you can no longer create interesting characters, or strip away conflict... I suspect the business is run off fear and BS politics, especially in the UK... if you try make something real you get accused of some "ism"... all I know is.... anyone in the micro space must ignore the conventions and just go for it... doesn't matter if they pelt you with rotten tomatoes... at least they will care enough to abuse you. Cause I'll tell you, whoever does something striking and different will become a rock star.
I’ve been grappling with monthly screenings since 1993 - it’s a beast to organise and maintain - my early monthly screenings turned into Raindance Film Festival here in London - I’m always looking for collaborators - so if you have any bandwidth, give me a shout. Maybe your gunpowder mixed with mine coild make a bigger bang
You’ve never seen a $10,000 micro like this one - https://tubitv.com/movies/498260/a-girl-a-guy-a-space-helmet
There is a connection!!! A few years ago before BAFTA had a Facebook Group or LinkedIn group I started a little Friday club at 195 in London... once a month... by the end there were 50 plus turning up every month and several hundred in the Facebook group. My aim was to talk to other professionals - as an actor I don't want to become anything else but am fascinated by all the other crafts. My rule was no self promotion... just cross discipline chats like film directors to Game makers. Here's the connection!!! I always remember having a great chat with a couple of producers and I asked them what they look for in a young director... 'Magic.', they said... 'The thing that you can't buy... and can't teach... we can pay for the best DOP... get the technicals up to standard and polish up the spec but if they haven't got that special something that makes us watch their film we won't invest in them. It can be technically challenging but you can always see when they have that special thing.'. I think that's exactly what you're saying... for film makers with passion and their own voice there's a world to conquer!!!!
The truth of this post cracks me up. Thank you for not being PC I’m so sick of the nonsense in this business! And? I made that micro budget feature exactly as you say…. Story driven and a bit rough but worth a look because it’s not straight genre and it was def made against the odds
Almost finished building the characters for my Indie animated action movie trailer. Hopefully coming soon.
I think it comes down to the desire of becoming a transnational film. So they plug in a mainstream plot that is well known, not understanding the values behind the mimicked film(s)’ success — which could be based on talent, marketing, or pure luck (eg. ‘Anyone But You’) What is needed is the understanding of how their localised story can connected with other cultures and/or communities based on their geographic representation. This culture could be ‘genre’ based as well. If you look at regions like Africa, or Nigeria (“Nollywood”) in particular, we see most films failing to make a footprint outside their country. Primarily through festivals but even in theatrical release. It’s even curious to see most Netflix-produced features have only been circulated to a few of their established digital markets. (2023/2024) In my opinion this signals a lack of infrastructure in development for the global markets. Yes, I can say it does include the U.K. At least from the standpoint of how their national films have been marketed and released. But also how they are being developed, or coddled, by these schemes & programmes, instead of simplifying the process — streamlining projects straight into pre-production (developing on the go).
I'll take that rock star shirt and cap.
Produced screenwriter & property manager.
2dUnfortunately, I've had scripts passed by talent managers for not being 'woke'.