Blogging Woodstock: Talk, Talk, Talk

Michelle Williams in "Wendy & Lucy" demostrates the trend of Hollywood stars working in low-budget films.

Saturday at the Woodstock Film Festival is a day filled with panel discussions. At best, panels can wonderfully stimulating, filled with useful information delivered by vibrant, inspiring people. At worst, they can be mind-numbingly dull. And so, in the spirit of inquiry, and fueled by a good amount of caffeine, I set off to observe three panels on Saturday and boil down their nuggets of helpful advice, humor and wisdom. Consider this your port wine reduction sauce of panels.

Panel 1: Amazing Women in Film
Moderator: Thelma Adams (film critic, US Weekly); Participants: Barbara Kopple (documentary filmmaker), Rita Taggart (actor), Maggie Renzi (producer).

A lively discussion about various issues affecting women in the movie industry, this panel is an annual fixture at the festival, bringing together what moderator Adams calls “a brain trust” of impressively-credentialed women in film. This year’s conversation began with celebrated doc director Kopple, who Renzi said has “a career on par with any documentarian out there,” talking about how she’s utilized her gender to advantage when making films about traditionally male subjects. In her 1993 documentary about Mike Tyson, Fallen Champ, and in a film she’s currently working on about Yankee Stadium, Kopple said, “I go in and I can ask any question I want, because I’m a girl and I supposedly don’t know anything [about sports], so they want to help me out.”

Kopple’s forays into the male sandbox notwithstanding, all panelists were emphatic that sexism is still rife in the industry. Adams said she was “disturbed” by seeing Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei recently play a vapid, one-dimensional lap dancer in the new Mickey Rourke movie The Wrestler, and Taggart lamented that when she goes to acting classes, “the young women present themselves in an objectified way because that’s what they think they need to do to get work.” Renzi said it irked her when her peers say they don’t want to talk about sexism. “Where would Spike Lee be if he didn’t use the word racism or get angry?” she asked.

The panel was strong on female solidarity, with Adams saying she tries to champion films by and about interesting women, and Taggart urging women in the audience to use their purchasing power to press for more female-friendly movies. Ultimately, though, as Kopple pointed out, gender is not a foolproof metric. “We have a woman who might be a heartbeat away from being president, and she’s no feminist,” she said. “Just because someone’s a woman, it doesn’t mean our lives are going to change.”

Verdict: A spicy blend of knowledge, forthright opinion and industry gossip. As well as reflecting on the persistence of sexism in the industry, panelists could have paid more tribute to a hugely talented pool of emerging young players – people like Sarah Polley, Miranda July and Ellen Page – who are wonderfully quirky and strong.

Panel 2: Distribution: Is it Safe?
Moderator: Dade Hayes (Variety); Participants: Ryan Werner (VP of Marketing, IFC), Ted Hope (producer), Mark Duplass (filmmaker), John Sloss (entertainment lawyer), Liesl Copland (B-Side Entertainment).

There can be no doubt that distribution is this year’s hot topic. Models of distribution are changing faster than anyone can say “Sony Pictures Classics,” and everyone is spooked, said Sloss. Drawing a parallel with the international economic crisis, he said, “There’s a paralysis fueled by panic in the marketplace,” though in the film world it seems “more irrational, because the eyeballs are still there.”

Hope saw light at the end of the tunnel, saying that the Internet gives filmmakers “the opportunity to reach out and speak to a hyper-specific audience” through platforms ranging from MySpace to Jaman.com. All participants said they see video-on-demand (VOD) as the biggest growing trend, though there were predictable laments about the loss of the communal, big screen movie-going experience. Werner, however, suggested that VOD ‘is being embraced by filmmakers because it’s a way to get your movie seen by more people for longer,” and talked about the new model of distribution at IFC, where movies are released simultaneously in IFC’s New York theater and as VOD downloads. “We were worried about whether doing that would hurt the theatrical release, but it’s working well, it creates word of mouth,” Werner said, adding that VOD “has allowed IFC to take chances on movies where other distributors can’t make the numbers work.”

In general, panelists were guardedly optimistic about the future. Copland predicted that soon, following the IFC model, “You might see a movie open in five locations and be released as VOD at the same time for $5.99, and make money.” Right now, though, she said, “the price point is not there.” She also felt that there was vast untapped potential from film festivals, which are growing in popularity but functioning as “highly inefficient distribution models.” One or two festivals are currently providing VOD of their films, and Copland predicted further growth in that market.

Because of shifting models of distribution, Duplass, who made his indie hit The Puffy Chair for $15,000, recommended that filmmakers spend as little as possible on production, and look beyond theatrical release as their primary means of distribution. (He mentioned, though, that having theatrical releases for The Puffy Chair and his most recent film, Baghead, enhanced his industry reputation.) True to his name, Hope ended on a positive note, foreseeing a democratization of distribution around the corner. “The last 15 years [in our industry] have been about demystifying production,” he said. “The next 10 years will be about demystifying marketing and distribution.”

Verdict: A bit like attending a meeting of the International Monetary Fund, with everyone wondering what’s going to happen next. Although the panelists were better-looking than the average bank executive.

Panel Three: Contemporary Trends in Indie Filmmaking
Moderator: Robert Seigel (entertainment attorney); Participants: Larry Fessenden (director, producer, actor), Josh Braun (president, Submarine Entertainment), Matt Dentler (head of marketing, Cinetic Rights Management), Chiemi Karasawa (producer), Ross Partridge (actor, writer, producer).

This panel picked up where the distribution panel left off, with a similar discussion about what Braun called “the world of digital possibilities,” and with Dentler observing a trend of young filmmakers who are “growing up without the expectation of having their movies distributed in theaters.” At Cinetic, said Dentler, he’s always trying to find homes for films that can’t survive in traditional markets. “The market is still healthy for films that know what they are, where the filmmakers have realistic expectations of what they can achieve,” said Braun.

Fessenden, who’s produced and acted in scores of low-budget films, said that cheaper equipment had revolutionized the industry. “There’s a new freedom in filmmaking that didn’t exist even 10 years ago,” he says. “These days people often own equipment, so you might not need to do a lot of expensive rentals. A crew member could go off and work on a commercial for two days, and come back. You don’t have to stick to a tight schedule: you can make a movie on the weekends.”

Seigel mentioned the trend of Hollywood stars working in low-budget indie films. (One such film, Kelly Reichart’s Wendy and Lucy, starring Michelle Williams, played at this year’s festival.) “So many low-budget filmmakers try to get a ‘star,’ even if it’s a D-list TV personality – but you have to make sure it works for the film, and it’s not going to be a distraction,” said Dentler. Casting a big star in your movie can lead to an inflated budget, Fessenden said. In 2006, when he made The Last Winter with Ron Perlman and Connie Britton, “production costs went up, not because they asked for things, but because they’re people who’ve made a lot of movies and we wanted them to be comfortable.”

Fessenden went on to say that all you really need is an idea and a team you can motivate – a sentiment that was echoed by other panelists. Dentler cited the success of ultra low-budget “mumblecore” movies like Jay Duplass’s The Puffy Chair and Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs. With the confluence of cheap production costs and new platforms for distribution, Dentler said, “We’re living in one of the most exciting times for American movies, ever.”

Verdict: Not a lot of new information here, but plenty of good energy. Nice to end on a positive note.

For more information, see the trailer for Baghead here.

Link to this page: http://www.independent-magazine.org/