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Reputation: 4

What kind of film town should Seattle aspire to be?

I have met many of you, and some of you know me. I'm currently working my ass off to put together an indie feature. Washington Film Works seems to be a very energetic entity, but as their mission seems to be primarily to bring people like Mr. Gyllenhaal (and much bigger fish) to spend their production money in Seattle--and I have nothing against this--they are largely irrelevant to me. Whether or not you like the substance of Ms. Shelton's work, it seems to me that she is the type of filmmaker we should be looking to for inspiration. Not simply because she has received so much attention, but because of the way she choses to make her films. I feel very strongly that we (Seattle) shouldn't be trying to position ourselves as a "Little Hollywood" or even an American Vancouver. We should be actively (and I mean make the tail wag the dog--talk about it enough, and it begins to be true) promoting our corner of the country as an indie Mecca. We should be promoting a local community of filmmakers who are trying to make the films that Hollywood can't or won't make.

Your thoughts? Can we do this? Should we?

7 Answers

  • Locutus_small
    Reputation: 517

    Seattle should aspire to be the porn capital of the world!!!

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  • Mud_small
    Reputation: 69

    The problem, I think, is we do not make films for local consumption. we make films to make it elsewhere. an idie film made here is really for new york city. that is our actual market. something special might happen if we did make films for seattle. for its consumption and self-reflection.

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  • Avatar_default
    Reputation: 3

    The Seattle indie model is outstanding and we do it as well as any other American city.

    I hope we can continue to have both smaller and larger films. For many of us film work is our day job and sadly the indies don't pay our bills.

    I'd rather more big films came here as I'm sick of working out of town.

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  • Sacri_ordines_by_charism_small
    Reputation: 3723

    For the immediate future:
    One with great cinemas, varied festivals and world-class art schools.

    In my humble opinion, we only need to work on the art school part.

    Long term: I appreciate your dream / desire to be an indie mecca. I just don't see the economics nor the fundamentals in place to make it happen more than it has already.

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  • 23103_100000439173904_7235_n_small
    Reputation: 46

    Craig, these larger films coming into town are absolutely relevant to to the work you do. they are the ones largely making it possible for crews to make movies for a living, and ultimately to bring professional work and experience to the smaller films. My problem with a micro-budget "indie mecca" is that it's not a sustainable model for crews to support themselves and their families. They work a couple freebee shows and end up getting full time jobs or moving to cities where they can make a living. Indie films need to be rejuvenating the communities they occupy and replenishing the resources they use: by paying decent rates to vendors, locations, crew and actors. Grassroots was a small indie film, but it gave back. Making a film for $30K is great (I've done it), but it won't keep food on the table, and you'll eventually loose the resources you depend on.

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  • Avatar_default
    Reputation: 4

    Lynn is absolutely the model. But still she is stepping onto an elevator (financially)... to elsewhere. There needs to be a culture change around funding films: there are what, 50,000 millionaires here? Where is the money for local film? Unfortunately noblesse oblige seems to be strictly an East coast phenomenon. Honest to God I don't know how to make it happen. Megan Griffiths scrapes for years to get The Off Hours off the ground, Linas Phillips has to move away, Dan Gildark makes a feature with theatrical distro and can't pull together money for a much smaller second one - WTF? The people that fund opera and ballet and SAM are complete strangers to local film. The party needs to get much bigger (SIFF needs to be more FUN). And Seattle needs to stop looking to NY and LA for validation, because until it does, that will be exclusively where the money is and the brain drain will continue.

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  • Img_5322_small
    Reputation: 5

    I think your question is a rather complicated one because many of the local filmmakers use the paycheck from the Hollywood films that come through to pay their bills and fund their projects. Its a system that is frustrating for all the reasons you point out and for as Charles said earlier to another post, because there isn't much capital in Seattle to help fund local work.

    That being said, I think we could rethink "local work" to reflect a sustainable filmmaking culture. On in which projects have shorter production time frames and smaller budgets, but still aim to pay their crews.

    I also think Charles idea is interesting, but would point out that there's a fair amount of indie film made for local consumption, many of which you'll find in our Local Sightings Festival every October.

    Either way I'm curious to hear what others think about this as well.

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