Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: So as a filmmaker
I would say to you use the audience's imagination, you don't necessarily have to show everything.
Film Courage: How can indie filmmakers compete with Hollywood?
Chris: The way that indie filmmakers can compete with Hollywood is on the level of ideas
because there are ideas that Hollywood is gutless to explore you will never be able to
compete with Hollywood necessarily on a budget standpoint, marketing money. Having said that
there are so many more things at your disposal as an indie filmmaker that you didn't realize,
whether it comes to talent and asking someone who would bring money to a project. Who knows
who that actor might be who is maybe sitting around, works three months of the year
and the rest of the time is playing Dungeons and Dragons, not a joke. There's a whole group
of Hollywood actors that play Dungeons and Dragons. It might not be a bad thing to learn
but there are more things at your disposal than you would realize so I would say focus on casting,
focus on making the film because there's really no excuse for an indie filmmaker because equipment
is so inexpensive you know I almost look good with the cameras being used right now
and these cameras are not particularly expensive to rent and/or purchase. On that level make sure
that you have that covered but the way indie film competes with Hollywood is with ideas
and then what happens is those ideas will be ripped off by Hollywood because that's
how that cycle works now that's fine if they hire the person to do that Sam Raimi arguably
if you look at the Evil Dead series the original Evil Dead film Evil Dead 2 dead by dawn and the
Evil Dead 3 that that he's basically remaking the same movie over and over again with a big budget
I don't have a problem with that because it's Sam Raimi doing it let him do it that's great and and
those movies hold up they're really fun the Evil Dead films with Bruce Campbell which have amazing
commentary tracks if you can track them down very useful films from from Sam Raimi's early career
but where I think indie film competes is ideas so here's what you do don't do what Hollywood is
doing because you can't do that on a budget scale what you can do is explore ideas that Hollywood
would not have the guts to do that Hollywood is constrained by checklists that they must
always have in a big Hollywood movie indie filmmakers are not burdened by that checklist
and you have to be fearless when it comes to how you may be perceived on social media
right fearless stop caring what other people think
move full force with your creative vision and that's not something that if you look work for
a major studio and you make a movie with budget and concerns that I think comes with burden I've
you've heard the stories time and again of of the the burdens that come with
or the the creative shackles that come with making a movie for a major studio you
have complete creative freedom and you need to exercise if you're not exercising it why are you
making it indie just just pitch it to Hollywood and let them give you the money and move on but
if you're going to make a small indie movie you better be willing to explore some ideas because
it's underestimated and under used the audience's imagination
give you an example a throwaway line from star wars I know star wars comes up
okay Grand Moff Tarkin walks in the room Darth Vader walks the room they they and they they're
having a council meeting right on the death star and he talks about the emperor has wiped away the
imperial senate they'll not be a concern for us I'm not quoting it correct directly but that's
the basic line well one I'm an audience member one who are all these evil men in this room right
this is already scary secondly wait there's an emperor of the galaxy and there's an imperial
senate who is this emperor of the galaxy there was an imperial senate why were they wiped away
and the the thing is is that Hollywood has become so used to the fact that they can just do anything
why don't we just show that right so we can show this well ultimately when we finally saw the
imperial senate in the prequels it was a little maybe underwhelming like oh okay that's what it
looks like it looks like a lamps plus or that's weird configuration of it looks like a giant
chandelier upside down okay weird in any case but what I'm saying is is that my imagination as a kid
was utilized because characters in the movie talked about off-screen events happening
and I think that that is a device that is underused so as a filmmaker I would say to you
use the audience's imagination you don't necessarily have to show everything
there are different ways for information to get begotten across and not just through some
news report right that's the that's the lazy go-to is a news report on the news they call it
the device they call it captain narrative where it's like somebody that just sort of
explains the narrative to kind of catch the audience up with what events are happening
so my suggestion is try to use parts of the audience's brain that they're not used to using
which is their imagination I think that not only will you'll engage the audience more get them to
whether they physically do it or metaphorically kind of or they just sort of lean into the story
they're just sort of leaning in and and gets them to think about what the events they're seeing like
oh like this and also I think it shows respect for the audience right it doesn't mean you're
not going to have your money shots in the film whether it be something big budget or whatnot
but you can expand your world by allowing the audience to use their imagination
and convey information in a shorthand whether it be dialogue something that's seen very quickly
I see that less often in major studio movies
and i'd like to see it used more often in independent films
you know explore an idea that's never been discussed or explored or explored in a way that is
new and fresh that's what I think is the power for an independent filmmaker you you need to really
make sure that those ideas are so compelling that if you just tell someone the idea they'll lose
their minds it almost sounds like you're referring again to the topic of puzzles right yeah because
maybe showing a crime that you we don't see the crime that was committed but we hear about it
from different people's points of view that's that could be one aspect of making the audience guess
yeah absolutely it it gives the audience something to do because look what's the number one thing
you want to do in a movie you want how do you want the audience to feel you want the audience to feel
that they care about what's going to happen next and what's going to happen next right and you're
leading them along and you're giving them crumbs but not all of it right and give them some work
to do and I feel like the the reason that the original star wars films hold up the original
trilogy is because it gave the audience something to do there's so much of what's seen in the
original star wars trilogy that's never explained that that are such clever throwaway ideas that are
in the background that just spur the imagination and that's hardly done these days if anything
audiences are spoon fed and overexplained things are over explained to them because studios think
that audiences are stupid and that's not the case audiences are much more savvy these days
they're way far ahead which is why so much content is like meh it was okay I can't tell you how many
times I've walked out of a big Hollywood movie and forgotten it by the time I walked in my car
like a big action movie where you're like well none of that really mattered what were the stakes
I didn't it seems like I've seen it before I feel like indie film has the freedom to go a few
layers deeper and explore new ideas and engage the audience with it so please more of that.