Nice Interview

Those of you interested in how digital technology is impacting the film industry should read this interview in Filmmaker Magazine with Scott Kirsner, author of Inventing the Movies.
Here's a taste:

"Why are indie filmmakers so behind the curve on Web marketing? It‘s because not every filmmaker is naturally an entrepreneur or a marketer. They want to communicate through film, and I feel that the challenge for them is to get more attention, to build more of an audience for their films and a fan base to support their own careers. Filmmakers do need to spend more time on this stuff because in the worlds of music, film, publishing and art, the middleman and distributors are not doing as much as they used to. Promotion falls on your shoulders. That‘s what I want to concentrate on in my next book.

Okay, so forget about indie filmmakers — why are indie distributors so reluctant to be innovative on the Web? When you have something going on in your life that works, you are loathe to change it. So many of these small distributors are used to the idea that there‘s a press kit for the movie, which is a folder with a picture of the movie on the front, and there‘s a press release and a filmmaker bio inside, and if you‘re lucky a CD-ROM with some digital pictures. But you can do more on the Web because your production and distribution costs are lower. Why not have a podcast interview with the director on the Web, or have the producer do a blog? But [for some companies] all of this stuff feels like it‘s creating more work, or it‘s changing existing workflows in ways that are uncomfortable."