The indie film market is flooded with too many films. It has been like this for years now. Salon writer Beanie Barnes was complaining that indie film was “cannibalizing itself” back in 2014. Mark Gill, former president of Miramax Films, declared “the sky really is falling” on independent film in 2007. In the year prior, 5000 films were released.
How many more thousands of films are made each year now? An accurate number is impossible to determine as there is just so much content that flies under the radar. But if you go on film discussion social site Letterboxd you’ll find 18,989 feature films listed as released in 2022.
On the one hand, the democratization of filmmaking is great. With the barrier to entry lower than ever, almost anyone can make a film with a cheap camera (or their phones), access free editing software like DaVinci Resolve, and get their film into the market through easy to use platforms like Filmhub. This allows new voices to be heard. More diverse voices. The gatekeepers of yesteryear – studios, funders, government bodies, festival programmers – can now be ignored if you choose and you can still make your film and find success.
Sean Baker shooting Tangerine using an iPhone and some accessories (2013)
But because almost anyone can make a film it means everyone does. There is a glut of micro-budget indie films competing for attention against not only Hollywood, but binge-worthy streaming shows, Youtube content creators, video games, Tiktok dance videos, Twitch streams and much more. And more films are thrown onto the pile every day, meaning it’s harder than ever to rise above the noise and truly stand out.
It’s supply and demand. We are caught in a seemingly endless sea of supply that has far surpassed demand. “No, I don’t want to watch your zombie horror film. I saw a zombie horror film last week and there will be another new zombie horror film released next week.”
Films have been devalued so much they have become almost worthless. Securing a minimum guarantee – an upfront fee paid by distributors – for a micro-budget film is rare. The odds of films making a profit are low as statistics from distributors reveal 85% of indie films make under $1000 per quarter. So it is not uncommon for the film you spent years developing and producing and cost thousands and thousands of dollars to make, to only earn a few hundred dollars when released into the world. We certainly have titles that don’t perform. We know we are far from alone.
And it is common for people to regurgitate platitudes like “the cream will rise to the top.” But when you go past the saturation point, the ability to connect with an audience is mathematically more difficult. Making a good movie does not guarantee you will be noticed. Neither does passion nor talent. Everyone is yelling to be heard and unfortunately the world only has so many ears. Some deserving films and filmmakers will simply never be noticed.
Kevin Smith and crew on Clerks (1993)
Think, if no budget debuts like El Mariachi, Clerks, and Slacker came out today, do you think Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, and Richard Linklater would still achieve worldwide recognition and be propelled into fame? Would their seminal work still have an impact? Or would it be just another bubble in the ocean of content like most everything else?
I suspect it would be closer to the latter, not because they aren’t great films and achievements, but because it’s unlikely that the festival that launched their careers, Sundance, would even programme those films today, and they certainly wouldn’t be bought by studios and distributed in theaters. These films did it first. They were released at a time where the indie film market was fresh and exciting and wasn’t yet saturated. They were some of the early micro-budget achievements, becoming the blueprints for a generation of filmmakers to follow.
And follow we all did. Usually, with much, much less success.
So is this oversaturation a problem?
I think it depends on your own attitude. Certainly, films before the rise of digital were more valuable. Making a film meant more because it was difficult and often prohibitively expensive to do so. If you managed to pull it off you had a better chance of gaining attention and recognition and even launching your career. There was less competition.
Robert Rodriguez directing Carlos Gallardo on El Mariachi (1991)
But how accessible was filmmaking, really? How many impoverished aspiring filmmakers could go out and gather the funds needed to source and process film stock? El Mariachi cost around $7000USD to make, a considerable chunk of money to somebody living cheque to cheque, but it still needed another $200,000 or so invested by Columbia Pictures to finish it, re-dubbing it and bringing it up to 35mm so it could be released into theatres.
These days, the same film could be made using equipment most of us already have on hand and take for granted. A phone for filming and a laptop for editing.
No, compared to the days before digital, we are living in the golden age of filmmaking. The fact almost anyone can do it means almost anyone can pursue their dreams. And I think that is a great thing.
It does mean marketing has become more important than ever. You need to know who the audience for your film is, where to find them, and how to reach them.
It’s the viewing audience that now decides what they want more or less of, based on what they spend their time and money on. Audiences, rather than festivals or critics or studios, decide what stories matter and what filmmakers to reward.
So whether your movie appeals to jazz lovers or to 80’s nostalgia buffs or to polyamorous people, if done well and if made from the heart, you can still find success. It’s difficult, but you can still stand out from the noise.
And if that success means hitting box-office gold, or building 1000 true fans, or just having a film that performs year after year and continually finds new viewers, well, that too is up to the audience to decide. The only thing we filmmakers can do is keep going. Keep putting our best foot forward with each project. Keep making films.
Written by Ivan Malekin
References:
https://www.salon.com/2014/02/22/americas_next_wal_mart_the_indie_film_industry/
https://www.indiewire.com/2008/06/mark-gill-yes-the-sky-really-is-falling-72174/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-11-27-ca-2155-story.html