Hollywood Reporter
The indie film business is struggling. For many, the problem in the indie world these past few years, particularly at the higher end of the budget spectrum, is that financiers simply took on projects that the studios cast off. With small nips and tucks to the budgets, producers then went ahead and made the same projects, only without distribution or the financial cushion that a studio might have provided. In other words, the “Burning Plain” model, in which dramas with big names are independently financed at a budget as high as $20 million, is all but dead. In its place is something both bigger and, in some ways, less indie. Movies with budgets in a higher range can still be financed outside the system and seek distribution after they’re made, but they must be made in a far more commercial vein. Festival dramas can still be made and perform well, of course. They just need to be made on tighter budgets. For both distributors and producers, that might be the biggest guiding principle in the current indie climate: Make a more commercial movie. And whether you’re producing or distributing, spend less.