The HBO documentary Seduced and Abandoned with Alex Baldwin and James Toback explores the insanity of the film industry. It shows the difficulty producing a film with an a-list actor already on board. The one reoccurring theme is that 95% of the time is spent chasing funding with 5% of time spent actually making films. The film says "this is no way to live." The times have changed where you cannot simply walk into a room and convince a director or actor to jump in on a film, everyone has a conscience and a due diligence to complete. People in the large scale film business do not do films because they want to but because they will make a profit. The COO of a major studio interviewed said it best "you make the shitty movie people will see not the good film that nobody will see." What Toback and Baldwin suggest at the conclusion of the documentary is that new channels and people must be found who are willing to work in a new paradigm.
These people are everywhere I do believe. Learn from the old but create something new. The gatekeepers are dead as George Lucas said recently. So build your team, high concept something original and make it happen. There are creative and unusual channels to find funding. It is still talent, concept and passion that will create. Perhaps it is some kind of blind naivete and optimism that makes me think it is possible to create original successful works on large scale but I think this is what it takes to be successful. Never give up when the doubters give you reason to do so. Some of the most successful men have said that it is that one step they took beyond when others would have turned back and quit that made them successful. So here's to being a little crazy, unorthodox and having the strength to persist in creating something amazing.
It is my sincere belief that things worth doing are never easy. Unless you take the view that it is easy because it is the only thing to be done.
Interview with Joss Whedon a director on fire! 