[Editor’s note: If we could redesign the film industry into the best possible system for the artists, the audience and the business, what would it look like? Fandor CEO Ted Hope is leading that very conversation, partnering with Reinventors and gathering influencers together for a six-part interactive web series called Reinvent Hollywood. In a separate-but-related effort, Keyframe presents four videos of Hope at this past year’s Roger Ebert Film Festival, on urgent issues facing the independent film industry.]
This is the final entry in a four-part series of video highlights from “The State and Future of Independent Film,” a special panel held at last month’s Roger Ebert Film Festival. In this video, Fandor CEO and film producer Ted Hope offers his concluding thoughts on the current state of independent film, offering six key insights that today’s filmmakers should know in envisioning a sustainable, long-term career in filmmaking:
1. Eighty percent of first-time filmmakers do not go on to make a second film.
2. The average time between a director’s first and second features is eight years.
3. Today’s emerging filmmakers need the kind of support infrastructure that helped launch established directors.
4. Crowdfunding typically supports individual projects—could it also support filmmakers?
5. Film schools are not properly preparing students for the practical concerns of filmmaking today.
6. Today’s filmmakers need to be three things: ubiquitous, prolific and radically collaborative.
Watch the video to hear more from Hope on each of these points.
