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THE DEVIL’S BISCOTTI
. One of my first gigs as a reviewer was
writing about film and books for the sadly
now-defunct website The Cabinet of Dr. Casey,
a hub for horror fans that was more enthusi
astic than slick and more fun than insightful.
Unfortunately, crap tends to permeate the hor
ror genre more than most, and I logged a lot
of hours watching screeners of 'Z-grade scare
flicks and reading would-be creepfests that
barely raised a hackle. The worst thing I ever
read for Dr. Casey (and that's saying a lot) was
an ineptly written, self-published novel called
The Apostate, about an up-and-coming city in
the New Mexico desert being slowly brought
under the sway of the Devil by means of the
tainted biscotti being sold in Satan's chain of
evil bakeries. I kid you not.
We live in a truly amazing time, where
advances in technology and communications
have given us the ability to express our
selves no matter what our creative aptitudes
may actually be. The Internet affords us an
unlimited clean slate to post the pictures we
can take without film, the novels and stories
(and reviews) we can write without paper,
the music we can make without instruments,
and even the movies we can make without
actors. As we speak, for example, there are
people tweeting poetry arrd writing novels on
their cell phones. A relatively small invest
ment can make each and every one of us
auteurs in whatever endeavor we desire, and
yet many of us can't quite shake the need for
the legitimacy of the physical. Some writers
don't believe it's an album unless you can buy
it at Sam Goody's, or that it's a novel unless
it comes out on paper between covers, which
often leads to the desperate and ill-advised
move of self-publishing (for nonfiction books
with highly specific information or a limited
audience, self-publishing is acceptable—for
fiction, never).
Nowhere is the imperative to produce
something tangible and "legitimate" stronger
than in independent film. Despite the rise of
various outlets for new filmmakers on digital
cable and the Internet, there is still that
hardcore contingent who hold on tight to the
dream of making the movie with the name
actors and the solid production values and the
funky sensibilities that will kill at Sundance or
Slamdance and win the distribution deal that
will bring people to theaters and fill seats
with asses. They'll point to now-legendary
indie success-stories like the Coen Brothers, •
Kevin Smith, Todd Solondz, Steven Soderbergh
and (wait for it) Quentin Tarantino, people
whose talent transcended their budgets, and
shoot for that kind of big-time score.
The Point of All This: Unfortunately it takes a
lot more to accomplish this goal than a labor-
of-love* script and a digital video camera, as
film marketing expert Reed Martin explains in
his new book The Reel Truth: Everything You
Didn't Know You Need to Know About Making
an Independent Film (Faber and Faber,
2009). Movies are expensive things to make,
requiring not just cast and crew but investors,
producers, loan officers, permits, intellectual
property clearances, lawyers, lawyers and more
lawyers. The success of any independent film
is the longest of long shots, and the journey
from start to finish is like limping through a
mine field in a cloud of mustard gas. Potential
backers will pull out or fail to materialize in
an economy in the
toilet, the wrong
wording or omission
in a contract could
mean your star could -
back out and still get
paid, that McDonald's
billboard that wound
up in one shot could
bring the Golden -
Arches legal team
down on you, or you
could actually com
plete the film and be
one of the thousands
of entries rejected by
the ever-dwindling
Sundance festival.
Little Films That Could
like Juno and Little
Miss Sunshine are the
exception, not the
rule—you have bet
ter odds winning the
lottery.
Martin doesn't say all this to scare poten
tial filmmakers but to caution them, and his
book is a treasure trove of cautionary tales
and war stories from bloodied veterans of
the indie film scene. His access to people
in all areas of the field, on the creative and
business sides, is remarkable. In here is sage
advice from people like Alexander Payne and
Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Nolan and Kevin
Spacey, and the folks behind such wildcat
films as Donnie Darko, Boys Don't Cry and The
King of Kong. But also, and perhaps more
importantly, Martin talks with deal-brokers
and contract attorneys and other experts in
the business of financing, shepherding and
distributing small films outside the bubble of
the big studios. Filmmakers will learn how to
form an LLC, how to pitch to investors, how
to film on the cheap
while staying legal,
how to promote on a
shoestring, and how to
attract name actors to
your project without
having to pay them
more than the rest
of the movie costs to
make. In addition,
Martin appends sample
budget breakdowns
at various levels of
funding and a general
template for binding
contracts (though he
cannot emphasize
enough how important
it is to get a lawyer
involved).
Though it loses
points for being yet
another book about
film to use the word
"reel" as a pun in its
title, everything else about The Reel Truth is
comprehensive, substantial and, above all,
useful for both the aspiring filmmaker and
ones already at work. It comes highly recom
mended to anyone wishing to avoid the Devil
and his tainted biscotti, lest the promise of
sweet, nutty, dunkable goodness crumble into
the cup-bottom sludge of failure and despair.
John G. Netties
Books? Clothes? Dinner? Music? Jewelry? Shoes?
You really CAN have it all.
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AUGUST 19,2009 • FLAGPOLE.COM 11