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and collectively form an uncertain picture of the future of film.
You get to see it with an audience.
[My film] is a comedy, so you get a sense of what people will laugh at.
No one knows whats going to happen.
That goes for both individuals and companies.
Everyone wants to believe this is a big blip.
But every day were accepting that this will have an impact deeper than just a slight pause.
It feels like its going to be a while.
Were going to be home and people want to see movies.
Finished, unreleased movies and TV will be scarce.
Carlo Mirabella-Davis, director ofSwallow
My head is still spinning from how quickly everything collapsed.
Independent films rely heavily on word of mouth to expand visibility.
I think the coronaviruss impact on the industry is hitting the new voices of independent cinema especially hard.
Their vibrant creations now have to sit on a shelf for who knows how long.
For me, storytelling is essential to a healthy world because it brings us together, increases empathy.
Chief among them is that I have no interaction with anybody who I technically work for.
At most, I see producers or executives who I am collaborating with two or three times a year.
I work from home and talk on the phone a lot.
So my current writing projects are almost entirely unaffected.
Timelines are the same, because drafts are going to be useful, and when (if?)
this crisis subsides, the machinery is going to have to start up again.
Relevant side note: There is a writers strike threatened to begin May 1.
I know that Netflix will properly reschedule the cast and crew ofStranger Things.
This is the apocalypse that has been on the horizon for a long time.
Ive been wondering when the next mass extinction event would come.
Just through my own colleagues, I know of so many people who are currently out of work.
Its a uniquely uncertain time that everyone is pulling for to be over soon.
As a filmmaker and as a ticker buyer.
Lets call it an intermission, and Ill see you back in an auditorium soon.
It wasnt until I started applying for grants that I came around to the idea.
I was creating music forInsecure.
They came in and helped us complete post-production and talked with us about marketing.
Those discussions were about festivals, getting the soundtrack on Baltimore radio.
The question was how we get this in front of the right people.
This wasnt about TT the Artist.
Its for the whole city, showing the beautiful imagery that isnt what the mainstream is accustomed to seeing.
That was always the goal.
With SXSW canceled, I couldnt go into panic mode.
I went into creative mode.
What were discussing now is the smartest way to get content out there.
Were thinking about going online, but in what way, is the thing.
Were still looking for distribution, from someone who can get real numbers of people to experience this.
It really dampens the excitement you hope to experience when you put a film out into the world.
Thankfully, I can always fall back on writing.
I honestly believe that cinemas collective experience is just so powerful.
People want to be part of an audience, whether its at a theater or a film festival.
Current brick-and-mortar movie theaters might close, but if they do, new ones will pop up.
Even now, were seeing a resurgence of interest in drive-ins.
The cancelation of SXSW and Tribeca due to coronavirus has really shaken up the American independent film industry.
I cant even predict the downstream effects; its massive.
The infrastructure and the system might not survive, but the art form will.
