Should audiences get what they like or like what they get?

Today’s technology savvy audiences mean more film producers, like the legendary Ted Hope, need to embrace the internet instead of fearing it says Enzo Tedeschi.

Late August saw US independent producer Ted Hope (21 Grams, In The Bedroom, American Splendour) give a two-day producing seminar in Sydney. 

Hope came up through the old-school system and is still enjoying success after more than 60 feature films so it’s quite encouraging to hear him speak excitedly about the possibilities of the digital age instead of demonising the evils of the internet.

There seems to be a particular type of mind-set necessary to make a career as an indie producer. As an indie producer myself, many of the ideas Hope put forth were familiar to me. Most of the ideas were simple, like finding ways to maximise the productivity of production. Possibly the fastest daily money-burn on any project, it makes sense to use gear and sets on off-days as well as actors and crew contracted for ‘run-of-show’ to produce content for online marketing materials, or ‘world-building’ pieces, that work to increase the value of the main intellectual property.