Sustaining independent filmmaking in the age of the internet : the case of audience building

The Internet has brought new hope to independent filmmakers - hope of turningfilmmaking into a sustainable undertaking. The Hunt for Gollum recreates and extendsa blockbuster movie on little financial resources. The Cosmonaut is funded withthe help of its audience. 15Malaysia is distributed on the Internet in an attempt to circumventcensorship. All reached millions of people. Meanwhile, the questions what itneeds to sustain independent filmmaking and how we may use the Internet to sustainindependent filmmaking remain unanswered. This thesis tackles both problems.The thesis embarks with the purpose of identifying how independent filmmakerscan use the Internet to sustain their work. Approaching this problem, I firstly discussthe term 'sustain 1 , trying to establish its meaning. While most debates about sustainingthe arts still stress the importance of monetary matters, I reject such simplification.In an attempt to understand why people make films and what they need to doso, I interview seven independent filmmakers and two non-filmmakers, identifyingaudiences, self-actualisation, equipment, money, collaborators, time, ideas andknowledge as central needs and motivations of independent filmmakers.As this first research project unveils a rather complex picture, I decided to re-focusmy central research question to only one of the identified areas, namely the audience,and ask: How can independent filmmakers use the Internet to build audiencesfor their work? I approach this question in two ways. I first discuss historical examplesof the audience building efforts of independent films as well as basic implicationsthe Internet has had on independent filmmaking. This is followed by an empiricalstudy of the audience building efforts of the three projects mentioned above andthree further contemporary independent film projects. Similar to the first, this secondprimary research project, too, adopts the epistemological assumptions of social constructionismand relies on semi-structured interviews for data collection.The thesis concludes with the suggestion of twelve principles how independentfilmmakers may use the Internet to build an audience in the Internet age. For example,independent filmmakers must approach audience building as an active taskand allocate resources to it. They should identify pre-existing audiences with a potentialinterest in a film's content and access them through opinion leaders, using newsvalue to persuade opinion leaders of the newsworthiness of a film to their audiences.Filmmakers must offer ways for audiences to follow them directly. This also includesan ongoing personal and transparent communication as well as interaction with interestedaudience members. Eliminating accessibility barriers, collaboration and extending story and product also help the audience building process. Finally, filmmakersshould not rely on the Internet only but also build audiences in the offline world.The thesis is mainly concerned with filmmaking practice. Its value hence lies inthe presentation and discussion of how independent filmmakers may use the Internetfor audience building purposes. Academically, it lays out a number of areas for furtherresearch into how independent filmmaking could be sustained and generally addsto the field of cultural entrepreneurship in the digital age by describing and analysingworking processes of cultural entrepreneurs.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral (Level 8)

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• MeiBner, N

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1337803

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:salford-repository.worktribe.com:1337803