NY Times (9/9/08): Offstage, a Beastie Boy Enters the World of Independent Film

In light of all the angst surrounding the collapse of the ‘specialty film’ market, as noted here and here, the NY Times had an interesting article yesterday featuring former Beastie Boy Adam Yauch and his entree into the indie film world:

“What I really liked about indie record labels — the indie record labels that I liked, anyway — is that things were done in-house,” he said. Unlike most independent film distributors, which outsource nonglamorous aspects of moviemaking like poster design, marketing and DVD production, Oscilloscope’s employees — a tour revealed 10 young guys in skate shoes and headphones bent over laptops — will handle everything themselves, including handpicking which theaters their films will end up at.

So while the major studios are cutting back on their specialty divisions, entrepreneurs are rushing, er… staggering, um… tip-toeing in.

“Distribution of films, it’s a lot about quality and a lot about timing and luck,” said Bob Berney, the president of Picturehouse, a soon-to-close division of Time Warner. “He’ll need all three.”

But, Mr. Berney added, the turmoil leaves room for innovation. “Coming up with a new model is probably the way to go,” he said. “The trick will be to keep it very, very small and careful. One or two films that are expensive that don’t work can set him back a long way.”

Right now, Yauch’s company is focused on documentary films, but…

Though so far the company’s slate is heavy with nonfiction films, Mr. Yauch said there is no overriding aesthetic. “I like crazy action films, with a lot of sound effects and score, like a Jason Bourne-type film,” he said, “but I also enjoy more esoteric, slower narratives.”

Look, there will always ‘indie’ type movies. Why? Because there are a lot of indie type people. And while we’re at it, what about Baby Boomers? Nobody is making movies for them and yet they have the most discretionary money and time of any demo group out there. And when movies that interest them are released — like Something’s Gotta Give, which did $266M in worldwide box office — they support the hell out of them.

Oops. I think I just gave away a sound business strategy…