Roger Corman Alive and.....Well?

I'm going to link to some sites/bloggs that can talk about Mr. Cormans affect on cinema at the end of this article. Since they 1) are more eloquent and 2) they already did the work.
Happy Birthday Mr. Corman, and thanks for freaking me out when I was 12.

I got to thinking about independent film and low budget film making. I am presently working on a small independent film right now, called Happy Holidays. This is what leads me to ask the question. Is Roger Corman alive and well?

After the Academy Awards this year kept saying things like "small movies" "independent film" were the main focus of the awards, I called bullshit. (Uh, huh. And Evian isn't a coke product.) These weren't small films. They were developed by smaller subsidiary production company's sure. But they get there budget from a corporate parent. I'm not bashing the big boys, but this all happened before. Read a little book called Easy Riders, Ragging Bulls. Some say it's BS but if 50% of it is true then shit, we need to get that anger back.

Where have all the good times gone? With Hollywood bleeding itself to death, being ruled by the corporate monster and remaking everything. Why are we not seeing a revolution of small independent/exploitation films? As Dr. Dre would say: "Were are all the mad rappers at, its like a jungle in this habitat." Of course I'm talking about film and not the rap scene but who is out there shooting?

So far, I've see a lot of comedy. Most of the stuff I see is from the internet and comedy groups who are shooting sketches. And I don't blame them look at the success of Lazy Sunday. What surprises me is the lack of substance. With digital cameras and digital effects at an all time low, shouldn't everyone be shooting their horror/exploitation/comedy about naked sorority girls who get raped by blood sucking vampires? I would rent it. (And I would too, that's scary!)

I think some people are out there shooting though, for all my complaining. (Hey, I'm of Italian decent we like to complain.) With so many people who have a home entertainment system, TiVo, HDTV and the like why not? The Hollywood Reporter doesn't even list the money made by DVD rentals and sales. The reason is "they" don't want you to know how much they make. Why else?

Ok maybe I'm nuts but think about all the new ways the entertainment industry is trying to distribute content. Phones, PDA's, Internet. Download movies to own. This is were its all going. If that's the case it can't ALL be Mtv crap for 14 year old girls. Can it? I mean even G4 the "video game network" is starting to branch out. Though they insist on writing comedy for 14 year old boys on all there shows. Right, cause that's who's playing the video games out there. Like the commercial for Kingdom Hearts II isn't slanting to the above 30 year olds with its theme music.

Distribution is changing. I accept that. I can site my friends with newborns. They all have a DVD players, 5.1 sound, and HD or the equivalent televisions. Why go to the movies? When the movies can come to them. I think the market is ripe for people making there own movies. Not fucking Reality shit I mean young film makers like Rian Johnson. Check out his brilliant film Brick this weekend if you live in the NYC or LA area.

So get to it all you creative types! Go make movies that I can be in. Go, do. Don't worry about what to do with it once its done just make it. Someone will buy it. Or like you can have screenings of it on your 61inch HDTV in your house with your 5.1 digital sound system that your friends at the "posting house" mixed for you after hours.

Ok that's enough. Check out:
Tim Lucas Video Watchblog Look at the bottom of his article for more links.
I really enjoyed Flickerhead as well.