Indie Film Blues the Skinny on Ciné by Kevin Hartnett
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MONTAGE FOLIO Theatrical Chiaroscuro In 1970, the British theatrical photogra- worked through the glory years of Brit- pher Angus McBean (1904-90) sold Har- ish theater from the 1930s to the 1960s; vard his oeuvre: a collection of 40,000 his career encompasses the early work of glass-plate negatives, weighing eight tons, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Alec that has become the most-requested ar- Guinness, as well as the next generation chive of visual material in the Harvard of stars, like Richard Burton, Audrey Hep- Theatre Collection (part of Houghton burn, and Elizabeth Taylor. McBean shot Library). McBean (pronounced McBain) Mae West and Noel Coward as well as West Side Story and the cover of the Beat- les’ first album, Please Please Me (1963). The Theatrical World of Angus McBean (David R. Godine, 2009), by Fredric Wood- bridge Wilson, curator of the Theatre Collection, is a handsome volume bring- ing together some of the photographer’s memorable images, all in black-and-white. McBean’s favorite model—and muse— (McBean, who was skillful at retouch- was Vivien Leigh (1913-1967), here photographed for a 1951 production of ing his portraits, avoided color because George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and it was far more difficult to alter.) He was Cleopatra. (At left) Bruce Ingram, “in nearly every sense a conservative,” publisher of the Illustrated London News, Wilson writes in his introduction, noting posed in 1950 with bound volumes of every edition of the paper since 1842. that “in a photographic age that came to embrace the strobe light, the light meter, capture 30 times the detail of a 35-milli- ARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY COLLEGE ARVARD and the hand-held, small-format film cam- meter negative. As opera scholar Richard H era, he employed cumbersome floodlights Traubner writes in an introductory essay, and a view camera that relied upon six- they recorded “the fabulously dark blacks, by-four inch glass plates [which Kodak Velázquez-like in their density, and the EATRE COLLECTION, EATRE stopped manufacturing during McBean’s dramatic chiaroscuro effects that were H lifetime]. He gauged his exposures by McBean’s hallmarks.” The result is a book eye.” Yet those large glass plates could bursting with visual drama. vc.l. T HARVARD Indie Film Blues The skinny on ciné by kevin hartnett ynette louie ’97 is an inde- Film Festival and has won Grand Jury pendent film producer based in Prizes at festivals from Newport to Los New York City. Since beginning Angeles. Despite that success, the movie Mher career with a post-college has struggled to find an audience or turn weekend stint as a production assistant, a profit in an uncertain time for the inde- she has co-produced Andrew Bujalski’s pendent film world. critically acclaimed Mutual Appreciation (2004) and produced several narrative KH: Explain what’s so challenging for indepen- short films by minority women directors. dent filmmakers about the current environment. Her most recent feature film, Children of Invention (www.childrenofinvention.com), ML: The do-it-yourself movement has about two Chinese-American children left revolutionized filmmaking and made it SEBER WILL to fend for themselves after their mother is really cheap for people to make movies. Producer Mynette Louie on the set of her arrested, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Everybody’s doing it now. There’s a glut filmChildren of Invention 18 March - April 2010 MONTAGE cally low-rent studio films. They adopted the same formulas and they were not that interesting. KH: You’ve been selling DVDs of the film at festivals and on your website—an unusual step for a film that has not been distributed yet. What went into that decision? TRAVEL THE WORLD WITH ML: Going into Sundance, our FELLOW ALUMNI AND expectations were realistic. We HARVARD STUDY LEADERS. understood that distributors U A 2010 TRIP SAMPLING W don’t know what to do with a ANIE H movie with no stars and Asian- TEP S American actors. We consulted Louie and director Tze Chun check a with our executive producer, monitor during production. Dan Cogan [’91] of Impact Partners. It was his idea to start selling DVDs on the of content, so it’s a buyer’s market for festival circuit. We were MediaFocus © International, LLC distributors. very hesitant about it. In A lot of movies are not getting distribu- previous years, if you did CRUISING THE ADRIATIC SEA AUG 19 – 29, 2010 | with SUE SCHOPF: tion—and if you can’t get distribution, it’s this, you were tainting Visit harvardmag. lecturer in English really hard to make back your budget and com/extras to your film. Selling DVDs view a film clip recoup your investors’ money. So investors prior to a theatrical release from “Children of are now pulling back because they realize was basically an admission Invention” there are a lot of films sitting on people’s that you couldn’t find a shelves. distribution deal. We’ve done quite well Films were getting bought out of Sun- selling the film to audiences at our fes- dance for lots of money above their pro- tival screenings, and actually doubled duction budgets. People were getting rich the advances that any of my friends have DANUBE RIVER: PRAGUE TO BUDAPEST off of indie film. There was a hedge fund SEP 23 – OCT 5, 2010 | with STANLEY HOFFMANN: been offered for a film. It’s still going director of the Center for European Studies craze, where all these funds were put- to take a couple years to break even. ting up production financing. As a result I think indie films started turning into basi- KH: Day-and-date distribution, in which a film A production still from Children of is simultaneously released in the theater and on Invention, with Crystal Chiu as Tina and DVD, is generating a lot of interest. What do you Michael Chen as Raymond think of it? © MediaFocus © International, LLC WORLD LEADERS SYMPOSIUM: RUSSIA & THE BLACK SEA CONDOLEEZZA RICE, WILLIAM PERRY, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV AUG 30 – SEP 15, 2010 | with MARVIN KALB: Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice, Emeritus WITH OVER 50 TRIPS ANNUALLY! VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.ALUMNI.HARVARD.EDU/HAA/TRAVEL BOOK YOUR NEXT TRIP 800.422.1636 WILL SEBER WILL [email protected] Harvard Magazine 19 8.375 in 7 in MONTAGE ML: I think it’s brilliant. The challenge is and it’s that because buzz—good or bad—spreads suck, you’re probably going to be dead in theater owners who are very old-school. so rapidly, there’s a growing demand for quality the water. I don’t know that the appetite They really believe you do theatrical first, films. Is that something you’ve noticed? for good content is different. I just think a few months later you do DVD, a few that people kill bad content. months later you do video-on-demand ML: People thought Snakes on a Plane, for [VOD], and then TV. example, was going to make so much Kevin Hartnett ’03 is a freelance writer in Phila- But I totally believe in collapsing all money. But then when people actu- delphia. Children of Invention opened in of those. It makes sense because studios ally saw it and saw how bad it was, they Boston for a “hometown run” on February 26 at don’t make any money selling tickets at blogged about it and it didn’t end up the Brattle Theatre. It debuts simultaneously on the theater. People have acknowledged doing as well as they expected. Word March 12 in New York City (as part of a double that theatrical releases are really just for spreads like wildfire now, on the Internet bill at BIG Cinemas Manhattan) and in Los Ange- marketing, and to get that New York Times and everywhere else, so if something does les (at the Downtown Independent). review. It’s a marketing expense to play in a theater, so if you have a DVD and VOD IF THERE WERE in place, when that Times review hits, you have a lot of people reading that review, An Ageless Voice saying I want to see that, and I can buy it EVER A TIME TO ASK right now. on Aging QUESTIONS ABOUT KH: New delivery methods have disrupted content production in every type of media. Shakespeare on time’s passage—and potency MANAGING YOUR How have they affected independent film? by adam kirSch ML: With TiVo, VOD, iPhones, et cetera, WEALTH, IT IS NOW. as well as a glut of content, audiences are much more fragmented and people have n the teeming univerSe of Shake- But as Maurice Charney, Distinguished At CFA Institute, we believe that a relationship between shorter attention spans. I think because of speare’s plays, you can find people of Professor of English at Rutgers and past a client and a CFA charterholder adviser works when both 10.875 in any and every age. There are young president of the Shakespeare Association sides ask the right questions. Through this rigorous process 9.625 in “Theatrical releases children like Mamillius, the king’s son of America, reminds us in Wrinkled Deep in I people become better informed, disciplined investment strategies in The Winter’s Tale; teenage lovers like Ro- Time: Aging in Shakespeare, a surprising num- are really just for meo and Juliet; and men in their prime, ber of the plays’ most powerful characters are born, and expectations are more likely to be met. like Henry V. are very old. There is King Lear, of course, marketing and to get “fourscore and up- To explore the potential of wealth management today, ward, not an hour and the questions you should be asking, please visit us at that New York Times more or less,” who at the beginning of his cfainstitute.org/adviser review.