Hope for Film: A Producer's Journey Across the Revolutions of Indie Film and Global Streaming

by Ted Hope, Anthony Kaufman

Overview

“Essential for the aspiring filmmaker,” this is an inspiring, tell-all look at the independent film business from one of the industry’s most passionate supporters (Todd Solondz, director of Welcome to the Dollhouse)

Hope for Film captures the rebellious punk spirit of the indie film boom in 1990s New York City and its collapse two decades later to its technology-fueled regeneration and continuing streaming-based evolution. Ted Hope, whose films have garnered 12 Oscar nominations, draws from his own personal experiences working on the early films of Ang Lee, Eddie Burns, Alan Ball, Todd Field, Hal Hartley, Michel Gondry, Nicole Holofcener, and Todd Solondz, as well as his tenures at the San Francisco Film Society, Fandor, and Amazon Studios, taking readers through the decision-making process that brought him the occasional failure as well as much success.

Whether navigating negotiations with studio executives over final cuts or clashing with high-powered CAA agents over their clients, Hope offers behind-the-scenes stories from the wild and often heated world of “specialized” cinema—where art and commerce collide. As mediator between these two opposing interests, Hope offers his unique perspective on how to make movies while keeping your integrity intact and how to create a sustainable business enterprise out of that art while staying true to yourself. Against a backdrop of seismic changes in the independent film industry, from corporate co-option to the rise of social media and the streaming giants, Hope for Film provides not only an entertaining and intimate ride through the business of arthouse movies over the last decades, but also hope for its future.

“There is nobody in the independent film world quite like Ted Hope. His wisdom and heart shine through every page.” —Ang Lee, Academy Award winning director of Brokeback Mountain

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640093508
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	08/18/2020
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Ted Hope launched Amazon’s foray into feature film production in January 2015. For the next five and a half years, he oversaw Amazon Studios’ prestige team and the prestige movies produced, developed, and acquired by the company. Prior to joining Amazon, Hope produced over seventy films, as well as co-founding several production companies. His films have received numerous Academy Award nominations, and three have won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

Read an Excerpt

It was January 1991 and bitterly cold. Why in the hell were we out on the streets of New York City shooting a movie? The U.S. military had just launched its massive air campaign in Iraq. The nightly infrared news images of the bombing of Baghdad looked a bit like the high contrast black-and-white film stock we were using on the film that had brought us together, a short called “Keep it For Yourself.” Directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis, it was my first project for the film company, Good Machine that I had just co-founded with James Schamus.

Our office was above one of the strip clubs on Warren Street in Tribeca. My longtime girlfriend and I had split up and I was through with silly things like romance. There was only one thing I wanted to do: work, work, work. I should have been in heaven, but the production was going horribly wrong. The crew didn’t trust Claire or her cinematographer Agnes Godard—they were insisting on shooting in chronological script order to help the nonprofessional actors reach a level of emotional truth. What is good for the actors can be something else for the crew and jumping back and forth across the room with your camera is not considered the most efficient way to shoot a movie. “Who are these European rank amateurs?” the crew was saying. They were threatening mutiny. Then light streaks kept mysteriously showing up on the exposed film stock—unbeknownst to us at the time, because it was thirty degrees, the celluloid was conducting static electricity. In order to continue, the camera crew was nestling the film stock in their down jackets or putting hot water bottles around the film magazines.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 3

Preface 2020-Hope for Film 5

1 Inspiration 9

2 Patience 34

3 Joyfulness 57

4 Commitment 83

5 Ambition 108

6 Collaboration 123

7 Creativity 143

8 Time 166

9 Community 200

10 Change 224

11 Scale 255

Appendix A Critical Creative Strategies in the Streaming Era 287

Appendix B 140 Problems and Opportunities for the Independent Film World 299

Filmography 345

Index 347

Editorial Reviews

"A relentlessly useful insider’s guide to independent film from a longtime practitioner." —Kirkus Reviews

"Filled with tidbits of earned wisdom and stories from the proverbial trenches." —SF Weekly

"For anyone who is a producer, dreams of being a producer, or just wants to understand how the movie world really works, this book is a must-read . . . Hope for Film is written in an admirably honest, conversational voice." —Cultural Weekly

"One of the things I like about Hope's assessment is the way he looks at . . . the larger ecology, in this case, the sustenance provided by journalistic criticism." —Culture Crash

"Hope for Film: From the Frontline of the Independent Cinema Revolutions by Ted Hope is required reading for anyone that aspires to enter the world of filmmaking." —Flicksided

From the Publisher

2014-06-23
A relentlessly useful insider’s guide to independent film from a longtime practitioner.So, why is it that in independent films—that is, films made outside the traditional studio system—the sets make Martin Scorsese’sMean Streetslook like the Emerald City? That’s easy, writes Hope, the production power behind21 Grams,American Splendorand other films made by his production company, Good Machine. The answer is that there’s no money to be had, and whatever money there is has to go into the movie itself and not, say, the marketing budget: “[S]o invariably productions are based in the ugly sections of town where the rents are cheap.” That insight alone casts new light onGhost World,Wonderlandand many other on-the-thin-dime films. Most of those films scarcely see the light of day, outside a few art houses, festivals and perhaps IFC, but when they do, it’s usually as much a surprise to the director as to everyone else. TakeIn the Bedroom, which, magisterial performances by Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek aside, made the jump to the big time mostly because the distributor put more money into it. “Usually, a film is worth the most when it first hits the marketplace,” notes Hope matter-of-factly, but such added money also increases a film’s shelf life. Part memoir and part textbook, the book offers a variety of insights, from the workflows involved in promoting a film via social media to the astonishingly complex politics of dealing with a nonprofit organization. Hope even has a few kind words for critics, such as this entry in the section that closes the book, “100 Opportunities for Making the American Independent Film Industry Better”: “Loss of job for newspaper based film critics reduces curatorial oversight which lessens word-of-mouth and want-to-see.”Invaluable for film students, especially since, in assuming that its readers have some understanding of art, Hope can hit the topic of money hard.

Kirkus Reviews