March
16
SXSW: Yauch as Indie Distrib
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys fits right in at SXSW. He's performed here countless times, but this year he's taking a break from the recording studio to hunt for new acquisitions for his indie label Oscilloscope, which released Wendy and Lucy the old-fashioned way: slow. The pic might actually make it to $1 million, says his partner David Fenkel, who brings his marketing experience from ThinkFilm to the ever-evolving universe of indie film.
Oscilloscope released about seven features in the last year, not bad for a start-up, and has about five more lined up for take-off. Last year the distrib acquired two films at SXSW, docs Frontrunners and Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie. They picked up Dear Zachary from Slamdance and played it at SXSW last year. Recent pick-ups include the well-received Sundance doc Burma VJ and doc Unmistaken Child, a Tibetan reincarnation mystery. Yauch feels strongly about keeping things small --in fact, he agrees with Magnolia's Eamonn Bowles, who spoke on a Saturday distribution panel, that many indie distribs got into trouble with too much overhead and too-pricey movies. Yauch saw his own record label, Grand Royal, get too top-heavy and go down, he said.
Yauch got tired of going to film fests and seeing how well people responded to movies, only to have distribs say they were unmarketable. The indie companies had become "more stiff and businesslike," he says. "I wanted to take some of what many indie labels do and apply that to making a little indie film distributor." He started out taking a shot with a movie of his own, the basketball documentary Gunnin' for That #1 Spot, so that he wouldn't mess up somebody else's film. "One of my big objectives," he said, "is to keep it pretty streamlined."
In a way, the recession is helping--not only is theatrical business booming, but with some of the bigger companies out of the fray, it leaves more low-hanging fruit for Oscilloscope, which is also taking a new approach to DVD packaging, using eight-panel gatefolds and 80% consumer-recycled paper, "more like LPs," Yauch says. "It's easy to go for movies that are marketable but not very good. Others are good but not very marketable. We ended up going that route."
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Middle age looks awesome on him, and he's living proof you can be mumblecore at any age; it's a state of mind.
Posted by: T. Holly | March 16, 2009 at 01:15 PM
Who wants to see a films which are "marketable but not very good”?
I personally want to see good films.
Posted by: Kevin Brooks | March 17, 2009 at 06:37 AM