Yesterday afternoon an open letter was posted on Twitch addressed to Alexandre Philippe, the director of The People vs George Lucas. Earlier today we also ran a response from Philippe to that letter. [ed note: The initial letter is now included as part of Philippe's response.] Beyond the issues raised in those letters the initial post raises some issues about operations at Twitch that I feel - as founder and editor - I need to address personally.
Twitch has long operated as a sort of collective, individual authors given open access to the site with the understanding that they will be responsible with that privilege and use the site as the news source it is intended as rather than as some sort of personal platform. It seems clear that in this case the line between those two was crossed. This is a matter that should have been run through the Twitch senior editorial staff before being posted in public - at which point I would have contacted Philippe directly before posting. While I was more than happy to run Philippe's response in full, it would have behoved Twitch to have that conversation with him before the initial letter was posted rather than after.
Given that the core issue here revolves around the realities of independent film finance, it is worth mentioning at this point that I've received a crash course in that topic myself over the past few years. I have personally become more involved in production and sales, and the reality is that it often takes a very long time for anyone to get paid on anything. Nobody is rolling in money in the independent world. I currently am part of a project that I've been working on for over two years, a project that was released in the US back in December of 2010, and we've only reached the break-even point now. In other words, only now can I look forward to getting paid. That's just a reality. And another reality here is that if we want anyone involved in The People vs George Lucas to get paid - whether director or artist - people need to support it. It's currently available - I've got my copy on order now.
Twitch has long operated as a sort of collective, individual authors given open access to the site with the understanding that they will be responsible with that privilege and use the site as the news source it is intended as rather than as some sort of personal platform. It seems clear that in this case the line between those two was crossed. This is a matter that should have been run through the Twitch senior editorial staff before being posted in public - at which point I would have contacted Philippe directly before posting. While I was more than happy to run Philippe's response in full, it would have behoved Twitch to have that conversation with him before the initial letter was posted rather than after.
Given that the core issue here revolves around the realities of independent film finance, it is worth mentioning at this point that I've received a crash course in that topic myself over the past few years. I have personally become more involved in production and sales, and the reality is that it often takes a very long time for anyone to get paid on anything. Nobody is rolling in money in the independent world. I currently am part of a project that I've been working on for over two years, a project that was released in the US back in December of 2010, and we've only reached the break-even point now. In other words, only now can I look forward to getting paid. That's just a reality. And another reality here is that if we want anyone involved in The People vs George Lucas to get paid - whether director or artist - people need to support it. It's currently available - I've got my copy on order now.
Fabulous post, Todd. Much appreciated. You're a real class act, and I certainly hope that this exchange, as unpleasant as it might have been, will shed some light on the difficulties and complexities of indie filmmaking. I appreciate your honesty and continued support.
Warm regards,
Alexandre O. Philippe
Director
The People vs. George Lucas
I think a distinction should be made though between journalism and criticism. The original letter explained why a review was not being offered. Granted it was personal, which wasn't the most professional way of going about it, but I'd rather someone who is offering criticism be upfront about their position instead of him simply trashing it because his friend hadn't gotten paid yet. As a filmmaker myself I'd done deferred work before and sadly it hardly ever works out - most people working on films who get offered "deferred pay" should simply accept that your pay is the experience and you'll never see a dime. However when that same project blows up and is getting distribution, expect a lot of people who were working for deferred payment will be making a lot of noise about getting paid - whether you've been paid yet or not.
Excellent post Todd.