In an interview with Ariston Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola expressed what is doubtless going to be a controversial notion about artists. Actually, first a view that unfortunately isn't very controversial:
"You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money."
And now the other bit:
"You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.
This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money? "
I agree with that up to a point--that point being, if somebody else is going to make money from what the artist produces, the artist should share in that bounty.
The cool thing is that these days making a film is possible very very cheaply, as is distribution via the internet or on DVDs, which cost pennies to duplicate. Obviously this is more the case if your taste runs to smaller-scale stories, but even with special effects people have created amazing things with a home computer and some basic software. And it's ironic that after making blockbuster, expensive pictures like "The Godfather," Coppola is back to making self-funded small movies. Kind of inspirational...time to get that wine business started!
(If you're interested in writing scripts, see my site, www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com for lots of tips and ideas.)
