Medusa Rising

I made shorts and features for the last twenty years.  I did dabble in webisodes with a group of actors in the early 2000s but it went nowhere for a variety of reasons.  However, I always liked the immediacy of the medium.  Combined with my frustration at trying to make superhero movies - I tried to make three in the last two decades, to no avail, we decided we would create our own web series based on Canadian superheroes of our creation - with some that are public domain for good measure.  So that is our main project at the moment, the Heroes of the North web series.  However, you cannot have good heroes without good villains hence we came up with a terrorist organization called Medusa, the logo of which is above.

The future is in flux...

I have been a filmmaker most of my life.  I started making films with my brothers and neighbours in our backyard when I was twelve years old.  I never really stopped.  I still do it.  I am one of the lucky few amongst the independent filmmakers that can say that he earns a living doing it.  At least I used to - well, technically I still am but it has gotten harder than ever - and it was never easy to begin with...  But now, the world is changing.

Technology is responsible for the change.  It gave us wonderful, lightweight cameras that rival the beauty and resolution of film.  You can now edit an entire feature in your bedroom for less than the price of a used car.  And that is wonderful.  It also means that the medium has finally been democratized: cheap and accessible means that everybody can do it.  And they do!  By millions, if not billions, filling servers at YouTube with countless cat videos, amongst more interesting content.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that - I am glad it is happening.  I have discovered fresh faces, innovative ideas, seen beautiful stories well told I would most likely have never seen otherwise in the old order of things.

Conversely, technology has made possible a distribution model with a cost of near zero, a way of making virtually identical copies of media and henceforth, just like music before it, print, film and video business models are slowly eroding and should, for all intent and purpose, disappear down the line.

Some say it is evolution in a way and I agree.  Things change.  Whether we like it or not.  Things were not easy before however, and they are about to get way harder.

This is why I started this blog.  To think out loud.  Exchange with others.  To find new ways.  I agree with a lot of the things I have read on other blogs (see list on the side).  But I don't think we are near a definitive answer yet - everything is in flux.  And things will get way harder before they get any easier.