What about Production Value?

With all the talks in the indie film circles about the "New Way of doing business", some things seem to be left out there.  Production Value is one of them.  Most indies already have a hard time financing themselves, often resulting in low production values.  Decent sets, costumes, effects and so on do cost money.  While salaries in the motion picture industry are seriously out of whack with reality, even if we brought them down to a more reasonable level, shooting a film is still a huge money investment.

With the perceived decline of the value of a film due partially to piracy, but most likely a whole lot of other factors, one has to wonder what will happen in terms of the quality of the films made in the future.