At Sundance Producers Brunch...

...Mark and Jay DuplassOffer Ten Pieces of Advice for Making Movies Today
by Scott Macaulay in Filmmaking, Production, Sundance, Sundance Features
on Jan 25, 2015

Keynote speakers at today’s Producers Brunch at the Sundance Film Festival, independent powerhouses Jay and Mark Duplass issued a passionate and witty call to all the producers in the jam-packed house: keep making small movies. At an event that saw their own producing partner, Stephanie Langhoff, receive the Sundance Institute Red Crown Producers Award, they told producers to learn from their own decision to stay invested in the independent sector after receiving a measure of larger Hollywood success.
Along with Sundance Dramatic Competition entry The Bronze, which Langhoff produced, the Duplass Brothers have, as executive producers,two other productions at the festival: Sean Baker’s Tangerine and Patrick Brice’s The Overnight.
Savvy writers, directors, producers and actors, Jay and Mark Duplass know how punch through the crowded media landscape to build audiences for their work. Accordingly, rather than give a pseudo-heartfelt biographical speech at the Producers Brunch, they indulged listeners with an edifying internet-friendly listicle — ten pieces of advice for independent filmmakers today. That list, quoted and paraphrased, appears below.

1. “The phrase you can never go home is not true when it comes to Sundance,” said Jay. He remarked that the two of them have spent time in Hollywood, and that “wonderful things” had come out of that experience. “But some of it does not smell so good.” The world of independent film, he said, is “its own ecosystem. Don’t view [your Sundance picture] as a stepping stone.”  MORE...