In this Quick Take episode, Ira Deutschman talks about the definition of being an independent producer and why he chooses to stay out of the studio system. I've always been skeptical, and in some cases, worse than skeptical, about the use of the term independent because I feel like it defines people by what they're not rather than what they are. Would I be interested in making films for the studios? I don't really have a particular skew against it.
It's just that the things that I'm drawn to, they're not drawn to. And so, yeah, I'm kind of independent, I suppose, by definition, but not by choice, necessarily. I would say that the advantage, to me, the luxury of being an independent producer is not being forced to work within the parameters of what is really a very conservative and very rigid business. And I would say more conservative and more rigid now than perhaps ever.
Just by nature of how expensive it is to work within the Hollywood system, it makes them be less adventurous. I would say that what I love about being an independent producer is that during that development process, we get to identify what interests us and then try to make it the best version of what that ought to be as opposed to trying to make it fit within some studio or some company's parameters of what they're looking for. So, in effect, it means that we get to create things in a little bit of a creative vacuum before we end up getting the money involved. Or, you know, as I'm always telling my students, all money comes with strings attached.
And what we have to decide as independent producers on a project-by-project basis is what strings we're willing to live with. And it is project-by-project because, you know, the needs of each project are entirely different. And that is the luxury of being independent is that we get to make those decisions once we figure out what the project is. Whereas working within the studio system, what we're really doing is taking whatever material we find available and trying to make it fit within the needs of that particular studio's slate.
And that's one of the reasons why they make so many bad movies is that they're actually taking material and completely distorting it to fit their needs. And that, to me, is something I'm not all that fond of. This has been it produced by Quick Take. Amongst other things, the reality of producing credits and what he sees is the future of the actual distribution.
For more information on the Producers Guild, visit www.producersgill.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube at Producers Guild. I'm your host, Kevin Fairchild, and we'll be back soon with another episode of Producers Guild.