My most cherished responsibility as a bona fide indie filmmaker is to let everyone know the shot is always worth taking. It costs nothing to encourage an artist, and the potential return is immeasurable. A song will cheer your mood. A movie will let you escape. A podcast will make you laugh. Nice dividends to a simple investment.
Art can't save the world, but it can make the world a lot easier to take. You tell a budding artist something good about their work, or share with them the things you've learned, or show them how to advocate for their art themselves? It costs you nothing but time. The potential upside? Maybe one day, they make your favorite movie. Or write the book you've read twenty times. Or record the most-played song on your iPod. Or rock the longest-running podcast in history. All because you said something kind.
I can hear a thousand sour bitches lamenting "We should skull-fuck the jackass who encouraged you, you no-talent havin', non-Silent Bob-bein' cinema butcher who writes overly-long sentences that're somehow grammatically correct as well!"
What can I tell you? Someone's trash is someone else's treasured pastime. The book you hate is someone else's Bible. The movie you love is someone else's Cop Out. There's no explaining the eye of the beholder, where art and beauty are rumored to live.
Art is practical magic. Self-expression is casting a spell. That means we're all potential wizards of words. Either that, or I just make dick jokes for a living.
My long-term goal with the ever-evolving Red State experiment is to redefine the theatrical exhibition window. If you're Los Angeles on September 25th, join us at our cinematic home, the New Beverly Cinema for another round of Red State, followed by a Q&A and Hollywood Babble On with Ralph Garman. And if you can't be at the New Beverly on 9/25 but still want to get in on the action? Hit one of the participating theaters and watch that shit get streamed to you LIVE! Ask me questions even if you're not at the New Beverly, via Twitter hashtag! It's gonna be neat!
You don't even have to be in Hollywood to attend, because we're on a screen down the street from your house, interacting with you and fielding your questions while you're miles away!
More information at http://coopersdell.com/tickets.php
Follow Kevin Smith on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith
art. doing/being art fearlessly.
best of luck to you on your novel! keep me informed of its release, please.
i have a movie to make.
can you help me?
For anyone not familiar with the smodcasts, I'd recommend Plus One Per Diem
http://smodcast.com/channels/plus-one-per-diem (#12 is my all time favorite... Mick Foley and Marc Maron... it doesn't get better than that)
Very sneaky.
Genius.