The Effects of New Technologies on Independent Film and Video Artists

The Effects ofNew Technologies on Independent Film and Video Artists Timothy Gunn I am pleased to be here, speaking from the vantage of the makers and distributors of independent film and video. My organization, National Video Resources, was established by the Rockefeller Foundation five years ago to help these makers and distributors reach larger audiences with their work. These film and video artists, and those that distribute their work, are an important constituency in their own right. I think you'll be interested in how the themes of this conference-the new technologies and intellectual property rights-have a direct bearing on how these artists might (or in some cases, might not) be able to access the new technologies to reach new and larger audiences. But also consider their story as emblematic of all other artists who work outside the commercial establishment , where internal resources are scarce and subsidy is common, where the earned income from an artistic endeavor almost never exceeds its cost, and where not-for-profit is as much a professional lifestyle as it is an IRS classification . Compared to those so-called "information providers" with commercial aspirations and with corporate resources behind them, access to the new digital distribution systems by independent filmmakers and other artists like them is going to be much more problematic . Independent filmmakers and videomakers-artists, activists, educators , historians-work on their own, editorially independent of the Hollywood and network television of big production and marketing budgets. In style, their films and videos are generally more personal, and reflect in content more complex realities; they also tend to give a voice to communities not widely heard from in the commercial media: ethnic minorities, women, gays and lesbians, activists, persons with firmly held points of view. Independent work is important precisely because it presents diverse views of reality and arTimothy Gunn, National Video Resources, Suite 606, 73 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012, U.S.A. tistic experimentation not available in the mainstream media. Independent film and video, as you know, is a misnomer-for makers of independent media are often totally dependent on a variety of sources to complete their projects: friends, relatives , foundations, sympathetic professionals for whom the words "scale" and "deferred payment" are common terms of employment, and occasionally the limits of the filmmaker's own credit card. In order to maintain the financial , creative, and artistic freedom that is so important to these filmmakers, what they are independent of are the commercial media and corporations, and the many resources these institutions command. This lack of corporate affiliation is one of the independents' problems related to the new technologies and intellectual property rights, as we will see in a moment. But, first, the good news. The new technology-the hardware and the delivery mechanisms-promises in theory to give independent filmmakers a much needed opportunity to reach much larger and more diverse audiences . Video on demand, in particular, will provide an individual-in their home, school or business-with immediate , convenient access to a virtually limitless library ofvideo titles. Interactive , packaged software formats like CDROM offer exciting, new waysfor filmmakers to use their story-telling skills. Yet it is by no means certain that independent filmmakers will be able to take advantage of these technologies as soon or as fully as they might. Intellectual property rights are part of the problem; these issues, which pertain to every element of the filmmaking process , are more difficult in the environment of the new technologies. I'll mention a few: rights clearances, ownership , integrity of the completed work, and protection from piracy. The first is rights clearances: Creating a film or video almost always requires the acquisition of elements from other sources, the terms of which are agreed upon by contract. Let me illustrate by showing you a brief threeminute clip from a documentary that illustrates the issues surrounding rights clearances. It's from Color Adjustment,a film by Marlon Riggs and Vivian Kleinman which explores the behindthe -scenes story of how prime-time television was integrated with black actors and performers. You may have seen it on public television last year on the series Point of View. As you watch this, imagine...