Creative Control and Red State
John the Rouge Demon Hunter asked me on
:
What is your thoughts on Kevin Smith's Red State Tour?
To which I replied:
Anything a content creator can do to take more control over their work and its distribution is a good thing. I long for the days when the movie studios, television networks, and book publishers all go out of business and we get our content directly from those who made it. I wish him luck.
I probably shouldn't be talking about this right now. I watched a documentary today about Harlan Ellison called Harlan Ellison: Dreams with Sharp Teeth. God of I love Harlan, and he really gets my blood boiling.
He talks a lot about how bad writers are treated by the powers that be, and all I could think was, "Thank God for the interest!" to which he would reply, "Fuck you, there is no god."
We are living in a magical time when technology is allowing creative people to reach out directly to the people. We can cut out the middle man, and I think that is a wonderful thing.
Harlan would probably disagree with me about this, but I think the creative business is changing. We still need to get paid for our work, but I think we have more choices now than ever.
Kevin Smith is doing what he can to cut the studio out of the distribution of his film, and that can only be a good thing. I live in a town where, if we are lucky, we get his movies for a week or two. I can only hope that his efforts will be a vanguard in the tearing down of the chain monopoly on theaters. That is probably too much to hope for, but I like to dream big.
I am working on a new novel, and we are debating what we want to do with it when it is done. Should I seek out a distribution partner or not. Right now, I just don't know.
I have a few ideas, but everything is difficult when you have to consider bank rolling it yourself.
Creative Independence is something I think we should push for every day. We just need to know that the audience is there.