{"id":1055,"date":"2017-04-16T18:02:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T18:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commarts.pleather.us\/2017\/04\/16\/james-gray-on-the-financial-realities-of-independent-filmmaking-i-am-struggling-financially\/"},"modified":"2017-04-16T18:02:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T18:02:56","slug":"james-gray-on-the-financial-realities-of-independent-filmmaking-i-am-struggling-financially","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/2017\/04\/16\/james-gray-on-the-financial-realities-of-independent-filmmaking-i-am-struggling-financially\/","title":{"rendered":"James Gray on the Financial Realities of Independent Filmmaking: \u2018I Am Struggling Financially\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Gray<\/a> is back in theaters with “The Lost City of Z<\/a>,” a film at once markedly different from and right at home among the rest of his distinguished body of work. The “We Own the Night,” “Two Lovers” and “The Immigrant” director has spoken with Vulture<\/a> about the financial realities of independent filmmaking, offering a number of candid \u2014 and sobering \u2014 statements: “You know, people assume that because I\u2019m a director, I make tons of money. I am struggling financially,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE: How Can Middle-Class Filmmakers Make a Living?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

“Now, I\u2019m very lucky I get to do what it is I want to do,” Gray continued. “I\u2019ve made, good or bad, very uncompromising movies, the movies exactly that I wanted to make, and that\u2019s a beautiful gift, so I\u2019m not complaining about that. But I struggle. I have a hard time paying my bills. I\u2019m 47 years old, I live in an apartment, I can\u2019t buy a house.”<\/span><\/p>\n

No one enters the world of independent film expecting to make vast sums, and yet it can be surprising to hear that a writer\/director who’s been making acclaimed movies for more than two decades would still struggle to find his footing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If I were coming of age in 1973, I would be in Bel Air,” said Gray. “The whole reason for this is exactly what we were talking about, where the middle is gone. So now you have franchises, and you have, \u2018I made a movie on my iPhone.\u2019 This is the economic system in a nutshell, right? Five directors make Marvel, and then there\u2019s the rest of us who are trying to scrounge around to find the money to make films.”<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Why Brad Pitt Sent James Gray \u2018The Lost City of Z\u2019 And Pushed the Filmmaker In a New Direction \u2014 Podcast<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

From there, he says, “it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: If the audience only gets to see Marvel, then they only want Marvel, and then if they only want Marvel, only Marvel is made. I don\u2019t even have a problem with Marvel. The problem is not the specifics of each movie, the problem is it\u2019s the only movie you can see now in a multiplex, and when it\u2019s the only game in town, you\u2019re looking at the beginning of the death throes of an art form.” Read the full interview here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Source: IndieWire film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Gray is back in theaters with “The Lost City of Z,” a film at once markedly different from and right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-careering"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paqOTj-h1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}