Monday’s “The Business” on KCRW features a fascinating interview with Jay and Mark Duplass, young masters of the “Mumblecore” genre who managed to climb the ladder of Indy circuit success all the way to directing Cyrus, a studio movie in current release. Their journey is further proof that despite the increasingly difficult financial circumstances of the Industry, there’s always a way to make it – and that way usually requires blazing a new path of your own rather than following the footsteps of others.
The Duplass brothers openly discuss the problems they had integrating their very intimate, small-scale style of production with a Studio System that only knows one way to get things done. They were smart enough to make the system work for them without compromising their vision or style, and along the way discovered that the collaborative nature of the Indy vs. Studio process actually helped make Cyrus a better movie.
It’s a terrific interview. Check it out.
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I remember meeting Mark Duplas on the first real feature set I interned on a while back. He struck me as a very smart driven person. I'm not surprised that he and few other people connected with him are making the jump up to the big show in the last year.
I think also it takes a certain suicidal drive to succeed in this industry. I know I've fought long and hard to just get a union card and a some shoe string connections around town with the upper level guys but it's what I make of it.
Granted some times I get down and just stare at my phone for a few days with a list of people to call; dreading the precession of answering machines I'll get. Also I feel like I should put on red dress, some cheap makeup, and heels for occasion. I still can't get past the dirty feeling of hitting people up for work in the guise of a "hey how's it going" phone call.
But, I have a long life ahead of me and business relationships aren't built in a day or a year for that matter. So back I go pounding on the gate of success one skull breaking thud at a time.
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