Indie struggles

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John Clark has written a piece in the N.Y. Times about aging independent filmmakers who made their bones in the late '80s and early '90s who are now grappling with tough financial times in the hardball, corporate-driven moviemaking world of 2006. In some cases only eeking out a living, scraping by, etc.

"The indie business was full of mom-and-pop operations with nickel-and-dime aspirations, [but] now the corner stores have been edged out by studio specialty divisions with far larger appetites and needs. Geoffrey Gilmore, the director of the Sundance Film Festival, says that in the early 90's an independent film was considered a hit if it grossed $1 million. Now it's $25 million."

Jeez...bummer. But then the entertainment industry has always been a feast-or- famine environment. If you're in the creative end, either you're flush or struggling -- there's almost never a middle ground.