In 2006, Emeritus Professor and filmmaker Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. made a diagnosis of the state of the Philippine film industry and declared it to be a dying patient confined in the intensive care unit. It was the time when the country’s annual film output was down to 55 and the production quality was low (2006). It was also when various independent film festivals were established and a new generation of film mavericks was born. Since then, several films have been produced through these festivals and eventually led to the resurgence of Philippine independent cinema . Once the festival is over however, the distribution of these films tends to end with it—that is the films do not go far beyond their festival audience. The wider public is unable to see these films because they are not shown in theatres. As such, the films are unable to generate enough ticket sales that would supposedly defray production costs and serve as capital for new film projects. While the festivals (and the filmmakers) have been actively preparing for film production, they have not prepared any distribution plan that rolls out the films to the general audience. Attention is focused on the creative aspects of filmmaking while the business components tend to be neglected. The premise that distribution is the weakest link in the film value chain comes from this context, and this is where the sustainability issue of the independent sector comes in.
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of research on Philippine independent cinema but they mostly follow the film studies tradition of textual analysis, aesthetic representation, or the study of film as an art form and cultural object. To date, there is no study that explores film distribution, particularly that of the independent sector in the Philippines. Not many people, even those coming from the industry themselves, have a good grasp of film distribution. It is this little knowledge and unaddressed area of filmmaking that this book wants to develop. It intends to provide a greater understanding of the business of independent filmmaking by shifting the focus away from textual questions of representations to industrial contexts and questions of economic sustainability . In effect, aside from enriching the knowledge in the field of film studies , this book also has practical implications and applications. It is important to note however that this book does not aim to identify or discover a new business model of film distribution to make the independent sector sustainable. Rather, it discusses and investigates the problems in the film distribution and exhibition system that causes or makes this activity appear to be an unsustainable endeavour for independent filmmakers.
Two key concepts are critical in this book: independence and sustainability —both of which are discussed in relation to distribution throughout the text. Despite the absence of a clear or agreed definition of independent cinema , this sector has been in existence for many decades in the Philippines. However, the challenges of being sustainable remain to be an unresolved issue. Sustainability is about a maintained state of existence or continuity. It goes beyond the concept of commodification , which Mosco defines as “transforming use values into exchange values” (2009, p. 129). It begins with the capacity of the cultural commodity to gain from its cultural value in the form of an exchange value but continues to look at the maximisation of that exchange value. In the filmmaking context, it is the ability of the film as a cultural object to maximise its shelf life or in this case “screening life ” by screening the film in as many venues as possible, for as long as possible. Garnham calls this strategy as “audience maximization” (1990, p. 160).
The concept of sustainability is defined differently for the mainstream and independent sectors, as their set-up is completely different. For studios that have a corporate setting and established sets of systems to ensure their life or continuity of business, their major concern is to generate a high return on investment or income, and their idea of sustainability could be conflated with that of profitability . However, for independent film outfits that are usually small, informal groups, or entities, sustainability is about keeping themselves afloat. This is a constant battle that forms part of their creative process (Mulholland 2008, p. 38). Therefore, while it can be said that the independent sector has been sustaining itself all this time since it has been around for more than half a century, this premise may not be entirely true because the independents have always been struggling on the margins. Thus, it can be argued that the sector is surviving, or it could be thriving at the moment but it has no clear direction.
In the last 14 years, the Philippine independent film scene has boomed and what used to be on the margins is moving forward. From the hundreds of films produced by various independent film festivals , only a handful of these films have had a regular theatrical run outside of the festival dates. In this light, the areas of film distribution and exhibition require a much deeper understanding more than ever. Now, both scholars and industry practitioners are looking at the possibilities of how distribution can be central to having a sustainable film industry . In 2002 for instance, Sir Alan Parker, CBE of the UK Film Council delivered a speech entitled “Building a sustainable UK film industry,” which included distribution as one of the key ingredients for reinventing UK as a “film hub” (p. 9). Ten years later, the British Film Institute (BFI) launched a five-year comprehensive international plan entitled “Film Forever: Supporting UK Film,” which maps out UK’s strategic directions for its film industry (2012). In the same year, creative industries strategy consultancy firm Olsberg-SPI published an independent report and emphasised the roles of government, technology, the industry, and the public in working together to achieve industry sustainability (2012). The Philippines is coming in from behind. In 2013, a panel was organised to discuss sustainable cinema in the Philippines in the International Film Expo held in Manila (Cremin 2013).
In response to these present and pressing issues, this book addresses a series of questions that revolve around how the Philippine independent film sector can address its sustainability issue through distribution. How is Philippine independent cinema defined or being redefined? Is it really independent? What existing business models or traditional distribution practices is the film industry using? Are there other formal distribution practices being adopted? What alternative or emerging business models are being explored by independent film outfits? How does the informal distribution system such as piracy work for or against the independent film sector? How do these parallel economies affect the growth or redefinition of Philippine independent cinema in relation to its sustainability ? Does having or applying feasible business strategies answer the sustainability concern of an independent film production? How does the changing dynamics of audience affect the mechanics of the film distribution and exhibition system? What is the relationship and role of state and cultural policy in the sustainability of the independent film sector? How does having a sound and viable film (or cultural) policy sustain or propel the growth of the film industry and contribute to the cultural economy of the country?
Before responding to these questions, the next chapter locates this research project in the field of film studies . It explains the different approaches to film studies, and takes on an industry approach , which moves away from studying the film object as text and looks at the bigger picture of the industry. The chapter then surveys the related literature on studying film distribution in relation to the independent film sector, highlights the place and importance of distribution as an understudied area in film studies , and situates this study in the Philippine context. This chapter also maps out the theoretical trajectory in studying film distribution, which begins from the feuding schools of thought between cultural studies and political economy up to the cultural economy framework that this book adopts. It suggests a more balanced framing of Philippine independent film distribution by deviating from a dichotomised discussion of the art-commerce or culture-economy paradigm. It is from this context and foundation that the succeeding chapters are framed in response to the questions raised—starting from the notions of independence in Philippine cinema to the relationship and interactions between the mainstream and independent sectors to the nitty-gritty details of the film distribution enterprise and the state of cultural policy in the Philippines.
Chapter 3 explores the question of independence in filmmaking, examines how independent cinema is defined, and clarifies these definitions. It enumerates the various elements that characterise independent filmmaking by looking at its criteria of independence . Independent filmmakers tend to rely on grants or other forms of subsidies because they typically do not have (enough) funds to commence their film projects. Oftentimes, this discussion of funding raises the issue of the funder’s control in relation to the filmmaker’s degree of independence : who is in control, whose interests are at stake, what is at stake? This chapter opens with the big picture by discussing the film industry landscape in terms of the mainstream-indie binary and then traces the origins of Philippine independent cinema , identifies the factors of its development, and maps out a parallel historical pattern with that of American independent cinema.
Chapter 4 looks into the present state of Philippine cinema by examining the mainstream and independent sectors in terms of their structure and operations. This chapter profiles and characterises some of the relatively new and emerging industry players in Philippine cinema in the last two decades when digital filmmaking was gradually rising. These serve as case studies in investigating the current shifting movements between the mainstream and independent sectors. This chapter looks into the notions of “mainstreaming indie” or how independent film groups are going mainstream, and “indiefying mainstream” or how the mainstream sector is moving towards the indie route. It examines these inter/actions and the seemingly diminishing gap of the mainstream-independent divide, whereby numerous labels have been coined to refer to anything that falls in between the spectrum. This chapter then infers the possible future direction of Philippine independent cinema based on these ongoing movements.
The next four chapters cover the whole film distribution economy spectrum. Chapter 5 opens with a layout of this spectrum and sets out the definition of the formal, semi-formal, and informal economies. It sets up the theoretical grounding of distribution and exhibition as intermediary spaces and how they are tightly inter/connected to each other. This chapter then provides a historical landscape of the film distribution and exhibition system in the Philippines from stand-alone cinemas to the rise of multiplexes . It also presents an overview of their existing business practices, the power structure and power struggle that exists within the film value chain , and h...