Writer / Director / Producer James Gunn (seen here with Jenna Haze on the set  of an upcoming show that I can’t talk about) gave the keynote speech at today’s Independent Film and Television Alliance 10th Annual Production Conference in Los Angeles.

The audience was a mixed batch of over 500 independent filmmakers, television producers, sales agents and distributors who share the commonality of  currently seeing their traditional livelihood disintegrate into an infinite stream of digital disruption.

James didn’t mix words when it comes to the harsh reality of adjusting to a new world order for digital. He’s not a sugar-coater, just a straight shooter. After his speech, Jean Prewitt, IFTA President said that his was the best keynote they’ve had in the 10 years they’ve been doing the conference.

The following is his speech.

[JAMES GUNN'S KEYNOTE, IFTA 2008]
It feels awesome to be here at the IFTA. Lloyd Kaufman, the President of Troma Entertainment, asked me to be here. Lloyd actually discovered me 12 years ago. It’s a completely true story. I was in school and went in to apply for a summer job at Troma, maybe filling papers or doing some sort of gopher work, and Lloyd offered me 150 dollars to write a screenplay. The movie was TROMEO & JULIET. It played midnight shows here in LA for a year. It was a cult hit on DVD all around the world. And since then I’ve made… altogether… a hundred and fifty dollars off it.

Well, I’m here to talk about New Media, yes? Good. Awesome. Okay. Let’s go.

When I talk to people in the film industry about my excitement regarding New Media – about non-traditional content – webisodes, short-form video, alternative reality games – that are distributed through non-traditional channels – the Internet, gaming platforms, and mobile – sometimes whomever I’m talking to is equally excited about this grand adventure of New Media, but more often a sort of soft look of terror washes over their face as if I’m about to take a cheese grater to their infant.

The infant, of course, is the old world of entertainment they’ve gotten used to. They know all the rules and now, all of the sudden, something is coming in to screw it up. They are radio in 1940. And this thing television is coming at them and they don’t know what it is.

But the exciting thing to me is that no one knew what television was going to be, not even the people who created it. They had to invent it. Through the inspiration of pioneers like Milton Berle and Ernie Kovacs, and through a long process of discovery of seeing what worked and what didn’t as popular art, the modern variety show was created, the situation comedy, the soap opera, the reality show.

Specifically, what I’ve been working on for the past six months or so has been the short-form comedy series – each episode from one minute to six minutes in length. It’s been fun to help create the language of a new form. In some ways, I think of these thingies – I like to use the technical word ‘thingies’ – I think of these thingies as the heir to the TV situation comedy – for people with short attention spans like myself – but in other ways I think of them as the heir to the now nearly-dead newspaper comic strip.  People used to read ‘Garfield’ or ‘Doonesbury’ every day.  Today they watch a YouTube video instead.

Anyway, we are on the precipice of this new world.  I have – we have the opportunity to create a popular art form from the ground up, both artistically and as a business model. Today I feel like Milton Berle, only without the enormous penis.

I’m very happy to be here today with the IFTA because I believe independent producers, for perhaps a short window of time, have an extraordinary advantage over the studios in creating New Media content. As far as original programming for the web, mobile, and gaming platforms goes, the studios cannot compete at this time.

Unlike the film and television worlds, the primary distribution outlets are not one in the same with the creators of content. In the film world, Universal makes movies for Universal to distribute into Universal theaters and on Universal DVD and onto Universal television networks.

But the primary distribution outlets for New Media – Apple, Microsoft, Google, and so on – are not in the content creation business. And that is why God made us.

Each one of these guys – the studios – has set up a New Media division. But these divisions have inherited the structures of the studio system. These structures of development, production, and marketing, may work well when creating a big-budget spectacle summer film, but when creating New Media content the structure destroys everything that will allow these episodes to be successful with the public.

People on the Internet are looking for edge. And I’m not going to lie and tell you that what they’re looking for is high art. For instance, they’d probably love a web series about a drunk girl in a bikini. Well, let’s say you’ve created the web series DRUNK GIRL IN A BIKINI for Warner Brothers. Well, the first thing that’s going to happen is they’re going to say, you know, we have close ties with Budweiser, and Budweiser is a little uncomfortable with promoting drunkenness. And you say, ‘I’m not saying Drunk Girl in a Bikini is a good thing, this is the harrowing story of a drunk girl in a bikini.’ And they say, ‘Eh, let’s let go of the drunkenness part.’ And then they say they have some shareholders who are very Christian Right, and they’re offended by the skimpy bikini. ‘So, could we change it to a sweatsuit? Sweatsuits are sexy. Plus we have a deal with Juicy Couture, so everything will work out great.’ And then they say, ‘Oh, one more thing – we have a development deal with Tom Arnold and we think he’d be great for the lead.’ And you say, ‘But he’s not a girl!’ And they say, ‘Dude, it’s the only thing we’ve asked you for! Work with us. Come on.’ And then you’re producing the TOM ARNOLD SWEATSUIT SHOW and the only people that watch it are Tom Arnold’s cousins.

The point is that the studio development process is counterproductive to creating something that’s brash and fun and different. And that’s all that people on the Internet are thirsty for.

From a financial standpoint, the studios are also handicapped. Independent producers have learned how to do things on a budget. We know how to scrounge and get things for free and near free. I am able to go onto my Myspace today and put an update at the top of my page that says ‘Looking for CGI artist to work for free,’ and by the end of the day I’ll receive a hundred reels from incredibly talented kids who are able to do amazing things in their parents’ basement. (Which is a lot different than the amazing things I did in my parents’ basement. What can I say? There was Cinemax down there.) Anyway, these kids are dying for an opportunity and I love giving it to them. The studios don’t know how to find these kids and wouldn’t even be able to utilize them correctly or respectfully if they could. Also financially, the studios are supporting these entire divisions and big salaries that don’t make any financial sense whatsoever. There simply isn’t enough money in this stuff yet.

Another advantage is the Internet has its own star system. When it comes to feature films, it’s become difficult for Independent producers to compete because movie stars who actually mean anything are not affordable or easy to get. The Internet has an entirely different star system that isn’t being taken advantage of by the studios and can be realistically taken advantage of by Independent producers on a budget. It’s unlikely you’ll get George Clooney to guest on your webisode but you might be able to get Kim Kardashian, and she’ll generate more hits than he will. And there’s a lot of other people like that, both known and fairly unknown, who can generate attention on the Internet. But, be warned, if you hire that kid who cried about Britney Spears, I’ll hate you forever. I’d cut out my mother’s heart for Internet hits, but I would never do that. Everyone has to have a line.

The final advantage independent producers have over studios is one of flexibility. We’re able to move quickly and instantly. We’re able to take advantage of current topics. At a studio, an idea has to pass through so many people before it gets to the end of the line, it becomes passé by the time it does. You end up with a Fox web series with a bunch of Walter Mondale jokes in it. They’re so hopelessly out of date they’re developing a Foster Brooks web series, even though he’s been dead for years…

Seriously, Disney.com did a complete revamping of their web site in January in 2007. It cost 30 some-odd million dollars. And now, just a few days ago, they announced what? – a revamping of their web site. They just can’t stay up to date. They have to deal with too many people.

Now maybe I’m making this all too simple. I am and have been fascinated with New Media not just because I made myself, but just because I am. I’m addicted to Myspace and Facebook and Twitter – for reasons outside of meeting girls to have sex with. Because I really like the social interactivity. I love to blog, and it’s been good to me. I think I get recognized more often on the streets from my MySpace page than from movies I’ve been in, or behind the scenes documentaries. I have a one-on-one relationship with my fans which gives me an idea of who they are, what their needs are, and how I can provide them with the entertainment they want.

Maybe you’re one of the people who freezes up with fear when the topic of New Media comes up. But maybe that’s not a problem – because there are thousands of people like me out there, who get this stuff, who enjoy this world. Who are looking for people to link up with, to produce them, to help them see their potential.

And that’s one of the things I really love about working on these Internet shorts and gaming platform productions is that they’re done on a small scale on a modest budget and I’m able to take a chance on new, young talent, and give them the opportunity to do something majestic.

I don’t really care that much about traditional filmmaking anymore. This is so much more exciting to me.

But to finish off here, I used to wonder about the future of entertainment and New Media and which way it was going to go. What was the future going to bring us? But today I wonder What am I going to bring the future? What am I going to create here? I AM – WE ARE, together – forming the future of entertainment. The future really is unwritten. It is what we want it to be.

And I feel some responsibility with that.

A few months ago I was going through a crises with my career.  I was loving creating this Internet content so much it made me lose interest in the film world. And so I looked within my heart, as deep as I could go, and I prayed to God.  I pleaded with him:  ‘What do you want me to create? What do you want me to put in this empty space before me that can be anything?’

And, deep within me, I heard the voice of God, and he said five clear words:

Drunk Girl in a Bikini.

Thank you.

James Gunn