Authors — Esther B. Robinson
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Reconsidering Vacancy
A few years ago, I posed the following question to myself: Am I using my producing and fundraising skills to benefit too few people? What if the people or the corporations I deliver this beloved film investment to are treating people badly? Profiting at the expense of the people that made it? What does it mean that the amount of labor and the amount of pay often don’t add up? Is there another path? Because I’m decent at raising money for film, a sum between $500,000 to $1.5 million doesn’t seem daunting. I decided to explore different ways money could […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Oct 28, 2020 -
Building the Best Future
We tend to think of the institutions and corporations that govern our working lives as solid and immutable, but extraordinary circumstances will always force them to be flexible—and right now the COVID-19 pandemic is revealing a lot about how, when and whether these entities are able to flex to meet the needs of our times. This is a good moment to ask serious questions: How can our institutions rise to these challenges? Are the working assumptions that underlie the film industry the right ones—the ones we need? We need to make sure we aren’t just issuing rally cries to save […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Oct 28, 2020 -
It’s Not Always About the Money
There’s been a great deal of talk recently in our film community about the concept of sustainability. There hasn’t, however, been a great deal of precision. Take the word itself — “sustainable.” It’s most often defined by its absence. But by the time we ask, “What is a sustainable career?” the answer comes back, and it’s usually simply: “Not this.” We’ve adopted the idea of sustainability from the environmental movement, where it describes the quest to make an ecosystem stable and long-lasting. Sustainability’s myriad definitions range from the utopian (“all systems in dynamic balance”) to the terse, harsh pragmatism of its Latin root, […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Jul 25, 2016 -
The Data Says, “We Have a Problem”: Finding Solutions for Film’s Problems with Diversity
Since the publication of “The Data Says, ‘We Have a Problem’” in our Winter print edition, the conversation around diversity and the movie business has become louder and even more urgent. As more and more studies are published detailing Hollywood’s biased hiring practices and hashtags like #oscarssowhite explode across social media, now, during the lead-up to the Academy Awards, is an apt time to unlock from our paywall this article by Esther Robinson. It cogently articulates the reasons why all of us must care about these issues before it then goes on to offer actual and practical solutions that we […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Feb 15, 2016 -
Filmmaking in Pairs: The Benefits of Directing Movies with Another Person (or Other People)
Filmmakers don’t get to be moody loners. If you’re a painter or a writer, you have the option to go it alone. Sit in your room, bang out that first draft. Or, lock the door, stretch the canvas and go to it. Film is different: It’s rarely a solo pursuit, especially at the feature level. As filmmakers, we’re forced out of isolation and compelled to rely on others: producers, editors, sound people, lawyers, distributors. We’re team players, whether we like it or not. Paradoxically, though, at the end of the day we have an “auteur-biased” rewards system. With many films […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Oct 20, 2014 -
Happy Christmas Director Joe Swanberg on the Financial Life of the Independent Filmmaker
“Transparency benefits everybody.” That’s Joe Swanberg, whose recommended Happy Christmas opens today, talking about distribution dealmaking, but he might just as well have been talking about all aspects of his career and financial life. Indeed, Swanberg is nothing but transparent in this long interview with producer, director and ArtHome founder Esther Robinson focused specifically on making a living as a writer/director — precisely the subject most directors won’t issue a comment on. The interview was conducted for Robinson’s current piece in the new print edition of Filmmaker, “Still on the Job,” in which she revisits several directors featured in an […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Jul 25, 2014 -
Still on the Job: Filmmakers on Their Second Jobs
Here’s the funny thing about an article on second jobs in filmmaking: It’s always relevant. The last piece I wrote for Filmmaker on this topic is still referenced: people continue to call me up to talk about it, and nearly as often as they did when it first appeared. But it’s been five years since I wrote it. So, as part of our ongoing look at the financial lives of artists, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit some of the filmmakers we interviewed in 2009 and see how their relationships with their second jobs have evolved […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Jul 17, 2014 -
Cash Poor, Creativity Rich: The No-Money Manifesto
These days, anybody with a film production blog is calling for a revolution. The call to arms takes many forms. Some strident, some prescriptive. All are calling for big, big change. But to my mind, a revolution can be pretty simple. It can start with just a simple change of perspective — or even a mantra. Here’s mine: There’s No Money. I know, I know, this is not news. Thanks to blogs, Twitter feeds, and other social media, we’re inundated with musings about the independent film apocalypse and the poverty of our filmmaking class. But clearly, the individual’s lack of […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Apr 28, 2014 -
Love Song: Marie Losier on The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
With Marie Losier’s retrospective, Just a Million Dreams, now running at New York’s MoMA through November 11, we’re reposting our interview with Losier from our Winter, 2012 print issue. The film discussed here, The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, screens tomorrow, November 3. What should one expect when one artist turns their camera on another? Although the “portrait of the artist” doc is one of nonfiction filmmaking’s most durable sub-genres, audiences often expect the least from it. In the presence of a great painter, musician or author, directors are frequently expected to sublimate their own styles in favor of […]
by Esther B. Robinson on Nov 10, 2012
