Talk

Prompted by a recent post about Kickstarter, writer/director Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Cyrus) emailed me about an indie documentary he’s putting together through the crowdfunding site.

His email suggested a larger discussion about why filmmakers continue to pursue indie projects after they’ve found studio success. I certainly do it, with both The Nines and The Remnants, along with other experiments like The Variant.

None of them are a good use of time, at least in a monetary sense.

I’d make more money simply writing more screenplays. If I want to direct something, it should be a studio feature. My agent tells me this. It’s his job to tell me this.

And yet Jay and I still find ourselves drawn towards the little, difficult, uncategorizable things. Is it boredom? Fear of failure? The appeal of new frontiers? A desire to reclaim our scrappy youth?

Rather than keep the conversation between us, I suggested to Jay that we record it. He was game, so he came by the office today.

This is our half-hour conversation, un-edited:

Some links to things we mention:

• Jay’s documentary Kevin, on Kickstarter
• Jay’s credits
• The Remnants
• Topspin
• A Thousand True Fans
• Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture

Runtime is 30 minutes. You can also download this as an MP3.

My thanks to Jay. Check out his doc.