It
is a
principle of the Artisan Movie Movement that the industrial management system of the film industry is
detrimental to the art form.
To proudly wave the Artisan Movie Movement banner, an Artisan film production will be outside of the established movie industry. It may be funded by crowd sourcing, or personal finances, or a combination of borrowing and barter but only by a television station or production company if there is a clear hands off mandate for the production. It may pay performers, or it may be set up as a co-operative venture with friends working together in a common cause. It may attempt any style and any subject matter, and any genre. It may duplicate technical job structures of industrial production, or it may not. Most of all it will be aiming for a level of professionalism - good quality sound with clear understandable dialogue, shots in focus and easy to watch (though it might adopt a hand held, active, documentary style and exploit obscurity of image for artistic reasons), and require no excuses for technical quality. It may use professionals in some capacities, under union or guild waver, but it might also use the performers for such jobs as holding the microphone boom, contributing to the writing, taking a turn at the camera, and otherwise break away from the strict heirarchical structure of industrial movie making.
Equipment used may range from professional gear to mobile phone video, but the production will be done with care and intention. Improvisation and make do solutions - using furnace filters for light diffusion, fitting Home Depot work lights with barn doors for lighting, creating home made steadycam rigs, creating night for day with tar paper and moving blankets, converting a fridge dolly into a movie dolly - are a key component of Artisan Movie production. With Artisan Movies, the emphasis is on freedom and getting the job done. And results. The desired result is a movie that looks like a movie.