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This blog post was contributed by Julie Chung, ZIO editorial assistant.

With the down spiraling economy, producer Jim Stern (left in picture) fervently issued a warning to the independent film industry at the Los Angeles Film Festival, believing that filmmakers seriously need to consider new ways in their marketing and financing.  With astounding numbers like a mere three out of ten thousand films actually making it to the theaters, Stern has suggested that filmmakers need to develop smarter marketing plans and coordinate a better system along with their financiers, eventually working towards cutting costs, mitigating risks, and targeting specific audiences, in order to survive this conflict between price and profit.

Stern has every right to fear such a projected failure in the indie world, because past ventures haven't always proven to be promising.  For instance, last year, Mark Gill gave a keynote speech in which he alerted the crowd that financing models and distributors were on a very detrimental path.  Little to Gill's surprise, less than a week later after his ominous words, Paramount Vantage was consolidated, giving no assurance to the indie world in this present day.

The solution?  Stern believes that filmmakers should pay closer attention to marketing schemes in the earlier stages of development; this tactic will hopefully yield intelligent films that will not make the mistake of spending too much money on a movie that doesn't pay back.  Furthermore, Stern also recommended for producers to stop being concerned with enlisting A-list actors who work for only such a high price tag, asserting that stars don't exactly "drive people to the theaters in small movies" (courtesy of Variety). His take on the indie world is that movies can still look mediocre and still receive acclaim from an audience, without all the glitz and glamour of special effects.