By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Losing focus: InDigEnt's shallow grave
As his megadecamillion dollar Charlotte’s Web prepares to open to throngs of Strunk & White-clutching kidlit purists on every corner of the Upper East Side, director-producer Gary Winick sez his underfinanced production entity InDigEnt is no more, reports Reuters’ Larry Fine. It’ll “shut down in January, bringing an end to the high-profile production outfit that championed low-cost, independent and digital movie making,” as Fine kindly describes the enterprise. “I couldn’t keep it together. As of January we’re biting the dust after six years,” 
Winick said. “I kind of think we had our moment in time. Unfortunately there is no million-dollar film any more that actually gets in the market place and makes some money because the studios want the Capotes and the Sideways [sic]… they want the $8-million film to make a $100 million instead of the $1-million to make $10 (million). That’s the problem,” he said.” InDigEnt notably used consumer-level cameras to make professional features, with visually disappointing results, including a non-metaphorical lack of consistent focus. Reuters’ Fine remains gullible about the potential of the medium: “In recent years, however, even independent films have become more expensive to produce as more and more stars work in them. And as the movies’ box office has improved, money from the specialty divisions of major studios has raised the stakes.” Winick, like a seer from a past century, sums it up this way, compounding his interest in money: “I think the good news is that the Internet, it’s not there yet, but it’s going to shift something to get independent film back where it will become lucrative again.” Ah, the Internets. Use the Google and become rich in your spare time at home!
