Author, director, cinematographer, and editor Steven Soderbergh has many skills, however he attributes profession longevity to 1 ability above all.
“I’m somebody who tries to be adaptable,” stated Soderbergh when he was a visitor on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast earlier this 12 months. “I really feel just like the cockroach of the trade, like there’s no model of this that I can’t work in, irrespective of how nuclear it will get.”
In his 36 years of creating movies and tv, Soderbergh has seen the enterprise undergo its share of ups, downs, shifting developments, and technological revolutions. All through, Soderbergh remained prolific, whether or not it meant rebooting the once-dead “Ocean’s 11” franchise, taking pictures motion pictures on an iPhone, or making an attempt his hand at self-distribution. Irrespective of how a lot the way in which motion pictures are watched or made has modified, he saved making authentic and surprising movies.
Which is why, contemplating how difficult issues are for indie filmmakers in 2025, we requested what his recommendation can be for first-time characteristic filmmakers breaking into the trade.
“Proper now, by way of what’s attracting individuals and what generates chatter, if I had been beginning out and I had any curiosity and proclivity in any respect, I’d be wanting towards the horror-thriller style to make my transfer,” stated Soderbergh.
Soderbergh’s 1989 “Intercourse, Lies, and Videotape,” one of the vital profitable indie debuts ever, is usually credited because the movie that helped usher within the Nineteen Nineties American indie wave. The small movie was not solely lauded by critics and acquired competition accolades, but it surely additionally discovered surprising industrial success by tapping into American viewers’s starvation for the adult-oriented movies of the Seventies.
“‘Intercourse, Lies’ was simply my ripoff of [Mike Nichols’ 1971 film] ‘Carnal Data,’” Soderbergh stated. “It was designed to be small as a result of it will be low-cost. In case you’re beginning out now, your greatest wager is to be working in a style area if you wish to get one thing financed. And a number of the most attention-grabbing filmmaking is occurring particularly within the horror style recently.”
Because the launch of “Che: Half I & II” in 2008, Soderbergh stated, he thinks of himself as completely a style filmmaker. He ran down the handfuls of initiatives he’s made over the past 17 years: “Contagion” is horror, “Behind the Candelabra” a biopic, “The Knick” a health care provider present, and so forth. Soderbergh views style as a path to your work being seen; the construction it provides can be liberating.
“I’ve stated, and imagine, the proof is throughout us, [genre] is simply such an ideal supply system for no matter concepts you’re considering,” stated Soderbergh. “Everyone wins. For an viewers who likes that style, in case you’ve been respectful of the pillars of that style, it’s working on this sort of superficial degree, they’ll learn it there. After which there’s all this different stuff you’ll be able to pack beneath that to maintain it from being single-use plastic.”
Soderbergh additionally sees indicators that, regardless of the doom-and-gloom in regards to the state of flicks, there may be motive to imagine a brand new era of indie filmmakers additionally could have a brand new era of arthouse audiences to embrace their work.
“The excellent news is although, from what I collect speaking to individuals at Neon, Focus, and A24, is younger individuals are going to the films, and the numbers bear this out,” stated Soderbergh.
The “Black Bag” director stated he believed using outdated metrics are one motive conventional moviemaking seems like it’s evaporating. He pointed to the success of Metrograph — the New York Metropolis unbiased theater that discovered a youthful city viewers with adventurous programming, and has moved into distribution — for example of what’s doable.
“Metrograph is a bunch that I’ve stayed very, very carefully in contact with as a result of that’s a scalable mannequin — a college city of 25,000-to-30,0000 individuals can assist a Metrograph,” stated Soderbergh. “We have to change the metric of what a hit is and cease utilizing the studio mannequin as a result of the underside line is Metrograph may be very profitable. So the query now’s: Can we do 20 of them? As a result of that’s an actual enterprise.”
To listen to Soderbergh’s full interview, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.