One thing I disagree with you is craft being the difference. It isn’t. Someone who masters their craft deserves the utmost of respect from me. But they don’t necessarily make good films. Or books. Or houses. Mastering your craft means years of mediocrity. And during those years so many people loose their drive, their vision and the courage and settle for that mediocrity (and the semi-steady paycheck).

I’m a long way from Hollywood, almost on the other side of the world in Finland. Our film business is small and filmmakers are always starving. In the 80’s and 90’s we had craftsmen, people who had years of experience in their field making films. And they were shit. It took the digital revolution and abandonment of the old way of becoming a filmmaker to get new voices on screen. They did not have to go trough the blender, work unsatisfying projects for ten years and forget what it was that they wanted to do. One of the best youth films to be made in this country in the last 10 years (What Become of Us – if anyone wants to look it up) was made by a bunch of 20-year-olds who bought a camera and just made a film – without pay, without a budget.

I just wish the digital rebels will also re-ignite the fire inside the craftsmen to do what they love, not just what’s good enough.

It’s NOT a story/substance that makes a good film.  It’s not a FORM either.  in Art, HOW is WHAT and one cannot exist without the other.

That’s it.  If you don’t know what it means, you better start from the scratch whatever you’re doing or keep gleefully eating popcorn.