This site will feature the current, up to the minute honest reports on how things are going, with commentary direct from Kevin on why they did it, what’s coming next, how things are coming along, and the like.

The first post, “As the Sundance Dust Settles”, might be the best essay from Mr. Smith on the “Red State” philosophy yet. Just when you think he’s said all he’s got to say, he one-ups himself with an even better bit of insight on what he’s up to, and why. Read the full post exclusively at the new site — But to get an idea, here’s a quick look:

Iíd only ever sold a film one time previously, but that one time was all it took. Clerks was made for $27,575 and sold for $227,000, seventeen years ago. What could a $4 million dollar flick go for? Happy, Texas sold for $10 mil at Sundance twelve years ago, but those days are long gone. Buried sold for $6 million last year, so I started figuring that the best Red State could get in this economy would be the same: about $6 million.

What would happen then? Like, let’s say Lion’s Gate picked up Red State. Lion’s Gate spends an almost standard $20 mil to open any flick (which is lower than the industry norm; LG is actually one of the more frugal studios, spending less on marketing than the majors). So now, my flick doesn’t cost $4 million anymore, it costs $24 million. It’s gotta make $24 million to break even and start seeing profit. But the studio/distributor doesn’t get all that box office, so assume the studio only gets back half of that announced box office figure. Suddenly my little $4 million dollar movie has to make $50 million JUST TO BREAK EVEN. Like, what happened? Instead of spending all that money trying to make the movie, it’s spent on trying to convince people to come see your shit.

And where’s that $20 million go? It’s called ‘P&A’ – prints and advertising. But the print portion of that equation – physically creating the reels of film that make up the movie – is pretty low: it costs between two and three grand to make five or six reels of a motion picture (the costs of a digital print are lower, but not as many theaters project digitally yet, so we’ll be making more film prints than digi-prints). So let’s say you make a thousand prints: you’re looking at $2 to $3 million dollars.

That leaves $17/18 million of the P&A to account for. Where’s that big chunk going? TV Commercials, full page newspaper/magazine ads, billboards and bus stop ads, thousands of mini-prints of trailers, press junkets, airfare.

Read it all, complete with a bunch of photos, lots of background, and all the passion you could ever hope for out of a filmmaker, at the brand new Red Statements site.