So the film world is crackling with anticipation over how we'll get our films in the future. Caveh Zahedi wrote an eloquent manifesto for self-distribution in Filmmaker Magazine. Withoutabox.com, Myspace.com, and Yahoo! My Movies all want to make some type of community for filmmakers over the Internet. Google Video Upload, iTunes Video Podcasts, and a host of video download sites cloning like mogwai each week are all trying to standardize video download as a viable option. Mark Cuban's doing his part on multiple fronts with Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Theaters, HDNet, and Truly Indie. Then there's the gray beards from the original dot.com days: Movielink and Cinemanow (who still don't support Mac). Meanwhile, many young filmmakers are grabbing a Sony PD-150 and shooting their opus on the first few months of life post-graduation, then pursuing any one or all of these channels to reach an audience. Oh, and there's this online community built on love for film called Spout. Check it out. Or at least read the blog.

The Titanic of the old Hollywood system is going down. The unsinkable ship built on Thomas Edison's moving picture camera wasn't prepared for the digital age. The aristocracy are nobly buying off the porters for seats on the life boats. Third class filmmakers are scampering through the halls looting, pillaging, and generally reveling in the anarchy. Jay Epstein over at Slate.com is covering the play by play. And online startups are passing out 4x6 cards with their logo printed on them to all the passengers (you'll see ours at SXSW).

So to get my bearings I'm taking a look back to where we've been so I can get a sense of where all this is going.

1) Although the means of storytelling have been modernized for our pleasure, it doesn't appear our addiction to stories around the campfire and painting on cave walls is going anywhere.

2) Many great films have been made since Hollywood was turned from a farming community into the entertainment capital of the world. Look at 1939, the first Golden Age of cinema: Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Hitchcock's Rebecca. Also, countless pieces of crap have been produced. Memory has a way of sifting out the crap. It sifted out the crap then and will sift out the crap now.

3) Since the WWII generation hung up their fatigues and joined the workforce, the job market has gradually diversified. College grads today may be inundated with possible directions to take career-wise, but the probability they'll someday find a job that really suits their individuality is at an all time high. Same with all this video download, Long Tail, online community building jargon. In the end, we may look fondly on the simple days when the only thing worth seeing at the theater was Will Smith's latest flick, but the films we collect will be far more tailored to our refined interests, rather than limited to our base and blunt interests.

4) Rosemary's Baby, The Blair Witch Project, Silence of the Lambs, Primer, Fritz Lang's M, The Sixth Sense and Open Water all have two things in common. A) They're thrilling. B) They're all made by smart filmmakers. The future may involve scores and scores of films with high and low budgets clamoring for our attention, but it's the smart filmmakers and they're smart films who'll get it.

Big inhale. Big exhale.

So. Seen any good movies lately?