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The New Cinema--in my opinion--won't rest entirely on a new batch of independent (digital) filmmakers simply working outside the mainstream Hollywood "system" in order to create a sustainable new media industry. The other key component to the forthcoming New Cinema will be in the reinvented screen language and the new dynamic editing styles. New digital filmmaking tools--like the Flip cam, iPhone camera, HDSLR video, etc.--are rebuilding the visual canon for the new artist. The days of the big clunky and sometimes cumbersome "studio" cameras are behind us. With these small, efficient filmmaking instruments, we're finding ourselves shooting and shooting and--shooting.

The "setups" and "tear downs" are not going to refer to mammoth crews carrying around production equipment on sets. The new "setup" will be more organic for the independent filmmaker. An artist with the ability to shoot more liberally, without the constraints of "painting a pretty picture" for the hell of it, can now react more truthfully to the environment around him or her.

This new practice should not be viewed as a clash to "form" or "method." Filmmaking--good filmmaking--always comes down to the truthfulness behind the storytelling. Is what I'm watching viable, endearing, startling, engaging, moving or even challenging on some level? And did this uncompromising vision come from the artist--or from that artist's notion of what a movie "should" look like?

Underground cinema, with its counter-narrative demeanor and fearless sensibility, can be the gateway to introduce this "New Cinema."

Let's get out there and start shaking some bushes. And maybe our cameras too.