Patrick Goldstein provides a great background piece on a new series on MTV called “$5 Cover”:

If there is one thing that every studio, network and cable channel has in common these days, it’s that they are all frantically obsessed with finding the Next Hot New Thing — i.e. a compelling pop culture concept or phenomenon that will spawn a new hit franchise. Though there are obvious exceptions — like Universal’s “Bourne” series — most franchises end up feeling like they are far more about commerce than art, whether it’s the slimy horror series (“Saw”), the heist series (“Ocean’s Eleven” and its sequels) or the comic-book visual effects series (“Fantastic Four”), not to mention all of TV’s endless “CSI” and “Law & Order” permutations.

But what would happen if you put the franchise reins in the hands of an indie filmmaker, gave him creative control over its content and launch, anchored it in a city’s vibrant underground music scene and turned it into a new media series that would play on multiple platforms, on screens small, smaller and hand-held tiny?

Do you remember the movie Hustle & Flow (2005)? Here’s the trailer:

The movie was written and directed by Craig Brewer and he’s the creator of “$5 Cover”:

“For me, local is the new global,” says Brewer, who still makes his home in Memphis, even though he visits Hollywood when he’s trying to move ahead on various film projects. “There’s something incredibly satisfying for an artist to be part of a local community, but where thanks to the Web, people all over the world have a chance to peek in and see what you’re doing.”

Brewer says that if he’d pitched the idea of an ensemble story about music in Memphis as a feature film, with just a rough outline instead of a script, it would’ve never been bought, at least not without a studio insisting on prominent actors and musicians in the leading roles. By going to MTV, which had released “Hustle & Flow,” he knew he could have more autonomy. The series’ spice comes from the colorful characters who inhabit the local music scene, including a bewitching stand-up bassist named Amy LaVere, rap impresario Al Kapone, garage band poster girl Clare Grant and a hip-hop circus ringmaster known as Muck Sticky.

For Brewer, a key to the project was having real local musicians play themselves. “There’s a generation of people growing up where do-it-yourself entertainment and amateur acting is commonplace and completely natural,” he says. “Everyone knows about reality TV, everyone has a video camera. So you see a lot of films being made now that aren’t bound by a script or a schedule. We’re just the tip of the iceberg.”

Two interesting ideas here: (1) “Local is the new global.” Everybody from sociologists to cultural anthropologists to market analysts to futurists have commented on the trend toward subcultures, niche entertainment, and individuality. There’s the theory of “The Long Tail”. But Brewer’s articulation may hit more of the ‘truth’ — at least as it relates to storytelling — than anything else I’ve read. (2) “There’s a generation of people growing up where do-it-yourself entertainment and amateur acting is commonplace and completely natural.” Boy, is that true. In the most recent non-scripted pilot we shot, I was amazed to see how much the real life participants understood about TV production. In fact, one of them kept trying to direct the scene. “Hey, why don’t we shoot the monitor over my shoulder, then reverse the angle for a reaction shot?”

MTV is clearly excited about “$5 Cover”:

Gale sees “$5 Cover,” which cost roughly $350,000 to produce, as a much more interactive experience. “In the old days, you saw a video and you bought the record,” he says. “Now you can watch the series, then see the mini-docs and background pieces, and right at your fingertips, you have a much more deep, immersive experience into the world of Memphis music. I think Craig has found a really innovative way to tell these stories in so many different formats.”

Confident that the series will find an audience, either on the Web or on its channel, MTV is already moving ahead with plans to team up with another indie filmmaker who would base the next installment in Seattle. But if you ask Brewer, the real excitement comes from capturing the local flavor of his hometown.

So maybe all the hand-wringing about the demise of independent filmmaking is misplaced. Maybe indie filmmakers have an outlet desperate for new ideas: TV and new media.

For more background on the series, you can go here to their website. And here’s a taste of the show: