What Independent Filmmakers Need

This story happened awhile ago, but it was only today that the full
implication sank in.

I went to the Sundance Film Festival this year, and had the very exciting
experience of watching the premieres of films of two friends of mine - La
Misma Luna, and The Pool. Both of them truly great films.

The Pool was shown in competition, and after the first screening, I was
invited to the filmmaker's dinner, sponsored by Sundance at a very chichi
local restaurant.

At the table (that seated about 40), on each plate, was a little gift bag
that contained several items, two of which I remember. One was a lighter
shaped like a stack of poker chips. A pretty cool idea I thought, since you
could probably get it through airport security without having it
confiscated.

The second was a $100 prepaid Visa cash card (a Visa "ePassporte").
Basically a $100 gift. Even cooler. Thing is that I didn't actually try to
use it till today.

Well, I haven't been successful yet, because it requires some activation,
but along the way I gained a better understanding of what this thing was.
It's basically a rechargeable piece of plastic. You can deposit money into
your account, and the money is then available by sticking the card into an
ATM machine and entering your PIN.

Who would want to use something like this? Well, probably a person without
a bank account, or someone who is occasionally (or usually) paid in case,
and a person with poor credit, and therefore no credit card.

And who could someone like that be? Well yes. An independent filmmaker
would be a plausible target. I guess.