Oscilloscope Pictures: Adam Yauch's New Film Division

Adam Yauch's Oscilloscope Laboratories has added an indie film distribution department called Oscilloscope Pictures.  Yauch, aka MCA of The Beastie Boys, has already produced two indie films, Awesome; I F*ckin Shot That! and Gunnin' for That #1 Spot, and intends to continue working in D.I.Y. fashion.

Yauch wants to keep things small and personal by avoiding outsourcing and working with like-minded artists:

"The company's approach also includes giving filmmakers a smaller advance but a larger portion of the back-end profits, and involving them in the marketing of their work."

No doubt Oscilloscope Pictures will be deploying more of the techniques Yauch used when shooting Awesome; I F*ckin Shot That! which required purchasing a number of Hi8 cameras for fans to shoot footage from a Beatie Boys concert:

"[Wired] What'd you do with the Hi8s when you were done filming?"

"[Adam Yauch] We put them back in their boxes and returned them for a refund. This is low-budget filmmaking, after all. Plus, what the hell am I going to do with that many camcorders?"

But Yauch's own film haven't made that much money and marketing may be their biggest problem due to the difficulties of doing it well while keeping it real.  For example:

"It's much more of a D.I.Y. approach," Mr. Yauch said, before quickly adding that he hates that acronym. "It just sounds very packaged, like a snappy marketing thing to say."

Given that Yauch is from the generation that created and popularized the term D.I.Y. and that those are the values that he depends upon, what will such a meta-commenter do in a world in which all such meaningful terms eventually become over-used marketing fodder?

Please, Adam, just don't go ironic on us.