Thesis: starting out

I am working on my thesis "the aesthetics and economics of independent animation" which is a very interesting subject for me to explore. These are very exciting times to be in animation and I think especially the independent, or let's say for now, the smaller studio scence, is producing a never before seen mass of artistic successes while exploring new business models. I am very fascinated by the kind of artistic driven smaller and middle size studios like Studio Soi, the Mill, Studio AKA, Psyop to only name a few. But I want to explore more on the kind of Studios and single Animators that focus on telling their personal story in their films and try to get an audience and probably a revenue out of their films.(like my peer David o'Reilly, we have little fan club here :) ) How do one approaches animation as a small venture? How does one juggle artistic and economic goals and how to organize distribution and marketing?
I have talked to and conducted interviews with people that I really admire, like Fred Seibert, Bill Plymton, Nina Paley, Pat Smith, Hanan Harchol or Klaus Baumgart, the latter being a successfull Childrens Book Illustrator and my professor, but I listen to him anyway, sometimes. :) Even though my piece will mirror my personal stand point on the subject, the interviews helped me a great deal to for perspective and to examine different strategies. My starting point is that "Independent Animation" should be both the striving for artistic and narrative fullfilment and economic independence and let's see where I get from there.

Sidenote: check out the DVD promo animation for Richard Williams DVD collection the Animator's Survival Kit Animated. I bought the book in 2003 and roled with it ever since.