Filmmaking Stuff Filmmaking Stuff provides resources for independent filmmakers. The website includes articles on how to take a story idea from script to screen, including articles on scriptwriting, producing, finance, shooting, editing, directing, marketing, distribution and how to build an audience. Filmmaking Stuff also has articles detailing how to make money making movies – including interviews with Hollywood Producers, Directors, writers and other filmmaking professionals.

Ok. About 12 years ago, I produced and directed my second short film. And earlier tonight, after drinking some wine, I came up with the brilliant idea to post it here.

So here you go. Remember, I did this 12 years ago. So despite the fact that I’m cringing – I post it as inspiration… If someone who makes movies like this can go on to produce features – then there is hope for us all. What the heck are you waiting for? Go make a movie!

If you are looking to make a short film, but you have no idea how to get started, you might want to check out 101 Short Film Ideas

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

Super 8 Image via Wikipedia

Like most filmmakers, I constantly spend my life pushing myself from project to my next project. I have been in LA for close to six years, and in that time, I’ve garnered producer credits on four features. Pretty fun.

But I gotta tell you, as we enter the remaining six months of 2011, I am trying very hard to do a little less grinding, and hopefully finding time to have a lot more fun.

Yesterday I sat through two movies. And during that time, with my phone turned off, I realized once again why it’s awesome to make movies. We make movies because sharing our work with the world is special and magical. We have stories and we need to tell them.

As a filmmaker, it’s essential to recharge your creative batteries at least once a week… I’m interested to know what you do to unwind. Filmmaking comments welcome below >>

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

If you have a Kindle, and enjoy reading filmmaking stuff – I wanted to let you know that you can now access this Filmmaking Stuff blog right on your Amazon Kindle. Cool right?

In just a few clicks of your Kindle, you’ll be able to read articles as they become available. Here is the link:

Filmmaking Stuff – Read This Blog On Kindle

Outside of this, I am busting my butt to release some more products later this summer. I can’t wait to tell you more… So STAY TUNED.

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

Debt sucks Filmmakers Dry Image via Wikipedia

As a filmmaker, having FU money makes it easy to take chances that may result in the successful realization of your movie dreams. But with high debt and no FU money, you may find yourself at a severe disadvantage.

My first credit card purchase was in college. I used plastic to pay rent for a semester. Then I purchased a Star Wars poster from one of those late night shopping channels. Then I bought a pizza and a case of beer. After that…

Ten years later, I carried a revolving $5,000 balance. Sometimes I got lucky and paid it down. Once, I even paid it off in full. But like a failed diet, after a couple months, I found myself right smack back where I was before—and sometimes I was even worse off!

Why was I doing this?

After talking with some of my friends who were free of credit card debt, I soon realized people get into debt for the following reasons:

• Most people spend more than they make.
• Most people identify themselves as people in debt.

After giving my debt addiction considerable thought, I realized my external debt was actually a reflection of my internal beliefs. In other words, somewhere in my mind, I identified myself as someone in debt.

This was reflected in my everyday conversations about money. I would say things like: “I have debt.” Or, “I’m in debt.” Or, “I have $5,000 in debt.” Talking like this only served to reinforce my debt-burdened identity. As a result, I continued to swipe plastic over and over.

Your peer group will influence your success in life. Once I moved to Hollywood, I dated a woman who made less money than me, yet always seemed to have money and lived debt free. Hanging out with her changed my beliefs about debt. I started to think debt was unacceptable. I realized I too could live debt free. Then I stopped using my credit cards and began a plan of recovery.

It may take you a week or ten years, but if you want to become powerful in Hollywood and make a living making movies, you need to eradicate your credit card debt. To achieve this, you must first change your words; which will change your thoughts; which will change your beliefs; which will eventually change your actions; which will subsequently change your bank balance!

My personal debt reduction tid-bits:

1. Hang out with people who are debt free.
2. Freeze your credit card in a block of ice and don’t use it.
3. Talk about yourself as if you already live debt free.

In addition to the above action steps, starting TODAY, even if it sounds like a lot of BS, repeat the following mantra every morning until you believe your words:

1. I have lots of money saved up.
2. Using credit cards kills my dreams.
3. I pay myself first.

Remember, the faster you break your credit card addiction, the faster you free yourself up to make movies.

So let me give you one tip – STOP USING YOUR CREDIT CARD! In this way, at least you won’t continually make your debt worse. And once you break the cycle of using your credit card, you can start shift your strategy towards debt repayment and also, the accumulation of FU money.

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

As a filmmaker, having the correct tools really helps improve your moviemaking. I created a short eBook full of pocketsized filmmaking tips and tricks. If you would like a copy, just click the picture below. There is no opt-in requirement necessary.

If you like the information, make sure you tell your friends.

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

Image via Wikipedia

If you’re just tuning into this filmmaking article, this is part 2 of my 7 part filmmaker series on how How To Sell Your Movie On iTunes, Amazon and Netflix For Maximum Profit.

Step 2. Target Your Target Audience.

Once you have refined your movie concept, you can use this as a springboard to further locate blogs, websites and publications already targeting your target audience. For example, when you Google “boxing” you will get over forty-nine million results. This is not surprising. Interests such as boxing, horror movies, martial arts and race car driving have prominence in our culture. But if your movie focuses on more obscure subjects, you will have to dig deeper.

Thankfully, even if your core audience is esoteric and comprised of a small population spread all over the globe, the internet provides a great tool for reaching them. Assuming you find websites and traditional publications targeting your audience, your next step is to reach out and request their demographic statistics. These stats will tell you how many people subscribe to the publication and will often provide details on age and gender.

Once you have a good understanding of your target audience, all future advertising, marketing language and your trailer should be created with your target audience in mind. Then later, when your movie enters the marketplace, this initial research will provide you a contact list full of organizations that may help you promote your movie.

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course, DISTRIBUTION

Before you produce a feature film or speak with any potential investors regarding your movie project, you should first speak with a qualified professional on ways you can protect your personal assets from liability.

CREATE A PRODUCTION COMPANY

As a filmmaker, the moment you start putting your project together, you’re in business. It is at this point that many filmmakers get a business card and set up a website, touting the wonders of their upcoming projects. It is also at this point when many costly mistakes are made. How you decide to establish and conduct your filmmaking business can have legal and tax ramifications.

As such, the moment you decide to start putting a project together, you should also seek out the legal and tax advice of qualified professionals. After meeting with these folks, you might find that operating your production company under the protection of a corporate entity (such as a corporation or LLC)  may provide safeguards that you otherwise were not aware of.

The steps of setting up a business entity are pretty simple, but they could be a little costly depending on your state (or country) laws and tax liabilities. Also, as a general disclaimer, I am not qualified to offer legal or tax advice. So I can only talk about my own experience – which may not be right for you.

The following considerations are worth pondering:

ACTION

1. Once you have a desired company name, chat with an attorney about establishing a proper legal structure for your company. Each state is different in terms of laws and tax consequences. Create a team of trusted tax and legal advisers. These folks will help guide you towards raising money and also keeping everything legal.
2. I REPEAT — Talk with a qualified professional first. If you’re short on cash, many states offer an organization of lawyers for the arts. Check with your state film commission or do a web search for appropriate contact information.
3. Once you establish your company, create a website, logo and a business card. These marketing materials will share consistent colors, fonts and logos. Make sure everything looks great. But… If you are spending more time focused on the “look” of your company, you’ve lost perspective. Your primary goal is to make movies, not fiddle with websites.

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

FILM FESTIVALS

Film festivals offer a great way to get your movie seen on the big screen in front of a living audience.  I mean, it’s enough to make you lose some sleep with excitement. I remember one of our earliest festivals. We were invited to some private party in a fancy hotel in Hollywood. There were a few celebrities and respected indie filmmakers milling about.

But what was really odd, was the fact that most everyone approached our director and myself and introduced themselves in an overly friendly way. What we didn’t realize that night was – we were about to win an award!!!

The next night, we arrived on the FOX Studio Lot – that’s where they had the award ceremony. I can remember how exciting it was when they called our name and we claimed the award with flash bulbs going off in our eyes. It was totally surreal and amazing. After that, we had about a two week open door to submit our spec screenplays to various agents and managers.

But getting into the festival, winning the award and creating professional relationships was a result of careful planning. First we had to make the movie. After that, we had to submit our movie to a festival appropriate for our material – and gain acceptance. After that, various judges had to watch the movie and make judgments.

What I’m saying is, the stars have to align just right to get into a festival and win an award. But assuming you want to potentially experience an awesome audience reaction to your movie and also, make friends with like minded filmmakers – here are some actions/tips:

ACTION

1. Submit to film festivals. I’ve had some success with withoutabox — Do your research. What festivals usually feature your type of movie? Is the festival good for awards, meeting distribution folks or simply somewhere you can get free beer? Watch out for festivals that try have a reputation of not treating filmmakers very well.
2. Make sure you network your way around the festivals. The judges are supposed to be impartial. But they are human and often attend the parties. Make sure you are nice to everyone… And make sure you “sell” your film to anyone who will listen.
3. If you are contacted by an acquisition executive, good for you. If not, consider getting a good sales rep for your movie. If one of these professionals approaches you, make sure you do your homework. Watch out for people who try to charge you up front. There are a few good companies that do this… But for the most part, if an agency or a sales rep offers to represent your movie, they usually take a profit on the back end.

Obviously navigating the festival circuit is pretty broad. So if you would like more information specific to the crazy world of film festivals, you should check out the following guide: Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide Fouth Edition: The Essential Companion for Filmmakers and Festival-Goers

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

Editing your movie is the final rewrite of your film. This is the time when you add all sorts of amazing layers to your work and smooth out the rough edges and finally – complete the picture.

EDIT YOUR  MOVIE

When you reach this point in the filmmaking process, prepare to sit for hours in a dark edit suite. Now, even if you’ve edited your previous shorts – with a feature, you might consider getting a second set of eyes in the edit suite. I prefer to work with an editor and then provide loose notes. I have some filmmaker buddies who prefer to cut the entire movie themselves.

Either way, the editing process will provide you a perfect opportunity to lose yourself in the rhythm of your movie. You’re going to cut some scenes out. Scenes you thought were minor will become pivotal to your story. You’re going to add music and sound FX and clean up any rough actor dialogue. You will design and you will refine.

ACTION

1. Get some music from local, talented up-and-coming bands. MAKE SURE YOU  GET A RELEASE!  Seriously.
2. Cut the entire movie into a rough cut.
3. Once you get a rough cut, have some friends watch it. After their feedback, cut  the fat. Keep the scenes that work. Repeat this process as necessary until you  have a fine tuned movie!

If you have a computer (I assume you do) but no editing software, the industry standard for editing is Avid and Final Cut (Mac).

Avid once provided a free download trial of their Avid DV software. However, this is no longer available. When I visited the website, the site redirected me to the download page for trial version of Pinnacle Studio Ultimate. I have not tried Pinnacle, so you’ll have to perform your own research.

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

As they say, when trying to promote a movie that folks have otherwise not heard of, all ink is potentially good ink.

And in this regard, even if you’re producing your movie somewhere locally you need make sure you present your marketing message with consistency. I say this because, regardless of publication or geography, most anything written about your movie will end up on the internet.

So always be mindful of how you present your project

LOCAL PUBLICITY

If you plan on producing your movie outside of major film cities, like Los Angles and NYC, then getting the attention of local press might be pretty simple. And you might even be able to attract attention for a short movie. Why is this important? Because you will want to keep an ongoing collection of all good press written about your project.

ACTION

1. If you’re shooting in a small town, contact your local news. You’ll probably get written up in the paper. You might even get interviewed for the nightly news.
2. If you’re working in Los Angeles, this could prove to be a bit more challenging, but not impossible. In the big cities, try to contact journalists who write about your type of small movie.
3. When these folks agree to profile your movie, try to think of interesting topics you can discuss.
4. If they take pictures, get yourself around some lights and equipment. That will make you look like a serious filmmaker.
5. Finally, as they say in sales, if you don’t ask for the sale, you don’t get the sale. Do not be afraid to call journalists up and treat them to lunch to discuss your project. Never know where that will go…

In The Publicity Handbook, you’ll get the Inside Scoop from More than 100 Journalists and PR professionals on how to get great publicity. If you can learn to master publicity in the early stages of your filmmaking career, imagine what you can do when you projects become ginormous!

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course