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.

Mentors are role models who take a vested interest in your success. Sometimes, you meet your mentor when least expected, and they will help guide your filmmaking career.

A mentor will provide insight and will often direct you toward a successful outcome. This doesn’t necessary mean your mentor will enter into a business relationship with you, but he or she may offer necessary encouragement, advice and influence which will help you get closer to your goal. Your mentor will be there to answer questions.

Have you ever heard the phrase: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear?” Even though this sounds mystical, for me, finding a mentor has always happened without planning.

When I graduated college, one of my most influential mentors appeared in my life. After sending a resume and cover letter to every film and video company I could think of (and getting no response), I finally landed an interview with a guy named Joe Surges. Joe gave me my first job in the motion picture industry.

It didn’t pay very well, but Joe was willing to teach me everything he knew. He coached me through the easy times and pushed me through the tough times with unrelenting encouragement. When I planned my move to New York City, Joe made some phone calls.

Joe connected me with a friend who then connected me to another friend who offered me my first job.

Later, I was working on a feature. When our project completely fell apart, I found myself stuck in New York with no money and rising bills. I thought it was the end of my movie making world. Heck, I even thought it was the end of my apartment. But at that time, it was Joe who told me to quit complaining and get back to work.

His advice was the best.

Then, a year later, prior to his passing, Joe told me something that’s been rolling over and over in my mind ever since. He said, “You never know which ripple will hit the shore first.”

Since that time, whenever I’m hit with a new challenge, I play those words over and over in my mind. And through this practice, I’ve conditioned myself to find the opportunity in every obstacle.

While Joe taught me a lot about writing, directing and producing, it was his values, his life standard and his expectations which influenced me to create a higher standard in everything I do.

If it wasn’t for Joe’s mentoring, I would have never gone to NYC, would have never made a movie and would have never fell on my financial face—and recovered. Consequently, I would have never made the move to California, produced features or written these words.

Mentors have been there. They reach out and help you grow as a person. And I believe mentors are essential for our success.

Posted under FILMMAKING

As president and CEO of From the Heart Productions, Carole Lee Dean produced over 100 programs, including the popular cable program, HealthStyles, and the historical show, Filmmakers, now housed in the National Archives. As an entrepreneur she created Studio Film & Tape, and sold it to Edgewise in 2001. She created a business supporting independent filmmakers in the 70’s with raw stock and coined the name “short ends.”

In 1992, she created the Roy W. Dean Grant Foundation in honor of her late father. To date, Carole’s grant and mentorship programs have provided filmmakers with millions of dollars in goods and services and have played an instrumental role in creating important documentary films. She is the author of The Art of Film Funding: Alternative Financing Concepts and The Art of Manifesting: Creating your Future.

Carole stopped by Filmmaking Stuff to share some ideas about filmmaking.

Jason Brubaker
Could you tell us a little bit about your work and how you got into the industry?

I was married to a cameraman and went to the set each Friday night and watched them unloading those little pieces of film that I termed “short ends.” I started a business of buying them from the studios and selling to independents, thus supporting the birth of the independent film market. I found that studios even sold new film because cinematographers wanted all one emulsion so I took the 10 or 15K feet of new and sold to people like Cassavetes.

Jason Brubaker
Wow! It is amazing how those “little pieces of film” changed the motion picture industry.

Carole Lee Dean
After a few years of selling “short ends” major video companies came to me to market their stocks and I expanded into tape. I started with $20.00 from the grocery money and sold it when my sales were at $9 million a year to Edgewise.

Jason Brubaker
This is an example of taking action on an idea and bringing it to fruition, much like a movie producer.

Carole Lee Dean
Yes, I believe in manifesting. It’s a process of releasing a potential that was already there. That short ends business was just waiting for me. Thank heavens I did not know how to do a corporate business plan or I would have known that I needed a lot more money. My belief that I could do it overcame the lack of money. I bought it and sold it the same day and most importantly I always saw it as a big business.

Jason Brubaker
It’s important to think big.

Carole Lee Dean
Look at a piece of coal; it’s a black rock, right? Well, if you ignite it you have heat and light, that potential was there you just had to release it. The same applies for filmmakers.

Jason Brubaker
Yeah. I think the key to dreams is internal, not external.

Carole Lee Dean
I tell them to realize their genius. How many people would give their right arm to be a scriptwriter? Most filmmakers are writers, producer’s even actors and editors. You are Pure genius and its important to know that so you have faith in yourself and your ability to make and finish your film. By seeing your film on a daily basis, knowing each shot, You are projecting into the future a vision that you can release with your faith and confidence. Fred Alan Wolf, physicist says that when we are daydreaming and visualizing clearly we are creating that future and that a handshake across time occurs and somewhere in the future it happens just as you saw and felt.

Jason Brubaker
I have experienced what you’re talking about. Sometimes things come into my life when I least expect them.

Carole Lee Dean
My father was responsible for the student discount. I spent every Sunday with him and He began this relentless weekly request for me to give a student discount. I agreed to 3%. He said it was not good enough. Then I went to 5%. Still not good enough so finally to keep peace I agreed to 15% discount.

Jason Brubaker
I’m sure the independent filmmakers were appreciative!

Carole Lee Dean
When Fuji gave me the exclusive national distribution of their 16 & 35mm stocks I set a goal for myself to sell in 9 months and Fuji said, “Oh, that’s too high you will never hit that.” I did hit it and I asked them to give me a larger discount and my priority that I told them was non negotiable was a 15% discount for students. I got this discount and after the first ad was printed, Kodak matched that 15%!!!

Jason Brubaker
And that care for supporting indie filmmakers has stayed with you. The Roy W. Dean Film and Writing Grants have become some of the most well known for independent filmmaker. Could you tell us what criteria you look for when you evaluate potential projects for a grant?

Carole Lee Dean
I want great stories with compelling characters. We fund shorts, indies and docs that are under $500K budgets. The films must be unique and make a contribution to society. Look on the site under grants for prior winners for the type of films we fund. We just started taking features and I want to see one win.

Jason Brubaker
How long does the evaluation process take?

Carole Lee Dean
We have the first cut of finalists on the site in 60 days and your name will stay on for a year, which is very good PR. Next cut is made on the site. We highlight the top 15, then top 10, then top 5 and announce the winner. All this takes about 2 to 3 more months. Filmmakers go through 3 sets of judges.

Jason Brubaker
Let’s say you’re a filmmaker and you’re not selected? Do you offer any sort of consultation or advice to those filmmakers?

Carole Lee Dean
Everyone who applies gets a free 15 minute consultation with me. We can talk about financing your specific film or how to improve your package or marketing or, anything you want. This grant is very dear to me and I like to see you improve from entering it. Our aim is to help you get funded.

Jason Brubaker
In your book The Art of Funding Your Film, you provide a very comprehensive overview of the funding process. Given all the rules and SEC regulations, what advice do you have for filmmakers who have never funded a movie – where do they get started?

Carole Lee Dean
It all starts with a great story. That’s the most important part, work on the store, give me compelling characters that I want to spend 90 minutes with. Write and keep writing and rewriting. Send your work out to really good screenwriters for review and listen to them. Read “Save the Cat,” my favorite book on writing. Take your script to the highest level possible.

Jason Brubaker
And once you have a great script?

Carole Lee Dean
Then go to work on your business plan and find good comparison films that you can easily defend. Be honest with your return on investment, always say hypothetical ROI and show one film in comparisons that did not make a profit. Put yourself in your investor’s shoes. Would you take a million from your parents to make your film? Do you seriously think you can pay it back? Keep investors interest your priority.

Jason Brubaker
You have been very passionate about helping filmmakers manifest their dreams into reality. I read your book long before I had produced my first feature. And I can remember times when everyone in my life seemed to think my movie making goals were pipe dreams. What advice do you have for filmmakers who are working to overcome self doubt?

Carole Lee Dean
If you were making movies 20 years ago it would cost you 10 times more to make a film. So ask yourself, “why was I given so much talent and born during the third most important time in the history of mankind.” Here you are with a great opportunity and all that talent. Do you really believe the universe would put you here at this time and not finance you? Of course not.

Jason Brubaker
That is a good way to think. Especially on those days where self doubt creeps in.

Carole Lee Dean
You need to believe in your talents and know that the money will come. Do all those things on your “to do list” and keep seeing your finished film. You will find doors open where there were no doors before. You are your greatest asset.

Jason Brubaker
I know you have been trying to find ways to bring filmmakers together to share ideas.

Carole Lee Dean
From the Heart is now producing events and I will give all of your members a 15% discount on any of our products and events if your people put GRANT in the coupon code.

To learn more about the Roy W. Dean Grant or some of Carole’s upcoming filmmaking events, check out the website.

Posted under FILM FINANCING, INTERVIEWS

For those of you considering producing your first feature, hiring a good 1st Assistant director is an invaluable part of the process. Why? Well a 1st AD is in charge of taking your screenplay, breaking it down and providing the initial schedule. That information is later used to budget your movie. And the budget is used in your business plan – which is used to attract potential movie investors.

Break Down and Schedule
Breaking down the script means you go through your screenplay, number each scene and highlight each element, including locations, characters, props, make up, wardrobe, picture vehicles and special FX…

All of these things cost money. And once the script is locked, any modification you make to the story or schedule, no matter how minor or major, will subsequently impact the budget.

If money is tight, you might consider performing your own breakdown long before you bring on a 1st AD. If you go this route, I suggest doing a web search for Gorilla Film Production Software or Movie Magic (formerly branded as Entertainment Partners). With these tools, you’ll have some help as you break down and schedule your movie.

In the event you want some more information about the mechanics of script breakdown and film scheduling, my very accomplished movie industry friend Peter Marshall has put together one heck of an online course. I have included a video below that provides more detail.

If you’re interested in learning more about Peter D. Marshall’s Script Breakdown and Film Scheduling Course For Indie Filmmakers, you can CLICK HERE or just bookmark this page for a later time. Additionally, if you know other filmmakers who might benefit from Peter’s insight, spread the word by clicking on one of those little buttons below.

Posted under FILMMAKING

If you’ve made a movie or you’re working to make your movie (and I hope you are), you might also be thinking about how you’re going to sell the sucker.

I mean, despite the fact that filmmaking is fun there is a business component to it. If you fail to think in terms of Return On Investment (ROI), then getting money for your next movie is going to be even more difficult than the first, for two reasons:

1. You’ll need to worry about money to put food on the table.
2. Your prospective investors will want to see your track record.

As a filmmaker, the other factor we have to consider is our initial budget. Go too high and the chance of return could diminish. Let me explain.

I’ve chatted with a few heavy-hitting friends in the industry (that I hope to interview soon) and there is talk about what I’m going to call the “no-man’s-land” of indie movie production. That is, there is a budget range from roughly 2.5M-10M that is becoming increasingly difficult to finance.

Tax credits and other deals aside – What I’m suggesting is due, in large part to changes in movie distribution and the subsequent challenge of generating enough revenue to recoup the initial investment.

Indie film financing was always a crap shoot – but take away potential sales channels and add the fact that technology now permits virtually anyone to make a decent looking movie and you can begin to understand why this is happening.

While I’m on the subject, I’m not just talking about the indie movies. I’m including studios as well. Thanks to the success of Paranormal Activity,  there is now word that Paramount is going to launch a micro budget division and begin to churn out movies under 100K.

From a business standpoint this makes sense. You invest 100K and you get 100M – That’s pretty good! (Understatement).  But from holy crap perspective, the ripple effect of a studio churning out no-to-low budget movies could potentially rip a hole in the ways Hollywood traditionally operates. (BTW, Paramount is not the first studio to attempt this. But thanks to VOD outlets and more digital projectors in theaters, what didn’t work at this budget level in the past could very well work now.)

Lets talk some numbers…

Traditionally, when movies are financed most people including grips, gaffers, craft services and other crew – they get paid on the front end as part of the movie’s budget. We can also include some agents, managers, lawyers, Teamsters, writers, actors – and mostly everyone else too.

On the micro budget level however, there isn’t enough money up-front to pay these folks what they were formally worth. So there are a few options. Hire less people. Hire non-union folks. And offer to pay Teamsters deferred pay with the added bonus of copy and credit. (I’m adding some humor here – but can you imagine Paramount trying to offer a Teamster deferred pay?)

Ok, so what does this mean for you and your movies? Well just look at the music industry. Recording studios and record companies took a nose dive. But that hasn’t stopped people from making music or making money making music.

Instead of asking some idiot in a suit for permission to make music, musicians can now find their audiences, build a following and sell their music… Without a middle man – globally. That’s pretty amazing.

The same wide open world applies to your movie. Do good work and people will notice. Do bad work, and well, you still have the opportunity to find the 20 people in the world who think you’re brilliant. And in terms of pay structure – I made a joke earlier about deferred pay. But I am not totally opposed to some well structured back end deals. I mean, 1/4th of 1% of 100M is – it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Of course, as we all know there is no guarantee that any movie project will make money. So for you and me and most indies, it will take roughly two years of hustle to churn out a movie that we can be proud of. For the studios, they are going to churn out micro-budget movies like widgets in a factory.  The odds of success, for both of us  – the indie filmmakers and the studio are getting closer equal.

And I think that is something worth celebrating.

Is anyone else excited about this? Please feel free to comment.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION