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.

Filmmakers with a strong vision for what they want can make it. Image via Wikipedia

Making movies is both awesome and incredibly challenging. And becoming a professional filmmaker requires a certain amount of dedication that is easy to talk about – but not always easy to live by.

In my filmmaking career, I’ve experienced heartache as well as the surreal, super exciting moments that come when people get to know me and my work. Making stories and building an audience that supports our work is the reason we do what we do.

But in order to get from point A to point B, it is essential that you create a clear and exciting vision for your filmmaking future… Because (believe me) you’ll need something exciting to focus on, should things get challenging…

… And as a filmmaker, things always get challenging.

I have known many people who started out their filmmaking careers with all the movie making passion, energy and enthusiasm in the world, only to drop their dreams at the first sign of trouble. Other friends have disappeared without ever making a movie. And one of my friends went crazy, stole a bunch of money from his filmmaking team and left town.

Why? Because creating a dream for yourself and paying the price, (no matter how hard) to realize your potential -  that’s the tough part.

I’m serious about this. Making a career making movies is a long term game. It won’t happen over night. In fact, success probably won’t find you on your first feature or your second feature film. So you have to get tough.

Here is a strategy worth applying to your own life: One of the mental attributes that all successful people share in common is a never ending ability to keep their eye on the prize. And if you’re looking for the secret formula for all your filmmaking success, it is this: patience plus unyielding persistence in a face of adversity will get you through a tough spot. NEVER give up!

GOALS

Here is what separates the professional filmmaker from the horde of crybabies.  They have goals. And you should too. And I’m not just talking general stuff, like “Hey, I want to make movies and get rich and all the crap.” Who doesn’t (on some level) want the things that sort of lifestyle offers?

But what I’m asking you to do today, dear filmmaker is to set very specific goals for your filmmaking future.

What does your ideal future look like?

In order to create meaningful success in both your filmmaking career and your life, you MUST get a clear idea of what you want. This will involve not just setting goals for yourself, but actually taking out a pen and writing them down.

The following actions will help you hone in your movie ideas, your money ideas and also help you paint a picture of the wonderful life you want to live:

ACTIONS

1. Take out some paper and write down three ideas for movies you want to make in your lifetime.
2. How much money would you like to have?
3. How much money do you have now?
4. What will you do to get the money you need?
5. The people you hang out with will influence your success. Are you hanging out with people who share your vision? Or, are you hanging out with negative people?

After this, you’ll get a pretty good idea of where you are and where you want to go. From there, you can begin to take steps in your desired direction.

Here is an affiliate recommendation. A few years back, I stumbled upon the following audio program and even though it talks about general goal setting, I totally thought it was a great tool for helping me refine my own filmmaking goals: Master Strategies for Higher Achievement: Set Your Goals and Reach Them – Fast! (Your Coach in a Box)

I don’t know if I’m hitting a nerve with you or not. But long before I made my first money making movies, I can remember driving around my small home town dreaming of a time when I would not only have a few features under my belt, but I also dreamed of a time that I could share my experience with you.

If you find yourself faced with filmmaking self doubt, you’re not alone. The important part is that you at least get a picture of what you want that is very specific. Then you should take time to work backwards. And who knows, maybe a decade from now we will be working on movie projects together.

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Jason Brubaker

If you’re familiar with Jason Brubaker’s articles in Movie Maker Magazine, The Independent and Filmmaking Stuff, or if you have seen him speak, then you know he offers an optimistic and energetic perspective on modern independent filmmaking.

If you are a meeting planner or film festival coordinator, Jason Brubaker is available for speaking, workshops and panel discussions related to the following topics:

How to Market And Sell Your Movie: With an independent movie market saturated with movies, it’s not enough to simply make a movie and expect to get paid. Luckily Jason Brubaker is a producer with a background in internet marketing and digital self distribution. In an easy to follow, step-by-step presentation, Brubaker shows audiences how to market and distribute their movies on the internet for maximum profit, without a traditional distribution deal.

“Exceptionally sharp, focused and insightful, Jason Brubaker knows how to squeeze profits out of a film release.  When I have to deal with marketing – whether it’s getting a film released or setting up a panel discussion – Jason is on my team.  He knows how to do the job and he knows how to explain the process.”

-Norman Berns; Emmy-Award Winning Producer

Keynote speaking: Do you have event, such as a film festival, film club screening, or dinner where your audience would benefit from a no BS update about modern independent filmmaking, and how to prosper – Hollywood based independent producer Jason Brubaker is available for keynote presentation. (Both domestically and internationally.)

Film Festival Panel Discussions: If your regional festival would benefit from insights related to modern filmmaking, Jason Brubaker is happy to participate. His primary topic is Digital Self Distribution and how filmmakers can make a living making movies in this ever changing (and challenging) industry.

Weekend Filmmaking Workshops: Jason Brubaker conducts weekend workshops where he teaches industry networking, producing and how to market and sell your movie through new methods in Digital Self Distribution.

1 Day Workshops: In one day, Jason Brubaker covers topics, including how to meet prospective investors, or how to market and sell your movie through new methods of Digital Self Distribution.

If you would like more information on Jason’s topics or availability, please use the following form to contact us:

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Filmmakers: Do you have websites for your movies?

When your in the filmmaking process, getting a website up and running is one of those things that filmmakers oftentimes forget. Please don’t. Given the ways in which distribution is changing, having a great website for your movie is probably one of the most important aspects of your eventual movie marketing campaign.

If you’re not technical, that’s OK. The following tips will help you:

The first step in your movie marketing campaign involves reserving some domain names. For example, once you have a title for your movie, you need to go out and reserve your website address names. These addresses are called domain names. And the names you pick will be influenced by the name of your movie.

For example, our first feature was called special dead – so we reserved the domain names www.specialdead.com and www.specialdeadmovie.com. (You’ll notice the sites are very simple. There is one objective – sell the movie. Anything that doesn’t help us achieve this objective has been cut.)

You should write down some names for your movie websites.

You can get domain names through sites like UltraCheapDomains or GoDaddy. But when it comes time to set up a website, in addition to your domain names, you will also need hosting. So I prefer a one-stop-shop.

Luckily, most hosting companies also sell domain names. I use www.MovieSiteHost.com (I get a commission when filmmakers use this link.) You can get hosting for your website there. But if you do your research, you will also find a few other places as well.

The nice part about MovieSiteHost is they give you one domain name as part of your hosting package. And the prices are incredibly affordable. Then once you’re set up, you can buy additional domains there too (not additional hosting – all of your websites can be included on one hosting account).

Once you get set up with your hosting and your domain name, the next step is actually creating a website for your movie. This is still open to your creativity. Just make sure you cut all the fluff. You website should have one purpose. You need to collect the name and email address of each visitor. These people will become your fan club and your most important asset.

Posted under Filmmaking

Social Media is not always the best tools for Filmmakers. Image via Wikipedia

If you’re a filmmaker, wondering how to break into the NEW movie business, then you’re not alone. There are a lot of changes taking shape. Some are exciting and some are super scary.

Luckily many of these changes represent great opportunities for ambitions filmmakers.  (And yes, this is a continuation of my article on how to make a living filmmaking.)

Allow me to explain. . .

Our first feature DID NOT garner a traditional distribution deal. Like a lot of filmmakers, we thought that the lack of a deal was synonymous with a lack of success. And outside of the financial returns, we really wanted validation.

But that didn’t happen. Months in the festivals resulted in a lot of talk, but no contracts. So we gave up… Almost.

But the one thing we had going for us with that feature was a marketable hook – The story was controversial and a bit “wrong.”

This enabled us to get the attention of David Strick who came to set, snapped some pictures and sold one of the shots to the now defunct, Premier Magazine.

After that issue of Premier hit the stands, our movie went viral. In a very short time, we had over 100,000 unique visits to our movie site. And while I would like to say this changed our life, it didn’t. Unfortunately, we were not ready to leverage this power – nor were we able to realize the power of website traffic. In fact, we even tried to leverage the traffic as a reason to actually get a traditional distribution deal – Ha!

Why do I say “Ha?” Certainly it is reasonable to say: “Dear traditional distribution company, we have almost a quarter of a million people who know about our movie. Can you please give us a deal?” And if you’re a traditional independent filmmaker thinking in traditional ways, then touting website traffic seems perfectly reasonable, right?

WRONG! That was 2005. We were stupid.

Knowing what I now know, our most important objective would have been to focus less on traffic, and focus more on getting visitors onto our audience list.

From now on,

1. We could have created solid relationships with our fans and made them part of the process.
2. People don’t usually buy the first time they come to a website.
3. Later we could have asked our fans to “buy now.”
4. If we had garnered a distribution deal, we could have helped promote our movie to our audience.
5. But most importantly, we could have created a prospective customer base for LIFE.

Now before I bash our marketing efforts too much – we did have a MySpace page. Out of that, we managed to get a few thousand folks to become our MySpace “friends.” And after the movie release, quite a few of those folks DID buy our movie. But we soon learned a major lesson  – once your social networking site goes out of vogue – your entire filmmaking audience list becomes worthless.

So again – it is best to focus on getting people onto a LIST that YOU control. To help you avoid my mistakes, here are TWO audience building list services that I affiliate with (because I use them):

• www.AudienceList.com allows filmmakers to capture leads from their movie website, build a mailing list, set up email newsletters and add sequential email auto-responder.

• www.ProVideoTool.com allows filmmakers to capture leads from their movie website, build a mailing list, set up email newsletters and a sequential email auto responder. But unlike the previous system, this one allows you to send your emails via video!

• And just in case you don’t have a movie website – www.MovieSiteHost.com allows filmmakers to easily get hosting, a domain name and set up a website for their movie.

Those are the affiliate sites that I use for my own filmmaking business. And I think each offers a great service for those of you who would rather make money with your movie than let it collect dust on your book shelf.

And just in case you’re wondering, our first feature is still selling like hot cakes. More on this in upcoming articles…

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If you would like my 90 page filmmaking book for free, go here:

www.FreeFilmmakingBook.com

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