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.

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

Posted under Filmmaking

The old camera used in indie filmmaking Image via Wikipedia

As an indie filmmaker, your time on set can be long. If you fall behind, your days can become longer. Long days with little rest and lots of work can cause stress. Don’t be surprised if you hit the wall from time to time and break down.

If this is your first feature, don’t feel bad. Most filmmakers either lose their temper or cry or both. If you have to cry or lose your temper, call a time out and take a walk. Go somewhere nobody can see you. There is no quicker way to lose credibility than losing your emotions on set—especially a low-budget set.

In addition to this, don’t forget: You’re not alone. Assuming you did a good job planning your days and your shots, you can rest assured everyone is working alongside you to do the best job they can.

Everyone wants to make the best movie possible. And for the reminder of the shoot, these people will be your family and share lifetime memories with you.

If you keep moving at a good pace, while working to have fun and experience filmmaking, you will reach the end. You will call cut for the last time (assuming you’re directing), and the show will be over. You’ll say: “That’s a WRAP!”

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If you’re a first time feature filmmaker, you do not need a gazillion dollars to join the feature club. But you will need to learn how to replace money with ginormous creatively. And once your screenplay is complete, then the next step in the filmmaking process is your initial breakdown 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.

My producer friend Forrest Murray always says the script, schedule and budget are the same document. You’ll need all three to make a movie… But in the process, if you change one document, you’re actually changing all three.

I’ll chat about this some more later. For today, let’s focus on your initial schedule so you can eventually get to your budget.

Schedule Your Movie And Save

1.After you highlight each element, you’ll want to figure out when you want to shoot your movie and how long you plan to shoot.

2.You can determine this by choosing how many pages you want to shoot per day. Then you can decide if you want to shoot 5 days on and 2 days off, or 6 days on and 1 day off. Or maybe you want to shoot your movie over a few weekends.

3.Everything in the script will impact your budget. There is software for this. Final Draft offers an add-on called Tagger. Tagger allows you to go through the script and pick out elements and highlight them in various colors. Once all elements are selected, you can eventually import this list into your budget and schedule software program.

4.After giving this your best effort, if you still feel stuck, seek expert advice.

5.Eventually, these elements will have a price in your initial budget. What is the price of each element? How much does your movie cost?

Many motion picture professionals make a living just breaking down, scheduling and budgeting movies. So it’s a pretty complicated and creative area. As a first time feature filmmaker, it save you many headaches if you partner with an seasoned 1st AD or Line Producer who could guide you through the process.

If this is not possible for you, I suggest reading every article on the subject as well as watching every YouTube video. This will teach you how to think like a cost conscious, responsible producer.

Regardless of your decision to complete your own breakdown or hire someone else for the job, the reason you’ll need an initial schedule is because this will give you a good starting point… You’ll utilize this information to figure out your budget. You’ll also be able to figure out if you need to cut an element or two, or not.

Cut Your Budget

Once you have your initial schedule, (and assuming this is your first feature), I suggest you create a budget for your movie in the neighborhood of $500K. Before you go crazy thinking this is a lot of money (or a little money), I want you to know you don’t actually have to spend $500K in hard cash to meet the needs of your budget.

In fact, once you determine you’ll make your movie at $500K, you are going to spend the next few weeks working backwards to see how much hard cash you can replace with sweat equity, discounts and favors from friends and family. Why $500K? Because if you actually have the elements budgeted, there is a good chance your movie will look better than if you budgeted for a mere $50K.

The reason for this is mostly psychological. By setting your budget at 500K, you’re going to start out with goal that forces you to get a higher production value than if you simply settled for pocket cash.

Later, with the application of tremendous creativity, it will be possible to reduce a $500K budget after discounts, free food, locations and salary adjustments quite significantly.

Do you have friends who own locations you can utilize for free? Do you have access to discounted equipment? Can you finish your movie faster than scheduled?

Do you have a friend with an edit suite?

Can you shoot some scenes outside during the day to reduce the need for extra lights? Can you find free food for your cast and crew? These are just some of the ways you can reduce that $500K budget.

One of my buddies was able to do this on the cheap. He had a location budgeted for $5K. However, after my buddy spoke with the owner of the location, the fee was reduced to zero. How? My buddy (a creative producer) agreed to shoot a promo for the owner’s business. Another filmmaker friend got free food for his entire shoot simply by asking.

The food supplier was thanked in the credits.

Deals like this happen. But it takes creativity to find opportunity. Here are some questions to ask:

How much money do I have?
How can I reduce expenses?
Can I get free food?
Who do I know who has the location I’m looking for?
How much money will I need?

The other reason you want to keep your first feature budget low is to allow greater opportunity for return. In the event you get a standard distribution deal (which is becoming more and more rare), your movie should look expensive.

If your budget is $500K and the movie looks like $500K, but you only spent $50K or $30K $15K in ultra-low-budget hard cash, and someone pays you back your budget, then you just made a crazy profit!

Nice work.

And in the event you do not get a standard distribution deal, then you’re not quite as deep in the financial hole as you otherwise would be.

Posted under Filmmaking

YouTube is great for Filmmakers Image via Wikipedia

Before you make a feature, you should create a whole bunch of short movies. This advice is nothing new for the up-and-coming filmmaker. But what is new are the many options for distribution.

Past Filmmakers. . .

Most short films lived and died at film festivals. But these days, shooting on the Canon EOS 7D, combined with quick Internet uploads have changed filmmaking forever!

Sites like YouTube.com and Metacafe.com allow filmmakers to find a global audience at the push of a button. In no previous time in history has it been so easy and inexpensive for filmmakers to get noticed. So before you embark on your feature, make shorts.

If you’ve never made a short film, don’t worry. The process is actually pretty simple and fun.

For your first few movies, don’t spent time worrying about lighting or special effects. Just learn how to utilize your limited resources and make something cool out of nothing.

When you plan your movie, focus on a story you can tell in three minutes or less. In my opinion, comedy works best.

When I was managing a film program, I noticed a lot of first-time filmmakers created dramatic stories that focused on suicide or some guy staring into a mirror and talking or some chick shaving her head while reminiscing about apples and spiders. I even know one guy who made his friend simulate humping a statue in a park while wearing a gimp mask. (Don’t ask.)

But seriously. . . Make Your Movie Now!

If you think you have something like that and you just HAVE to get it out…By all means, do so. But if you can be funny and get Internet viewers to share your movie with other people who will then share your movie with other people, you will have achieved a great thing.

All you need to get started is a camera, some friends and the ability to edit the footage on your computer.

Then just write out a list of funny story ideas. Once you have a list, pick one that interests you the most. When you have it, call up some friends. Enlist them as actors and get to work.

If you’re in a small town, you’ll find most friends will love having something to do outside of the norm. If you find most of your friends are preoccupied with marriage, a family and pregnancy, that’s cool too. Just start making movies—starring you.

After a couple of these types of films, you may find yourself getting bored. This is actually a good sign, because it shows you’re growing. When this happens, begin to create write more complex stories and then write a well crafted screenplay.

If you’ve been doing shorts with your friends, you now know who works well and who doesn’t. Invite the best of your actor friends to your next movie. Theoretically, if you make one or two three-minute movies like this every weekend for six months, you will have the equivalent experience of making a feature.

Here are your action steps:

1. Get a cheap camera, a computer with video editing software and an Internet connection.
2. Make funny videos with friends.
3. Upload your videos to the Internet.
4. Gauge audience response. Read the viewer feedback.
5. Take feedback and improve your work. Repeat the process.

The short movie marathon exercise described above will provide you with a fundamental understanding of how to shoot scenes for minimal cost and still make them interesting.

This experience will help you save time and money when you create your feature, while providing you with endurance, experience and the confidence to make movies with greater efficiency.

When you upload your work for the world to watch, audience feedback will reveal areas needing improvement. Even though you’re working with non-professional equipment and talent, if you can learn to make great movies with a small camera, you can make them with a big camera.

Then later, when the feature filmmaker in you is ready, the feature will reveal itself.

Posted under Filmmaking