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The 5 Immutable Laws of Successful Filmmaking

successful filmmaking

Serious indie filmmakers stop at noting until the movie is actually in the can – or these days – in your hard drive. Still if you’ve been working to make movies for any length of time, you know there are days when you hit obstacles, sometimes so seemingly insurmountable that you just want to give up on your project. Don’t do it!

How To Pitch Your Film Project To Prospective Investors

pitch your film project

Assuming you have met with a lawyer and figured out a way to protect yourself legally – If you aren’t afraid to hear the word “NO,” then what is stopping you from setting up a meeting and presenting your ideas to prospective investors? It doesn’t always mean you’ll get the money (if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.) – but it does mean that every NO is one no closer to YES!

How To Make Your First Feature Without Going Bonkers

first feature

Sooner or later the filmmaking bug hits you. . . It’s like a far off voice or compulsion. But like breathing, for the serious independent filmmaker, the need to make a feature is always present.

How To Use Foreshadowing In Your Screenplay

foreshadowing in your screenplay

To avoid having any one element of foreshadowing be too obvious, often the writer will throw in some red herrings–some things that could be foreshadowing but in fact don’t pay off or pay off in a different way than we expect. The person who has the gun in the drawer may become an immediate suspect in our minds, but later maybe we see him use it to light his cigarette and we realize it’s not a real gun (of course he may have a real one somewhere else….). That kind of misdirection keeps the audience guessing.

Do You Really Need A Distribution Company?

distribution company

With DVD sales down, the traditional utilization of middle-men like sales agents and distribution companies is changing. The ripple effect of this is less traditional distribution deals for filmmakers. Take a look at the music industry, and you’ll soon see that it is a matter of time until all movies will be available for download or viewing at the push of a button.

The Indie Filmmakers Guide to Amazon Film Distribution

amazon film distribution

In a more-perfect world of Independent Film Distribution, iTunes would open the flood gates and allow all feature filmmakers to upload their work. However, at the time of writing, getting your finished feature film into iTunes is still a pain in the butt. With few exceptions, the company seems to favor traditional distributors over the indie producer. So if you one day dream of having your movie viewed on someone’s iPhone, you’ll still have to find a middle-man ask permission…