Posts Tagged movie making

How to make a movie 1: Why waiting is hardly ever a good idea

Posted by Andrew Michael Brown in filmmaking on May 21st, 2009

How do you get started with a film’s production? Do you have to wait until everything is in place to the nth degree? Well it is good to get organized but sometimes waiting can kill your passion and stop films from getting made.

Why waiting is hardly ever a good idea

The longer you wait the harder it is to get going. Inspiration and the first excitement of that initial motivation ebbs away like an outgoing tide and you have wait sometime for it to return in full force. Other people you have got involved begin to lose interest where before they were brimming with enthusiasm at the thought of helping you out. Like mostly everything in life, there is a moment to act and if you let those moments pass ‘Murphy’ or ‘Sod’s law’ will make you wait even longer the next time you are ready. Use that beginning energy to seize the moment and throw yourself into the process. Start moving forward from your ‘eureka’ moment and much of the time lots of the things you need will fall into place. But you have to start with drive and energy.

Nobody wants to fail

If you put off making your film it is probably because you don’t want to fail at it. That’s understandable. But so what if you do? Fear of failure or fear of making a mistake keeps a lot of potential filmmakers frozen in place.

  • I’ll never have another idea as good as this one.
  • I’m too young to write/direct
  • I’m too old to write/direct
  • I’d better wait till I know more about filmmaking
  • I don’t know how to work with actors
  • My script isn’t perfect yet
  • I don’t have the confidence

Recognise any of these? These are some common fears which keep us stuck where we are. We can only learn by doing; there’s only so much reading you can do before you reach a brick of wall of knowledge. The rest must come experientially, by doing. Confidence comes by doing too.

Don’t get obsessed over the first film

So many film-makers I have met become obsessed over their first movie script. It’s their baby and everything about it has to be just so. The problem with this is that these guys think when they turn it into a film, it is going to be a masterpiece and propel them into the film stratosphere. Don’t try and make your first few films into masterpieces…they are highly unlikely to be and all you will do is waste precious time tinkering and fussing over irrelevant details when what you should be doing is cranking out decent movie after decent movie. When you work like this you are learning your craft all the time. You are laying the foundations of future great works! You are building a show reel, making contacts, doing deals; you are developing as an individual and as a filmmaker.

Do your best but its not life and death

The trick to all this is too not hold on too tightly. Don’t be a perfectionist in the very early stages of your career. I’m not talking to the artists here, I’m talking to the guys and gals who want to work in the industry at whatever level. Getting it right, details and timings are crucial issues no doubt but don’t let them become an excuse for not moving forward to your movie goals.

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Making money in independent film making and low-budget films.

Posted by Andrew Michael Brown in directing, distribution, film business, film marketing, filmmaking, movies on May 21st, 2009

This was from a post of mine on the filmmaker magazine forums before they were all spammed up by drug sellers. What’s happened to them; I’ll need to check? Anyway, I thought I’d post it here too. I was discussing with another film maker, who was planning his distribution strategy, the reality of low-budget films being downloaded and shared without any sort of payment to the makers and the frustrations this involved. This was my response:

“I think with an ultra-low budget film I would be happy to recoup my investment and break even. To me this would be a success. If I made a small profit, I would view it as a bonus. Do you think your projects have the potential to do this? If you have three in post, it suggests you are already pro-active and probably have plenty of ideas for future films. Ideally, you would want everyone to pay a little to see your movies and for all the hard work that you and the team will have put in. But, that just isn’t the reality right now, in some instances, with all the download sites available.

For a lot of film-makers operating at the low to no budget level, the rewards will not be financial but will come in the form of experience, confidence, knowledge and maybe reputation, with the added possibility of being offered future ‘paid’ work. Tying yourself up in mental knots about how much money you won’t be making, will only stifle your creativity and your problem solving ability.
For a film to be downloaded 42,000 times is, arguably, a form of success? No? Then how do you combat this situation? Mm. Tricky. There are a lot of people thinking about it, with better brains than me. Swallow it? I think the least you can do is splash your website name (I assume you have a website for your movies?) all over the credits, both beginning and end. If you get downloaded a lot, that should drive some curious traffic to you. But then you need something there to hold people’s interest. Think of ways you can monetise your website to add extra income. Posters, T-shirts, DVD’s, advertising, other website exclusive pods. How about a film for watching in instalments? What about a donation box if they liked your film?

“Please help hungry and soiled film-makers”

I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat knowing that film-making and film distribution is going through important changes and we happen to be stuck in the middle of it. Interesting times. Maybe we should have been born twenty years ago? But then, no digital, no internet, no film-maker forum. We’ve got to be forward thinking.

Why bother you ask? Don’t, if you want to make money. At ultra-low budget level, It’s a distraction. It’s the wrong focus.

In general, we need to start thinking differently. Mini-studios, our own equipment, red-cam’s, green screens, web-distribution, our own t.v channels, more brainpower devoted to marketing but that’s up a level or two. How serious do you get? I’m going on too much. You’re a producer, I’m sure you know all this and were probably feeling a little dispirited when you mailed. I sympathize, I do, so I apologize if I’ve stated anything too obvious.So why bother? Because you love it, you know you do! Keep working, keep making films.”

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