The blog for aspiring & established filmmakers of independent films. by ted hope.

Producing Rules For Hard (aka All) Times

And Of Course, Don't Forget To Brush

I had the pleasure of participating on a producing panel at the Athena Film Festival back in the second week of February.  For once I got to be the token male.  It was an excellent group with Mary Jane Skalski, Nekisa Cooper, and Susan Cartsonis. The moderator was Lisa Cortes, and she was one of the best moderators I have ever had (festival programmers take note!).

I started tweeting out the advice that was said by all on the panel.  This was about both how to get your movie made and how to survive in these times.  They got tweeted and passed around by others but I have collected them here for you now too.  Sorry for the delay in posting!

1. Set the agenda

2. Beware of their unexpressed agenda

3. Use passion to open doors

4. Find your community & activate

5. Create tools now for use later

6. Be honest in your communication

7. Walk on tightrope w/ conviction

8. Be strategic

9. Don’t ask for permission

10. Embrace fullest definition of cinema

11. Help ppl envision themselves as a force of change

12. Know the someone u make the movie for

13. Find a way or make 1

14. Let the audience ripple wider

15. Create atmosphere of inevitability

16. Must hv great intention

17. Be authentic to yourself

18. Be distinct in marketplace

19. Make sure you have friends to support you emotionally

20. Look beyond the feature film form

21. Support each other

22.

23. Do your research

24. Build a coalition

25. Establish your brand (what makes you unique)

Ted Hope

TedHope

Every Aspiring Filmmakers new best friend.

Meet Ted

Hope offers his unique perspective on how to make movies while keeping your integrity intact and how to create a sustainable business enterprise out of that art while staying true to yourself.

Meet Ted

Ted Hope is a “holistic film producer”: he aims to be there from the beginning and then forever after, involved in every aspect of a film’s life cycle and ecosystem, as committed to engineering serendipity as preventing problems, as obsessed with lifting the good into the great, as he is…

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