Two years ago today, after having the first sale of the Toronto International Film Festival (at a far higher amount than I had hoped for) and my business partner having the #1 film at the US Box Office, I shut the doors on my production office for good. As an Indie Film Producer, I could not afford the high rents of NYC. Today I confess: my productivity went down as a result. Further, I lost the ability to naturally collaborate with the other producers and filmmakers I shared office space with. It sucks not to have an office (although I did love having lunch regularly with my wife).
I am thrilled that the San Francisco Film Society has confronted this problem head on (office space — not lunches), offering filmmakers free office space in a wonderfully collaborative work space. Seriously, how many reasons am I going to have to give you to move Indie Film to The Bay Area? Is funding and work space not enough for you? How about a great film culture? Well, there is still more coming…
The San Francisco Film Society yesterday announced the reopening of FilmHouse, the residency program designed to offer free working space to filmmakers in various stages of production and provide a collaborative environment where they can share talents and resources with their peers. Located in the bustling Fillmore District of San Francisco, FilmHouse opens its doors this month on 4,800 spacious square feet of fully equipped, newly renovated office space. The latest expansion of Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s filmmaker services program, FilmHouse is made possible by generous funding from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and additional support from the San Francisco Film Commission.
“FilmHouse is a perfect example of the kind of innovative support Filmmaker360 excels at providing to filmmakers,” said Ted Hope, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society. “It’s amazing what a difference it can make to an artist to have a dedicated working space to develop their project—in whatever stage of production—and the collaborative element included in the FilmHouse program will surely lead to many unforeseen opportunities and some truly inspired filmmaking.”
Read more about the program and how to apply for it here.
