By Jennifer Phang
When Ted and I spoke about a possible post here, he mentioned that 80% of feature film directors never get to make a second feature. Why is that?
One reason is that it’s difficult to sustain the momentum of a crew. You are creating a whole village around a project which has an indefinite, but definitely finite, lifetime. Morale starts high, because the act of creation is invigorating, and then people get exhausted, because it’s a gigantic process, and along the way the money runs out, because the village grows and every new villager brings new skills and also new needs. And somehow you have to sustain the discipline to find the beauty in every shot, but also the momentum to finish the film.
The first time is not exactly traumatizing, but it can feel catastrophic, especially if you set out with high ambitions. It’s possibly your one chance to make your mark/get your idea across/show people your voice/use more resources and energy than you have ever even thought about before in your whole life. (You have no idea how much it’s going to take the first time, just like you can’t really know a tornado from watching TV.) If the film doesn’t quite work out, it’s hard to try again; not because mistakes never happen in art, but because now everyone involved knows exactly how much work it took to make the first film. So that probably contributes to why second features are hard to materialize.
My first film Half-Life, was the first feature project for many of those involved, and people were willing to sacrifice a lot in order to make their first project happen. For my second feature film Advantageous, I’m working with many of the same people, but now we have much more collective experience, which will hopefully lead to a more efficient process, and a more sophisticated film. I feel responsible for learning lessons from the first experience, as well as the several short films I made in the interim, and applying them. So here is some advice to consider for those trying to make their second feature:
– Budget your film for less than $100,000, if you can. The first time I did fundraising, the initial investments came through word of mouth and friends. Over the course of the journey we learned how to cut costs and maximize limited funds. This time, I have some of the same earlier investors, a Kickstarter campaign, and a lower budget. It’s a funny time because filmmaking techniques have gotten cheaper, but the economy at large has gotten tighter, so there’s nothing wrong with having an austerity plan. Often, limitations inspire creative solutions, and help you boil it down to what’s basic and essential for the story.
One of my solutions has been to expand my feature out from this short film, which did pretty well as a short, enough to inspire investors from my first feature to get behind me again for this one. Here’s the short, by the way.
http://www.futurestates.tv/episodes/advantageous
– Be careful about locations. Locations can add free production value, or they can also suck money into a pit. The various resources accessible by the Advantageous team allows us to be able to shoot in SF, LA, NY. Look at what’s available around you and see what story you can make around that. As you can see from the ADVANTAGEOUS short I kept locations down to a minimum. For the feature we’re working hard to do the same, or at least have enough small footprint day exteriors to relieve pressure from the lighting and set design budgets.
– Being Present/Crowdfunding. Independent filmmakers at some point have to engage in crowdfunding (we’ve been doing it since before it was the standard thing!), so allow yourself to have an online presence. Kickstarter is wonderful for letting you evaluate your project’s place in the community. It forces you to ask and answer the question, “is my film relevant?”
When I recently won the LA Asian Pacific Film Fest’s Golden Reel award, I made sure I was there to talk to people about ways to give support. When the inaugural Walnut Creek International Film Festival contacted me to screen, I saw that as a gift… an amazing opportunity to share the project with the home town that nurtured and inspired my career, and to engage more supporters. For the Advantageous Kickstarter, (which we need for production and post) the cast and the crew reaches out to their communities — and beyond — because you never know with whom your project might connect. Again, it’s about being physically and electronically present wherever you can, which in the end, hopefully, will help make our crowdfunding efforts fruitful.
– The world doesn’t owe you a film, you owe the world a film. What I’m trying to do is make something that communicates to a good number of people, not just people who may already agree with me. Advantageous has traction because it addresses issues that are on everyone’s minds – the advantages and disadvantages particular to women in the workforce, the perception of women, the state of education and how it’s going to affect our children.
– Don’t be precious about artistic vision. Have it, protect it, learn how to communicate it, but also know that your project isn’t about yourself. I’ve grown to understand that the role of the director is to move things forward and make strong decisions. But there are times when it’s important to be open to good ideas. A “vision” is one thing, but if I can gather a team of people who trust me, but can bring their own expertise and experiences, in the end it will lead to a more nuanced and sophisticated piece.
I really hope this has been helpful. I could talk about this stuff forever.
Here’s a link to the kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1783641494/advantageous-the-feature We only have 4 days left, ending Friday July 12 6 pm PT/9 pm ET, and we’re not all the way there, so if you would be so kind, please share to help raise awareness of our efforts.
Jennifer Phang’s award-winning feature HALF-LIFE premiered in 2008 at Sundance, after which Phang was invited to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and commissioned by ITVS to create the award-winning short film ADVANTAGEOUS. She is currently in pre-production on the feature version of ADVANTAGEOUS, co-written with actor Jacqueline Kim, with support from the San Francisco Film Society Filmhouse Residency Program.
