Below is the first of two excerpts from Filmmaking, the Hard Way by Josh Folan. A cynical case study of the feature film production of All God’s Creatures, Filmmaking, the Hard Way puts low budget filmmaking under the microscope by analyzing the process of making a film from top to bottom.
Effect:
All God’s Creatures, with no “stars”, created by “unknown” filmmakers, and produced with less than $25k to work with is picked up for distribution in late 2011. By May 2012 it can be purchased through the biggest retailer in the known universe (Walmart) and numerous other retail outlets.
Cause:
:: Make a movie. Preferably a good one with a unique and interesting story, compelling characters, and a few commercial sales tools (sex, nudity, gore, comedy, super heroes – that sort of thing). Seems an obvious step, yet it is quite often overlooked. Particularly the “good” part.I hear inexperienced producer say things akin to “it’s a so-so horror script, but I just want to get a feature made” with alarming frequency, and it’s no surprise at all how much unwatchable schlock ends up getting made as a result of that lackluster intention. If you don’t have something unique about your film to passionately pitch to distributors when you finally get a few to listen to you, why the hell would they invest their time and money trying to create an audience for it?
:: Formulate a pitch. An airtight one that doesn’t sound like anything you’ve read anywhere else, and DEFINITELY not any of that “Terminator meets Christmas Vacation” shit. If you get an acquisitions executive on the phone and you sputter out one of those for your little movie – that does not have a Schwarzenegger, Chevy Chase, or even an Uncle Eddie – it will be the last time you speak with that particular individual. My pitch with AGC was that “it boiled down to a dark, twisted love story between these two really fucked up people – a serial killer and a prostitute. And while a story like this would typically zero in on those elements, the killing and the sex, ours aims to make those things ancillary because of the focus on the love story.” Yes, you will get very sick of hearing yourself repeat your airtight pitch…over and over and over and over. And over.And…over. That is, if you do the amount of legwork that will be required to actually convince a distribution professional that investing in your little film is worthwhile.
:: Make a pretty PDF.A press kit. These days this means an EPK (Electronic Press Kit), of which your pretty PDF will be a part of. The EPK will contain the numerous clever/mysterious/hilarious teasers and trailers that you have created to market your film with, your jaw-dropping original key art, any press interview video clips you had the foresight to arrange while filming the movie, any press clippings/screenshots that pertain to the film, the countless production stills, as well as the press kit PDF itself. Try to streamline all your marketing tools with the same look and feel – brand awareness and recognition is marketing 101.
After discussing Indieconomies of scale and the benefits of adopting a cooperative group approach, we thought it might be a good time to switch the charge and talk a bit more about the challenges (potholes) that we have come across to date. If a pothole doesn’t swallow you, it makes your vehicle stronger. 