OR: 19 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want To Make Pot Legal. Read here.
Author: Ted Hope
Forget that it is music. Forget that it is ten years ago. It is still about filmmaking now.
Hat tip to Elizabeth Agate for the link.
Guest post by filmmaker Eyad Zahra. His first feature film “The Taqwacores.” — a DIY production — world premiered at Sundance earlier this year, and opens in New York City at the East Village Cinema today, October 22nd. To learn more, visit www.punkislam.com. Check out the 1st part of this post here.
Make no mistake. The indie film world is pretty topsy-turvy right now. As anybody who reads Ted’s blog knows, there are fewer buyers out there, all the while the digital revolution has allowed for movies to be made then ever. The market is flipped upside down, and who knows when or where it will every land back on its feet.
As the producer and director of The Taqwacores, my first feature length film, I have had the highest of highs, and lowest of lows in my first filmmaking adventure. I want to be honest here, and not sugar coat the experience whatsoever. It has been a wild roller coaster to make this independent feature film, a roller coaster ride that has been going on for nearly 3.5 years (and counting).
As a first time feature length filmmaker, I had thought the biggest hump was production. I figured, all we had to do was get through those 3 weeks of shooting, and everything else would be down hill.
The reality is that it never gets downhill. It only gets uphill, and it gets steeper and steeper the more you go forward.
That said, I would do this all over again in a heartbeat. That’s how much I love the story I have chosen to tell, and the life-long friendships I have made because of this production. To any filmmaker out there, you better make sure you love (not just “like”) the people you are working with, and that your narrative is something you can dedicate years of your life too.
To learn more about how we made the film, check out the production notes here.
Today we release the film in New York City at the East Village Cinema.
At this juncture, we are releasing the film domestically through Strand Releasing (Marcus Hu, Jon Gerrans, and David Bowlds), and these guys have been nothing short of incredible. They have allowed me to be part of the entire release process, and I deal directly with the heads of the company, and my concerns are always answered by them in an immediate manner. I have been even given an open invitation to swing by their offices any time.
What I love about our release strategy is that we are using a hybrid method towards launching this film. We are doing a standard limited theatrical launch in NYC and LA, while along stressing an intense grassroots campaign effort. It’s a bit of the old and new wrapped in one, which allows me to be involved as much as I want to be. I have been involved in every major decision for the film. I also manage our online media (website, facebook fan page, twitter) personally.
We originally launched the film at the Sundance Film Festival, which
Guest post from filmmaker Eyad Zahra, discussing his DIY experience with his first feature film “The Taqwacores.” “The Taqwacores” world premiered at Sundance earlier this year, and it will be opening in New York City at the East Village Cinema on October 22nd. To learn more, visit www.punkislam.com.
My first feature film, The Taqwacores, opens in New York City tomorrow (Oct 22nd) at the Village East Cinema. It’s been one heck of a grind to get it to this point, with so many people helping along the way, at nearly every stage of the process. This was a true DIY film, made with the help of Cleveland’s punk community, and produced out of the basement of my parents house with the help of my filmschool friends.
Let me pause a second to give a big shout-out to the key players of my team: Allison Carter (Co-Producer/Line Producer), Michael Muhammad Knight (Co-Producer, Co-Writer), Nahal Ameri (Associate Producer/Production Legal), Joshua Rosenfield (Editor/Post-Supervisor/Trailer Editor), and JP Perry (Director of Photography, Colorist).
Let our film be a sign of hope to other filmmakers. If our ultra low budget movie about a subculture, of a subculture (punk Muslims) can play in thirty international film festival and land solid distribution deals in the US, France, and UK, that means anything can happen. Don’t get bogged down by the negative stuff out there, this really is an incredible time to be an indie filmmaker.
I remember back in September of 2007, I was hanging out with my Florida State University film school alumni pals, which included Adele Romasnki and Justin Barber. Over hummus and carrots, we were discussing the kinds of movies we wanted to make, and how we were gonna pull them off. All three of us, eventually went out and made our films, and all three films were able to get distribution deals. Justin produced Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melencholy (IFC), Adele produced David Robert Mitchell’s The Myth of The American Sleepover (IFC), and I produced and directed The Taqwacores (Strand Releasing).
What our films had going for them was the fact that they were all very original, and all were made at a very high quality level. I think we all preferred making our films in this DIY manner, as we were all in control of our visions, and we didn’t have any sort of studio-like executives telling how to do things. In a way, we actually were at a place where it takes some filmmakers years in their careers to arrive at. We were making personal films that had great commercial value, and we had final cut rights.
What more could a filmmaker want?
We need to do a better job of
Categories
Remembering Harvey Pekar
Comic Book Resources has a good post on the NY Comic Con event on American Splendor’s creator Harvey Pekar. Harvey has been an inspiration for so many people, myself included.
Dean Haspiel shared a litte bit more on how our movie came together, and how he introduced me to Harvey.
“I was working as an assistant to [producer] Ted Hope,” Haspiel said. “One of my jobs was to pay bills and file things. I came across an ‘American Splendor’ film script. Rob Schneider was slated to play Pekar, but that didn’t happen. I also came across a Chester Brown screenplay. I discovered a bunch of comics and that [Hope] was a fan. I had done two or three one-page stories with Harvey and I felt like I could ask Ted Hope if he was interested in an ‘American Splendor’ movie. He said ‘Sure!’ I called up Harvey, and he didn’t know who this guy was and what his movies were. He said, ‘Sure, have him call me.’ A year and a half later was this amazing, Sundance Award-winning movie.”
Give the whole post a read.
Guest Post by Amy Lo. Yesterday Amy started the tale of Planet B-boy‘s march into brand sponsorship and how they teamed up with Samsung. Today she concludes with how it was a win/win and some thoughts towards the future.
Taking the long view
We were relieved that our immediate need for post production funds was met, but our proposal also kept the door open for a much bigger fish to fry: distribution. Our initial strategy was the typical indie film non-strategy of keeping the film under wraps, doing a big premiere at a festival and waiting for any offers to come along. With Samsung unexpectedly involved at an early stage, we started thinking about how we could partner with them to bring the film out, either with or without a traditional distributor. We came up with a plan for live dance events combined with the film screenings, a 25-city tour presented by Samsung.
In the meantime, we finished the film and got it into competition at the Tribeca Film Festival. We had a magical outdoor premiere on the riverfront with Fab 5 Freddy as emcee, live performances, and breakdancing lessons before the movie. More than eight thousand people turned out. We’d made it an event. We knew we could be on to something.
We pushed Samsung and came so close – with no less than the Chief Marketing Officer for North America behind us – but internal politics and timing ultimately thwarted further P&A support. Planet B-boy still had a great run with distributor Elephant Eye Films, held over in NY theaters for 10 weeks and spreading to about 50 other cities. We threw some fantastic events, too.
Working towards the future
I’m convinced there’s a still lot further to go with sponsorship and indie film, particularly for distribution and the hard work of getting finished films to audiences.
Guest post by Gregory Bayne
On Saturday, October 2nd, PERSON OF INTEREST screened at the 2010 Open Video Conference as part of the Shared Film Festival. This event was sponsored by BitTorrent, and curated by our partners at VODO (http://vodo.net). The screening was well attended for an obscure film playing on a Saturday night in the heart of Manhattan, drawing in just over 60 filmgoers to a mid sized auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In many respects, the screening went off like any other. A short intro, the film, then the Q&A, which was moderated by the very adept and prepared, Brian Newman, distribution consultant and former CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute. We were quite happy with how the entire event went off, but it was what was happening beyond the screening, out there on the interwebs, that kept my collaborator, J. Reuben Appelman, and I brimming with excitement. As the film played for the 60+ attendees generous enough to lend us a couple of hours that evening, PERSON OF INTEREST was being released worldwide as a free to share P2P download via VODO to a potential audience of hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
I originally heard of VODO in late 2009, and was very intrigued by this idea of using P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing networks as a means to distribute, and gain potentially massive exposure for, independent film. After I witnessed Jamie King’s (one of the ring leaders of VODO) presentation at the 2010 Slamdance Film Festival, I was convinced it was the way to go for PERSON OF INTEREST.
