Category: Truly Free Film

We are on the verge of a new film culture and infrastructure.

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Truly Free Film

“I Am A Nobody Filmmaker”

Today’s guest post is from filmmaker & blogger Christopher J. Boghosian.

I’m a nobody filmmaker: I don’t have a recognizable name nor a recognizable film. In essence, most of the world couldn’t care less about me nor my movies. This sounds pathetic, I know, but coming to grips with this reality has truly liberated me and provided an invaluable perspective on my work and career.

As a result of the internet, mass media, and proliferation of panel discussions and seminars, beginning filmmakers can now listen in on the conversation between film industry experts. Insider tips and wisdom are readily available, from casting celebrities to negotiating a VOD deal. It’s true: gurus sometimes discuss broad principles and concepts that apply to every level of filmmaking, but more often than not, there is a buried assumption in their discussion: that a filmmaker or their project has a considerable amount of credibility, hype or leverage. As a result, many of these conversations are inapplicable to nobody filmmakers who have no reputable name nor a film with high salability. Nevertheless, in our earnest search for success, us nobodies continue to invest a lot of time, energy and money on experts.

A beginning filmmaker can learn

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Truly Free Film

This Is Transmedia

I am producing Lance Weiler‘s HOPE IS MISSING (with Anne Carey). It’s hard to call it just another feature film when Lance does so much more to expand the story world. In the past, I have encouraged filmmakers to make a short to demonstrate their skills or help clarify the world they want to create. Yes, Lance made a short for HopeIsMissing (aka H.i.M.), and you can watch it at the bottom of this post, but that’s just a tip of the iceberg.

When I speak about it to studio execs, most still don’t know what I mean when I say it is a transmedia project. Hopefully that will never be the case again once we make the feature. One would think that this would have already changed though by what has been done already.

Perhaps you were at Sundance and encountered the PANDEMIC. It was an installation at New Frontier. It was an online experience. It was location-based ARG. It was story R&D. Lance explains:

How I Learned to Start a Pandemic from Turnstyle Video on Vimeo.

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Truly Free Film

Edgar Wright Shows Us How To Event-ize Cinema

Edgar shows us how it is done.

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Truly Free Film

Sundance Sales Dissection: Septien (Part Two)

Today’s guest post is from George Rush, producers rep and attorney.  Yesterday George started telling us about how he engineered the sale of Michael Tully’s Sundance At Midnight hit, SEPTIEN.  Today’s post concludes the dissection.

I had been to Sundance before with Midnight films and know it can be difficult to get good buzz.  Sundance audiences are not reflective of real audiences.  It is a mixture of film nerds, rich party people, and earnest do gooders seeking some culture.  I’ve found most people want to see the buzzed about stereotypical Sundance films—The Are All Right, Winter’s Bone.  These tickets are hard to come by.  However, midnight screening tickets are easier to come by and thus people get stuck with them.  They come in hoping for some culture and get blood and guts and farts.

I’ve seen packed houses at Midnight screenings pretty empty by the time the lights came up.  Because Michael’s film, SEPTIEN,  is so different, I felt a good number of the audience and some critics would dismiss it outright because it did not fit their expectation of what a Sundance film should be.  It sort of reminds me of a friend of mine who hates Wes Anderson movies because he expects Bill Murray to always play the Bill Murray of Ghostbusters.

Those who stayed, who bought in, would be massively rewarded by SEPTIEN, but there would be some naysayers.  So my feeling was Sundance was going to be a wildcard, with champions and detractors.

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Truly Free Film

Sundance Sale Dissection: Septien

Today’s guest post is from attorney and sales rep George Rush.  It is part one of two. George handled the sale of Michael Tully’s Septian to IFC’s Sundance Selects.

I have worked as a lawyer or a producer’s rep on hundreds of films over the years, and this experience has made me quite skeptical about the business model for independent producers.  The business is worse than it has been historically, but it is still the same very basic model.  You produce a film, a distributor exploits those rights.  You are good at creating content, they are good at marketing.  Hopefully those two things come together to benefit both parties.

I’m a hyper skeptic of producers essentially acting as their own distributors because generally they aren’t strong in both skill sets, and thus something usually suffers.  So I usually assume a producer is good at producing, and try to leave it at that.

Most of what I work on is low budget films with few if any stars.  Ten years ago, I considered a low budget film under two million dollars.  Today, I consider it under $500,000 and believe if you do something for a larger budget without a truly bankable cast, you are being reckless with your budget.

The distribution business has become tougher and they are paying less for content, and thus budgets go down correspondingly.  So how can you make something quality for under $500K—most people fail at this effort and there is a glut of so so films that just can’t compete with larger budgeted film—they are clearly inferior.  Indeed, most festival films in this budget range will never see the light of day beyond the festivals.  However, I don’t know how, but some people do.  It takes an extremely resourceful producer and director who is willing to take some chances to pull it off.

Enter Michael Tully’s Septien.  

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Truly Free Film

18 More Important Questions For Producers

Two weeks ago , I offered up five of the most important questions I thought producers needed to answer to get a movie made and to have a pleasing life in this crazy pursuit.  But how do you stop there at five?  I promised 18 more, and well, how’s this for a list?

6. How do you earn a living and sustain a career doing what you love?

7. How do I determine if someone is truly worth collaborating with?

8. Why will someone choose to collaborate on a project?

9. Why will someone choose to collaborate with me?

10. What do I want from a partner?

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Truly Free Film

Stop The Whining, The Proof Is Out There

Today’s GUEST POST comes fromfilmmaker, curator, programmer, and host Kristina Michelle, who had commented on this blog and I was so thankful to encounter her voice, enthusiasm, spirit, and practical approach.  I asked if she would consider contributing further for to the discussion.  I expect we will hear a lot more from her as this community grows.

Everywhere I turn these days, I am hearing people complaining about independent filmmaking. This isn’t the public opinion. It’s coming from the very people that make up this business, or people who once have. I remember when you could go to a film blog or meet up with other filmmakers and be inspired by what you read or heard, a time when the independent film community stuck together. Now, all I hear is, “Independent film is a dying industry,” or, “There’s no future in this business anymore, no money to be made.”

I understand that it’s a difficult economy right now, and it’s not so easy to get financing for independent films. What I can’t understand is why this has such an effect on people’s opinion on the filmmaking business itself. I’ve worked in independent film for quite some time now, and I can tell you that it is NOT a dying industry. It isn’t endangered or failing. Independent filmmaking is right where it’s always been – in the hearts of the filmmakers. Whether or not you can get the money you’d hoped to finance your film is not as big a deal as it seems, and it wouldn’t scare away a dedicated filmmaker. If anything, it will only push them harder.

It does not take millions of dollars to make a great film. In fact,

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