_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
1.Motivation
2.Budgets
& Breakdowns 3.Producer
Stuff 4.
Editing & Actors 5.
Festivals & Distributors
6. Clean Up
7.
Dealing With Agents 8.
Production Checklist Proletariat
Home
First in a series of articles to guide independent filmmakers without studio backing to a successful completion of their film.
MOTIVATION
Why are you doing this? That simple question that I felt
I had to answer time and time again after committing all my resources, time, energy
and money to a project I didn't feel was 'commercial', and had absolutely no name
talent attached was one that kept popping up repeatedly. The answer was very simple;
I had to do it. I had a great script, great actors, I happened to have maybe enough
money and I thought maybe, if I'm lucky, this has the potential to be a great film.
The idea that it would make money never affected my decision to proceed with the
film, and once committed finishing was not a question of "if", just "when."
I thought it would be a great film. That question still looms in front of every one
of my projects; 'Why am I doing this?', and, more frequently these days, 'If this
was my money that I'm spending, would I still do this film?' If the answer is no,
the answer is no.
If you are considering taking your first plunge into no-budget, self-financed filmmaking
and believe you have a great script that you have to shoot, do yourself an
enormous favor and honestly answer that question before you start. If you are sick
of waiting for someone else's money to arrive on your doorstep before you shoot your
first film and are financing it from whatever means available to you, it's a question
that could mean everything to the bankruptcy judge at your hearing. Filmmaking this
way can literally ruin your life if you walk into it believing that you're a great
filmmaker and you can make all your money back on 'the other end.'
On the other hand, there are dilettante's bumping into each other all over LA bitching
and moaning about a measly "million for my first feature" that will never
make a film, and are motivated by money no matter how well they play the part of
the auteur. They should be doing music video's, or move back home, or become bitter
studio executives that churn out the kind of stuff that, well, studio executives
churn out. What should concern you is the amount of filmmakers walking around
town with sixty seven 5 year old cans of film in their closet for the film they can't
complete because "insert reason-excuse here".
If you believe your script is commercial, has the potential to be a big commercial
hit, do not spend your own money to do it unless you can afford to lose it.
You might be right about it being a hit, but the odds are against you. Even if you
have what you believe is a commercial hit, I suggest asking yourself the same question
and if the answer is money, your motivation is a common one, and best of luck. I
suggest an action film, or porn, or violence. That 'product' always sells. (see article
on the 1998 AFM) For the rest of us working
in film, your medium of choice is a very expensive one, and I believe one
of the most powerful mediums available to artist's. But you know that. Or at least
you should know that.
If you've never made a film before, never been on a set before, never worked with
actors or a crew before, never run an inch of film through a film camera before and
have never thought of the visual elements of each one of your shots before, or ever
made a schedule, budget or broken down a script before, or even if you have, Guerrilla
Filmmaking 101 should be able to help you get started in a direction that will allow
you to complete your film.
Ok, now, you've made the decision, your answer satisfies
you that if no one ever sees the film you still know it will be a great film, and
you believe your script is ready to shoot, you're probably wrong.
If you are the only person that believes your script is great, you've got a problem.
Your next step is to get somebody else on your side, preferably someone that can
help you with production, but getting actors involved is a very good thing. Pass
your script out to a few people you trust that will give you honest feedback.
Not what you want to hear, but a biased/unbiased opinion. That's usually honest
feedback. If you're not making a narrative film, write down your idea for the film
in a way that someone else can understand, and get a feel for what you intend the
film to be. Listen to what people say, and that's a very hard thing to do. If they
don't 'get it,' that's your problem, not theirs. Communication for the filmmaker
is everything. Whether it's to the crew, actors or your uncle with the money, a director
without communication skills is in a lot of trouble. And at the script level, the
start of your film, it's the key to your film being what you want. Have a read-through
of your script, get the key characters in whatever scenes you think you would like
to hear or you think might have a problem, find some actors or friends or relatives
that are interested, get them together in one room and have them read the scenes
for you out loud. It's always better to find willing participants that can invest
your characters with whatever direction you can give them. Does the scene work? Do
any of the lines you've written sound plausible coming out of the mouth's of real
people? Are the parts so idiosyncratic/difficult/impossible that you need Brando/Branagh/Olivier
for the part? Those are the easy questions, the one's a first time writer needs to
know about what he's done from the perspective of voices outside his own subconscious.
The hard questions still come back to haunt you, and still ring back to the first
question. What do these characters mean to you? Is there any truth in what they say
or do? How do you know? What is this film about and do I have anything to contribute
to the lexicon? Why am I doing this?
Possibly the most important question for a filmmaker is the one that sounds the most
mundane: What is this film about? I have a friend that will probably get the money
for his first film and when I asked him what the film was about, he started telling
me the story. That's not what your film is about, that's the story. What is it you
have to say? What is the film about from the filmmakers perspective, not the writers?
The story may be about a used car salesman who murders some customers, but the film
is about father figures, last chances, extended families and redemption. This is
not a slight distinction, if you're just filming the action of the script, then you
really have nothing to contribute and should question your reason for doing it. Tough
love bubba, the audience for impotent filmmakers doing what hollywood does every
day is thankfully growing smaller very quickly.
Okay. That's lesson one. Cheap, difficult, but absolutely necessary. Finish the script,
answer the question, get feedback from people you trust, do a read-through, answer
the question. If you're satisfied with your answers, the next step should be easy.
NEXT:
SCRIPT BREAKDOWN AND BUDGET
or
"CAN I REALLY DO THIS?"
________________________________________________________
1.Motivation 2.Budgets
& Breakdowns 3.Producer
Stuff 4. Editing & Actors
5. Festivals & Distributors
6.
Clean Up 7.
Dealing With Agents 8. Production Checklist
Proletariat Home