Well Charlotte,
There are things in the book that are not on this blog. There is a whole resource section with production forms and a usable and understandable budget program. I have also included as many indie friendly contacts and companies in as many cities as I could find. So, I have done a lot of the ground work for you that I wish someone had done for me when I started.
Also, there are many amusing anecdotes from my past productions, interviews with my crew to get their perspective on indie filmmaking as well as a series of footnotes that will enlighten and amuse.
You didn't think I was going to give it all away did you?
Monday, July 21, 2008
Chapter #3
CHAPTER 3 - NICE STORY, NOW WHAT?
OK, so you have a script that you absolutely love and think you can make. Now what?
Well, to say that movie making is the ultimate collaborative art form would be selling the matter short. You cannot make a movie by yourself. Well actually that’s not one hundred percent the truth. I saw a short film made by a crazy guy from New Jersey. He wrote it, starred in it and shot it (the camera was locked off the entire time). Very Bizarre to say the least, but that’s a whole other story. For your own sanity, it is safe to assume that you cannot make a quality film by your self. So, for you to take the next step you will need to surround yourself, not just with talented people (that’s a given) but with talented people you can trust. I can’t stress this enough.
All thoughts you ever had of fair play, trust, truth and reliability go right out the window the minute you step into this world. I am not saying everyone in this business is a shyster or crook, however I don’t think it would be terribly inaccurate to say that for every honest person in this business there are three dishonest ones. I am sure there are many people who feel this way and are afraid to say it but it is the truth. Making a film is hard work and there is an endless supply of people who would love to jump on your bandwagon to make a buck off your hard work. I know you are thinking, ‘jeez this guy is jaded” and “well I don’t know anyone like that”, you may not know any now, but have no fear, they will find you. So it is imperative that your inner circle be staffed with people you can trust. Now you ask, “How do I find people I can trust?” One way is to hire all those people you met on those student film shoots and PA jobs you did when you took my advice and canned the idea of film school in order to go out and live it. If you didn’t take my advice and don’t have all those great connections now, well your shit out of luck aren’t you? OK, not really, but it is going to be a lot harder in the beginning.
So, who can you trust? The people most trust worthy, are the people who stand the least to gain financially from your endeavor but the most to gain artistically. Let me try to explain. Let’s take your DP (Director of Photography, Cinematographer or in the UK, Lighting Camera Man or DoP) for example. If your DP has a fantastic reel and he/she really wants to shoot your movie because he/she really connects with the material then you can probably trust this person not to try to screw you. If your DP has a decent, but short reel, they may see your project as fodder for their reel and try to force unnecessary shots into the film just to put on their reel. I have seen it done in the past. This person will put his own need in front of yours and the film. You don’t need a person like this on your set.
Making a film in many ways is like organized chaos. You can’t be everywhere at once, so you need to put your trust and the fate of your film in the hands of your producer and your crew. You need a producer who you can not only trust but who, as in any good relationship, is going to have your back when the proverbial shit hits the fan (and it will, trust me).
If your crew is solid, then you can be assured that you have a team that will help guide you to the completion of your film. However, a crew that consists of bad attitudes, self-important personnel and untrustworthy department heads will ultimately crash and burn. The only loser will be you. These people will walk away and get another gig on another show while you are left with the bills, headaches and consequences of a failed movie attempt. This is not something that is easily walked away from and it will follow you through your next few projects. Five successes are easily wiped out by one failure in this business. You need to hedge your bets and a solid crew will help to ensure that.
OK, so you have a script that you absolutely love and think you can make. Now what?
Well, to say that movie making is the ultimate collaborative art form would be selling the matter short. You cannot make a movie by yourself. Well actually that’s not one hundred percent the truth. I saw a short film made by a crazy guy from New Jersey. He wrote it, starred in it and shot it (the camera was locked off the entire time). Very Bizarre to say the least, but that’s a whole other story. For your own sanity, it is safe to assume that you cannot make a quality film by your self. So, for you to take the next step you will need to surround yourself, not just with talented people (that’s a given) but with talented people you can trust. I can’t stress this enough.
All thoughts you ever had of fair play, trust, truth and reliability go right out the window the minute you step into this world. I am not saying everyone in this business is a shyster or crook, however I don’t think it would be terribly inaccurate to say that for every honest person in this business there are three dishonest ones. I am sure there are many people who feel this way and are afraid to say it but it is the truth. Making a film is hard work and there is an endless supply of people who would love to jump on your bandwagon to make a buck off your hard work. I know you are thinking, ‘jeez this guy is jaded” and “well I don’t know anyone like that”, you may not know any now, but have no fear, they will find you. So it is imperative that your inner circle be staffed with people you can trust. Now you ask, “How do I find people I can trust?” One way is to hire all those people you met on those student film shoots and PA jobs you did when you took my advice and canned the idea of film school in order to go out and live it. If you didn’t take my advice and don’t have all those great connections now, well your shit out of luck aren’t you? OK, not really, but it is going to be a lot harder in the beginning.
So, who can you trust? The people most trust worthy, are the people who stand the least to gain financially from your endeavor but the most to gain artistically. Let me try to explain. Let’s take your DP (Director of Photography, Cinematographer or in the UK, Lighting Camera Man or DoP) for example. If your DP has a fantastic reel and he/she really wants to shoot your movie because he/she really connects with the material then you can probably trust this person not to try to screw you. If your DP has a decent, but short reel, they may see your project as fodder for their reel and try to force unnecessary shots into the film just to put on their reel. I have seen it done in the past. This person will put his own need in front of yours and the film. You don’t need a person like this on your set.
Making a film in many ways is like organized chaos. You can’t be everywhere at once, so you need to put your trust and the fate of your film in the hands of your producer and your crew. You need a producer who you can not only trust but who, as in any good relationship, is going to have your back when the proverbial shit hits the fan (and it will, trust me).
If your crew is solid, then you can be assured that you have a team that will help guide you to the completion of your film. However, a crew that consists of bad attitudes, self-important personnel and untrustworthy department heads will ultimately crash and burn. The only loser will be you. These people will walk away and get another gig on another show while you are left with the bills, headaches and consequences of a failed movie attempt. This is not something that is easily walked away from and it will follow you through your next few projects. Five successes are easily wiped out by one failure in this business. You need to hedge your bets and a solid crew will help to ensure that.
Chapter #2
CHAPTER 2 - HAVE I GOT A STORY FOR YOU.
You are dying to tell your story. It’s been percolating in your brain for decades. You have waited your whole life to tell this story. What? You don’t have a story to tell? Don’t worry. Most stories that people are yearning to tell aren’t worth the telling or the hearing for that matter. It’s not having a particular story to tell, it’s the desire to tell a story. For a long time the rule of thumb was “write what you know”. While this is good advice to a point, I read a quote from a writer who said “Unless you are a Princess leading a rebellion in a galaxy far, far away, “what you know” could be very boring”. Is there a happy medium? Of course there is. There are more books out there on how to write a script then you can shake a stick at (and they are listed in the back of this book) so I am not going to attempt to teach anyone how to write a script. What I will talk about is choosing the right story / project for you and your first film. Some folks believe you should walk before you run. Others feel that if you can run, then run you should. Myself, I am conflicted. The bottom line is that most filmmakers start their careers by making a short film or two before graduating up to a feature film.
The other reality is that the cost of a feature film is significantly more and thus you may find it much harder to find someone to finance your feature with no experience under your belt. A short film can usually be made on the cheap.
For the purpose of clarity, a short film is usually under an hour long while a feature film usually needs to be at least ninety minutes if it’s a comedy and possibly longer if it is a drama or thriller. The process is virtually the same. One takes longer to make than the other but that is about it. A short film shot on 35mm film with a large cast, will take the same amount of prep and crew as a feature film shot on 35mm. There is just more cost and more time involved. So everything we talk about in this book is applicable to both whether you choose to make a short film or feature film as your first project.
It is important to choose your subject matter wisely. The success of your project will depend as much on what you choose to do as how you choose to do it. There is an unwritten rule that I find really applies. I am not a big fan of unwritten rules (not a big fan of written rules either) but this one really hits the nail on the head. ON YOUR FIRST FILM, AVOID AT ALL COSTS WORKING WITH ANIMALS, CHILDREN AND SPECIAL EFFECTS.
This may seem like common sense, but you would not believe how many first time scripts I have seen that have horses, drowning scenes, car wrecks, exploding vampires and levitating corpses. Not to mention every mob movie that has the pre-requisite gun fight show down, “Mexican Standoff” with Tarrantino-like blood effects. People. If you have never made a movie before, why make an already gargantuan task harder. So, pick a story that you can shoot on your block, in your office, in your parents’ house or in and around the local high school. If you must have cars, don’t wreck them or blow them up. If someone has to die bloody, do it off screen…. See where I am heading with this. Your first film will challenge every idea you have ever had. The simpler the story, the easier it will be to pull off a film that is better than average. Most of the things I described in the previous paragraph work great if you have a ton of cash and experienced stunt and pyro people to handle the effects. Your career will benefit more from a very well produced, directed and acted, drama or comedy with no effects and action sequences, than it will from a poorly made action or horror film that looks amateurish and reeks of bad acting and half assed production value. Getting it done is important, but if it’s crap, no one will want to see it and you will have set yourself back financially as well as in reputation. Finances can be sorted out. Reputation is all you will ever have in this business, wait until your ninth or tenth film before you send yours into the toilet.
If you are not a writer then your first task is to find a script that you connect with, that can be produced within a reasonable budget that YOU can reasonably raise and that at your level (which is beginner by the way) you can pull of with some sense of professional aplomb. If you are planning on writing it yourself, then your task is harder.
Somebody smarter than me once said there are only seven stories to tell. He or She was right. It is a rarity when a movie comes out that is so original you can safely say that you have never seen that before. The movie Memento comes to mind. Had they told that story from the beginning to the end it would have been a slightly interesting thriller. Been there done that. But by thinking outside of the box and telling the story backwards, it took your basic psycho-thriller and turned it on it’s head. In turn creating one of the most innovative films to come down the pike in a long time. Don’t rush the story just so you can start rolling camera. Most good scripts take quite some time to come together and then a number of rewrites before they are ready to be shot. Our process (my partners and I) goes something like this.
One of us comes up with an idea. Let’s use Atlantic City Serenade as an example. While we were tearing down the ceiling in Paul’s living room, he says to me “I have this idea”. I say “Oh yeah, what is it?” Then he says, “This guy, he sleeps with his daughter and doesn’t know it”. I say, “You mean he doesn’t know he slept with a woman or he doesn’t know it was his daughter?” He says “Very Funny” and I say “Great idea” Now this line doesn’t seem like much but it was the germ of an entire movie. We spent the next year thinking about and talking about the storyline. Coming up with different characters and plot points. Once we finally had the basic story concept in our heads, I sat down and in about three weeks banged out a first draft. What we call the “skeleton”. This is basically just a frame to hang the story on. Once we have something to work with, we go through each scene line by line together and make changes, tweak dialogue, delete scenes and write new ones. This part of the process can take as little time as couple of weeks or as long as four or five months as it did with “Beds & Breakfast” (which died a slow painful death due to tasteless re-writes called for by the distributor … much more on this later).
On the other side of the coin, “A Question of Time” was a script idea that I started over a year ago and couldn’t get past the first scene for various reasons. Then, a year later I came back to it, wrote the whole script in two days (after spending a week doing an outline) and went into production a month later. There are no concrete rules about how and when a project (or script) comes together.
If you choose to get a script from someone else there are things to be wary of. First and foremost, make sure you connect with the script. I don’t mean whether you like it or not, or whether you think it’s funny, or scary or suspenseful. I mean whether it grabs you on a gut level. Remember, you are going to be living with this script and this story forever. Intimately for the next two years and as a resume piece forever. So if you don’t believe deeply in the story and the script, then you will not do good service to the project. I have seen this first hand.
My advice is to read as many scripts as you can. You don’t have to be a writer or an experienced script reader to be able to tell whether a script is good or not. However, keep in mind that a great script doesn’t necessarily make a great movie. This is because a movie is more than the words on a page. If you can’t recreate faithfully what makes a great script work, whether it’s because of a lack of funding or skill, then choosing that particular script would be a mistake. Only you can make the right script choice for yourself, but it must be a wise choice if you are going to be successful.
You are dying to tell your story. It’s been percolating in your brain for decades. You have waited your whole life to tell this story. What? You don’t have a story to tell? Don’t worry. Most stories that people are yearning to tell aren’t worth the telling or the hearing for that matter. It’s not having a particular story to tell, it’s the desire to tell a story. For a long time the rule of thumb was “write what you know”. While this is good advice to a point, I read a quote from a writer who said “Unless you are a Princess leading a rebellion in a galaxy far, far away, “what you know” could be very boring”. Is there a happy medium? Of course there is. There are more books out there on how to write a script then you can shake a stick at (and they are listed in the back of this book) so I am not going to attempt to teach anyone how to write a script. What I will talk about is choosing the right story / project for you and your first film. Some folks believe you should walk before you run. Others feel that if you can run, then run you should. Myself, I am conflicted. The bottom line is that most filmmakers start their careers by making a short film or two before graduating up to a feature film.
The other reality is that the cost of a feature film is significantly more and thus you may find it much harder to find someone to finance your feature with no experience under your belt. A short film can usually be made on the cheap.
For the purpose of clarity, a short film is usually under an hour long while a feature film usually needs to be at least ninety minutes if it’s a comedy and possibly longer if it is a drama or thriller. The process is virtually the same. One takes longer to make than the other but that is about it. A short film shot on 35mm film with a large cast, will take the same amount of prep and crew as a feature film shot on 35mm. There is just more cost and more time involved. So everything we talk about in this book is applicable to both whether you choose to make a short film or feature film as your first project.
It is important to choose your subject matter wisely. The success of your project will depend as much on what you choose to do as how you choose to do it. There is an unwritten rule that I find really applies. I am not a big fan of unwritten rules (not a big fan of written rules either) but this one really hits the nail on the head. ON YOUR FIRST FILM, AVOID AT ALL COSTS WORKING WITH ANIMALS, CHILDREN AND SPECIAL EFFECTS.
This may seem like common sense, but you would not believe how many first time scripts I have seen that have horses, drowning scenes, car wrecks, exploding vampires and levitating corpses. Not to mention every mob movie that has the pre-requisite gun fight show down, “Mexican Standoff” with Tarrantino-like blood effects. People. If you have never made a movie before, why make an already gargantuan task harder. So, pick a story that you can shoot on your block, in your office, in your parents’ house or in and around the local high school. If you must have cars, don’t wreck them or blow them up. If someone has to die bloody, do it off screen…. See where I am heading with this. Your first film will challenge every idea you have ever had. The simpler the story, the easier it will be to pull off a film that is better than average. Most of the things I described in the previous paragraph work great if you have a ton of cash and experienced stunt and pyro people to handle the effects. Your career will benefit more from a very well produced, directed and acted, drama or comedy with no effects and action sequences, than it will from a poorly made action or horror film that looks amateurish and reeks of bad acting and half assed production value. Getting it done is important, but if it’s crap, no one will want to see it and you will have set yourself back financially as well as in reputation. Finances can be sorted out. Reputation is all you will ever have in this business, wait until your ninth or tenth film before you send yours into the toilet.
If you are not a writer then your first task is to find a script that you connect with, that can be produced within a reasonable budget that YOU can reasonably raise and that at your level (which is beginner by the way) you can pull of with some sense of professional aplomb. If you are planning on writing it yourself, then your task is harder.
Somebody smarter than me once said there are only seven stories to tell. He or She was right. It is a rarity when a movie comes out that is so original you can safely say that you have never seen that before. The movie Memento comes to mind. Had they told that story from the beginning to the end it would have been a slightly interesting thriller. Been there done that. But by thinking outside of the box and telling the story backwards, it took your basic psycho-thriller and turned it on it’s head. In turn creating one of the most innovative films to come down the pike in a long time. Don’t rush the story just so you can start rolling camera. Most good scripts take quite some time to come together and then a number of rewrites before they are ready to be shot. Our process (my partners and I) goes something like this.
One of us comes up with an idea. Let’s use Atlantic City Serenade as an example. While we were tearing down the ceiling in Paul’s living room, he says to me “I have this idea”. I say “Oh yeah, what is it?” Then he says, “This guy, he sleeps with his daughter and doesn’t know it”. I say, “You mean he doesn’t know he slept with a woman or he doesn’t know it was his daughter?” He says “Very Funny” and I say “Great idea” Now this line doesn’t seem like much but it was the germ of an entire movie. We spent the next year thinking about and talking about the storyline. Coming up with different characters and plot points. Once we finally had the basic story concept in our heads, I sat down and in about three weeks banged out a first draft. What we call the “skeleton”. This is basically just a frame to hang the story on. Once we have something to work with, we go through each scene line by line together and make changes, tweak dialogue, delete scenes and write new ones. This part of the process can take as little time as couple of weeks or as long as four or five months as it did with “Beds & Breakfast” (which died a slow painful death due to tasteless re-writes called for by the distributor … much more on this later).
On the other side of the coin, “A Question of Time” was a script idea that I started over a year ago and couldn’t get past the first scene for various reasons. Then, a year later I came back to it, wrote the whole script in two days (after spending a week doing an outline) and went into production a month later. There are no concrete rules about how and when a project (or script) comes together.
If you choose to get a script from someone else there are things to be wary of. First and foremost, make sure you connect with the script. I don’t mean whether you like it or not, or whether you think it’s funny, or scary or suspenseful. I mean whether it grabs you on a gut level. Remember, you are going to be living with this script and this story forever. Intimately for the next two years and as a resume piece forever. So if you don’t believe deeply in the story and the script, then you will not do good service to the project. I have seen this first hand.
My advice is to read as many scripts as you can. You don’t have to be a writer or an experienced script reader to be able to tell whether a script is good or not. However, keep in mind that a great script doesn’t necessarily make a great movie. This is because a movie is more than the words on a page. If you can’t recreate faithfully what makes a great script work, whether it’s because of a lack of funding or skill, then choosing that particular script would be a mistake. Only you can make the right script choice for yourself, but it must be a wise choice if you are going to be successful.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Chapter #1
CHAPTER 1 – DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THIS?
Well you got this far. If my preface didn’t discourage you then you are on the right track. So lets start with the basics. Being a filmmaker, sounds better then actually being a filmmaker. Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living (Living? Hah!) I tell them I am a filmmaker. Now, by answering that question you are implying two half truths to the person who has asked it. Firstly that you are “making a living” doing it and secondly that you are a maker of films. Lets take the first part of the question, as it’s the more black and white of the two.
“Making a living” implies that on Friday, you take your weekly paycheck to the bank and cash it or deposit it or do something with it. Wrong answer. There won’t be a weekly paycheck to deposit, cash or do anything else with for a very long time.
Being a filmmaker is a very ambiguous term. Yes, I have a made a number of films. Yes I hope to make more films in the future. Right now however I am not being a filmmaker. I am more of a film “hoper”. A potential maker of films. My point is, that while being a filmmaker is a nice idea, the reality is that it is not for the weak of spirit, spine or liver. It’s not a part time job and it’s not a hobby.
Sure, anyone can pick up a halfway decent video camera these days and shoot something. In fact it is happening all around us. This, however does not a filmmaker make (so to speak). If you want to be successful in your pursuit of the “American Filmmaker Dream” it will take one hundred percent commitment. By the way, we are talking about the “American Filmmaker Dream”, not the “Canadian Filmmaker Dream” or the “Swedish Filmmaker Dream” or even the “English Filmmaker Dream”. Those folks all have governmental funding to help young filmmakers make their first films. Yep, imagine that, the government gives them two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Kronas or pounds to create their first film. Not here. So don’t even think about it. So getting back to commitment. If you don’t have it, you’ll never make it (unless you, or members of your family that you are on very good terms with are extremely wealthy, then none of this means anything). Let me try to explain what I mean.
It’s easy to say, “I want to be a filmmaker”. I know many folks who have said it and who say it on a regular basis. But saying it doesn’t make it so. You need to be able to spend all of your time working to advance your career, because no one is going to do it for you and there is no employment agency that is going to get you your first directing job. So what that means is that you have to have a strategy to get to your ultimate goal, your first film. This needs to be your only goal. Not your second film, not the condo in La Jolla or Hollywood. Getting your first film made at all costs is job one. It isn’t going to happen over night. It is going to take time. This shouldn’t be discouraging because you have a lot to learn between now and then, and most of it isn’t going to be from this book. Lets start at the very beginning.
Why do you want to make a film?
WAIT!
STOP!
HOLD ON!
I think we have to redefine a term. For many, many years, what we call the film industry has centered on the making of “movies”, Movies that were made on film. As film stock was the primary media that a movie was shot on, the term “filmmaker” came to mean someone who made films. Well, as most of you know (and if you are reading the book you should definitely know) that the new low budget media is digital video. Whether that is mini-DV, 24p or HD , none of it is “film”. Some folks treat it as the second coming and others call it the death of the film industry. It is an industry argument that I am not going discuss in this chapter, or this book for that matter. However for the sake of clarity, when we use the term “filmmaker” we are referring to someone who makes movies either on film or video. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
Why do you want to make a film/movie? That is the first question you must answer for yourself. What is the motivation for stepping into this world of hardships, deceptions, disappointments, and endless compromises? We have already established that it can’t be for the glory and the women. We have also pretty much have quashed the “get rich” motivation. So what is it? Let me tell you what my motivation is and maybe that will help to clarify your own thoughts. For me, I can’t see myself doing anything else. I need to tell the stories. But more than that I need to see the stories told. I need that feeling of taking something that only existed in my head and seeing it come alive; sometimes beyond my wildest expectations and sometimes severely short of my expectations. It is never about the fringe benefits because at this level there aren’t any. The benefits come from doing the work, from being able to work with your friends (more about this later), great actors (if you can get them) and being your own boss. Also at this level you aren’t going to have too many people questioning your artistic choices (enjoy it now because later on, that disappears). The work is amazingly hard, but when you love what you do (and I do love it, and you better had or don’t even think about doing it) it is a joy.
It is also a collaborative process and when you have great people to collaborate with, you get to watch your vision augmented by the vision of others. This is how your seed of an idea becomes a well-rounded movie. You need to enjoy the process. Of course there are some aspects of the process that I like more than others and we’ll get to that later.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to be a filmmaker, they need to be realistic and true. Doing it because it sounds cool won’t cut it and you will find that out pretty quickly.
Can you do this and work a regular forty - hour a week job. In my opinion, NO, you can’t. This is a business that does business during the day as well as at night. You can’t deal with rental houses, actors, agents, crew and the five thousand other things you need to chase during the day while working behind a desk somewhere. Not to mention that you aren’t going to make any industry connections working in an office or on a loading dock. I know, I have done both (neither for a very long time, but I digress,). Your best bet if you need to work while pursuing your dream is to work freelance on commercials as a PA or possibly in a film production company or lastly and least appealing would be a rental house. All of these will put you in daily contact with folks in the industry who somewhere down the road may be in a position to do you a favor. This is an industry built on favors and if you aren’t in it you aren’t going to get them. The other positive thing about working freelance in the industry is that you will meet other people working on your own level who are also trying to get a leg up. These are folks who may eventually be your DP, 1st AD or editor. (See the Industry translation of terms). While being a PA is not a glamorous job, it will give you the opportunity to see up close and first hand how a movie set works. This knowledge is invaluable and cannot be bought in a book or learned in film school.
Film School. In my opinion, the biggest racket going. You pay someone who hasn’t worked in the business (generally) to teach you about a business he/she hasn’t worked in. In turn, you go into debt for a degree that won’t help you one bit when you get out of school and you have now wasted four years. Four years you could have been working in the business and learning it from the ground up. I truly believe your money would be better spent by getting a job as a PA on as many films as you can in order to learn the reality of film making, not the Film School fantasy.
You would be surprised at how many no budget productions are out there just dying for new blood to come and work on their films. Not only that but lack of experience is very often a boon on these gigs. Most of these jobs are so low budget that there is no pay, so it is very difficult to get people with tons of experience. This means that if they are serious about getting their project done, and know what they are doing, they will hire willing and eager interns and PA’s with little or no experience and train them on the spot. I’ve done it. I did it on my second feature film and the end result is that three more people who had never stepped onto a film set before now have practical experience doing a number of jobs on a film set, which could actually get them paid on their next job. Two of them worked on my third feature film in paid positions. Try getting that in Film School. That’s the way it works. The other plus is that very often your next job comes from someone who is working with you on the current job. It happened two times on my last shoot for two of my interns. You work your way up and make connections and you learn. And guess what. They pay you. How about that?
The other key is to watch as many movies as you can (this is what you pay to do in film school). Watch them. Study them. Figure out what you like about particular movies and directors and what you don’t. Get yourself a decent DV camera (they are pretty cheap these days) and start making short films on the cheap. Almost every computer comes with a basic editing program. Get a feel for composition and action. Successful filmmakers are self-starters. To Quote Chevy Chase in Caddyshack “Make your future”.
So, to sum up, figure out why you want to do this, figure out the best way to support yourself while trying to do this and make the best of production opportunities that come your way in the process. So now what?
Well you got this far. If my preface didn’t discourage you then you are on the right track. So lets start with the basics. Being a filmmaker, sounds better then actually being a filmmaker. Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living (Living? Hah!) I tell them I am a filmmaker. Now, by answering that question you are implying two half truths to the person who has asked it. Firstly that you are “making a living” doing it and secondly that you are a maker of films. Lets take the first part of the question, as it’s the more black and white of the two.
“Making a living” implies that on Friday, you take your weekly paycheck to the bank and cash it or deposit it or do something with it. Wrong answer. There won’t be a weekly paycheck to deposit, cash or do anything else with for a very long time.
Being a filmmaker is a very ambiguous term. Yes, I have a made a number of films. Yes I hope to make more films in the future. Right now however I am not being a filmmaker. I am more of a film “hoper”. A potential maker of films. My point is, that while being a filmmaker is a nice idea, the reality is that it is not for the weak of spirit, spine or liver. It’s not a part time job and it’s not a hobby.
Sure, anyone can pick up a halfway decent video camera these days and shoot something. In fact it is happening all around us. This, however does not a filmmaker make (so to speak). If you want to be successful in your pursuit of the “American Filmmaker Dream” it will take one hundred percent commitment. By the way, we are talking about the “American Filmmaker Dream”, not the “Canadian Filmmaker Dream” or the “Swedish Filmmaker Dream” or even the “English Filmmaker Dream”. Those folks all have governmental funding to help young filmmakers make their first films. Yep, imagine that, the government gives them two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Kronas or pounds to create their first film. Not here. So don’t even think about it. So getting back to commitment. If you don’t have it, you’ll never make it (unless you, or members of your family that you are on very good terms with are extremely wealthy, then none of this means anything). Let me try to explain what I mean.
It’s easy to say, “I want to be a filmmaker”. I know many folks who have said it and who say it on a regular basis. But saying it doesn’t make it so. You need to be able to spend all of your time working to advance your career, because no one is going to do it for you and there is no employment agency that is going to get you your first directing job. So what that means is that you have to have a strategy to get to your ultimate goal, your first film. This needs to be your only goal. Not your second film, not the condo in La Jolla or Hollywood. Getting your first film made at all costs is job one. It isn’t going to happen over night. It is going to take time. This shouldn’t be discouraging because you have a lot to learn between now and then, and most of it isn’t going to be from this book. Lets start at the very beginning.
Why do you want to make a film?
WAIT!
STOP!
HOLD ON!
I think we have to redefine a term. For many, many years, what we call the film industry has centered on the making of “movies”, Movies that were made on film. As film stock was the primary media that a movie was shot on, the term “filmmaker” came to mean someone who made films. Well, as most of you know (and if you are reading the book you should definitely know) that the new low budget media is digital video. Whether that is mini-DV, 24p or HD , none of it is “film”. Some folks treat it as the second coming and others call it the death of the film industry. It is an industry argument that I am not going discuss in this chapter, or this book for that matter. However for the sake of clarity, when we use the term “filmmaker” we are referring to someone who makes movies either on film or video. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
Why do you want to make a film/movie? That is the first question you must answer for yourself. What is the motivation for stepping into this world of hardships, deceptions, disappointments, and endless compromises? We have already established that it can’t be for the glory and the women. We have also pretty much have quashed the “get rich” motivation. So what is it? Let me tell you what my motivation is and maybe that will help to clarify your own thoughts. For me, I can’t see myself doing anything else. I need to tell the stories. But more than that I need to see the stories told. I need that feeling of taking something that only existed in my head and seeing it come alive; sometimes beyond my wildest expectations and sometimes severely short of my expectations. It is never about the fringe benefits because at this level there aren’t any. The benefits come from doing the work, from being able to work with your friends (more about this later), great actors (if you can get them) and being your own boss. Also at this level you aren’t going to have too many people questioning your artistic choices (enjoy it now because later on, that disappears). The work is amazingly hard, but when you love what you do (and I do love it, and you better had or don’t even think about doing it) it is a joy.
It is also a collaborative process and when you have great people to collaborate with, you get to watch your vision augmented by the vision of others. This is how your seed of an idea becomes a well-rounded movie. You need to enjoy the process. Of course there are some aspects of the process that I like more than others and we’ll get to that later.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to be a filmmaker, they need to be realistic and true. Doing it because it sounds cool won’t cut it and you will find that out pretty quickly.
Can you do this and work a regular forty - hour a week job. In my opinion, NO, you can’t. This is a business that does business during the day as well as at night. You can’t deal with rental houses, actors, agents, crew and the five thousand other things you need to chase during the day while working behind a desk somewhere. Not to mention that you aren’t going to make any industry connections working in an office or on a loading dock. I know, I have done both (neither for a very long time, but I digress,). Your best bet if you need to work while pursuing your dream is to work freelance on commercials as a PA or possibly in a film production company or lastly and least appealing would be a rental house. All of these will put you in daily contact with folks in the industry who somewhere down the road may be in a position to do you a favor. This is an industry built on favors and if you aren’t in it you aren’t going to get them. The other positive thing about working freelance in the industry is that you will meet other people working on your own level who are also trying to get a leg up. These are folks who may eventually be your DP, 1st AD or editor. (See the Industry translation of terms). While being a PA is not a glamorous job, it will give you the opportunity to see up close and first hand how a movie set works. This knowledge is invaluable and cannot be bought in a book or learned in film school.
Film School. In my opinion, the biggest racket going. You pay someone who hasn’t worked in the business (generally) to teach you about a business he/she hasn’t worked in. In turn, you go into debt for a degree that won’t help you one bit when you get out of school and you have now wasted four years. Four years you could have been working in the business and learning it from the ground up. I truly believe your money would be better spent by getting a job as a PA on as many films as you can in order to learn the reality of film making, not the Film School fantasy.
You would be surprised at how many no budget productions are out there just dying for new blood to come and work on their films. Not only that but lack of experience is very often a boon on these gigs. Most of these jobs are so low budget that there is no pay, so it is very difficult to get people with tons of experience. This means that if they are serious about getting their project done, and know what they are doing, they will hire willing and eager interns and PA’s with little or no experience and train them on the spot. I’ve done it. I did it on my second feature film and the end result is that three more people who had never stepped onto a film set before now have practical experience doing a number of jobs on a film set, which could actually get them paid on their next job. Two of them worked on my third feature film in paid positions. Try getting that in Film School. That’s the way it works. The other plus is that very often your next job comes from someone who is working with you on the current job. It happened two times on my last shoot for two of my interns. You work your way up and make connections and you learn. And guess what. They pay you. How about that?
The other key is to watch as many movies as you can (this is what you pay to do in film school). Watch them. Study them. Figure out what you like about particular movies and directors and what you don’t. Get yourself a decent DV camera (they are pretty cheap these days) and start making short films on the cheap. Almost every computer comes with a basic editing program. Get a feel for composition and action. Successful filmmakers are self-starters. To Quote Chevy Chase in Caddyshack “Make your future”.
So, to sum up, figure out why you want to do this, figure out the best way to support yourself while trying to do this and make the best of production opportunities that come your way in the process. So now what?
Preface
So, you want to be a filmmaker. You want to follow in the footsteps of Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese. Alternatively, maybe you want to be the next Kevin Smith, Ed Burns or Spike Jonez. You want the fame, the money, the power and being a director is the quickest way to get you there.
WRONG!
You have a better shot of winning the lottery than becoming a household name as a director, filmmaker, dare I say auteur? Film schools are vomiting out would be Tarrantinos by the thousands every year. How many of those fortunate folks are going to be getting coffee in some production house next year. Fortunate? Yes. I will explain that later. The unfortunate ones will be putting their hard earned film school degrees to work in a shoe store somewhere, or perhaps in the food service – hotel cleaning industries.
So, why do it? You do it because you have to do it. Because not doing it is not an option, Because the thought of doing anything else is a death sentence.
This may seem a little over dramatic. However, unless you eat, breathe, sleep, talk, drink, piss and crap film, your chances of success in this business are slim to none.
Everyone has heard the expression, “This business will chew you up and spit you out”. Well the film industry doesn’t bother spitting you out. They just swallow you whole, until there is nothing left but the empty shell of what used to be a person. Let me quote Woody Allen from that masterpiece “Crimes and Misdemeanors” - “You’ve heard the old saying, it’s a dog eat dog world? Well in this business it’s dog doesn’t return other dog’s phone calls”.
The financial rewards are slim and the accolades are few and far between. It’s the resolve that you bring with you, that helps to get you through the many trials, tribulations, disappointments and successes (yes there can be successes).
There have been many books written on this subject. They cover every aspect of filmmaking from the technical aspects to raising money. Some of them tell you how to direct (I like those best, they are very amusing) and some give you insight into the work of other directors. Some of these books have merit; a lot of them do not. I have read most of them. I believe that most of what you need to know about making movies, is best learned by doing it. I am constantly asked by people who are contemplating going to film school if it is worth the investment. Time and again I have to tell them no. I just don’t see the sense in spending seventy thousand dollars to get a degree in a field that has virtually no chance of paying you back enough money to repay your loans. I also believe that there is nothing they can teach you in film school that you can’t learn on your own if you really want to.
The point of this book is not to teach you how to make it as filmmaker. There are no secret paths to get you there. The only thing I can attempt to do is go through the process step by step, relating my experiences in the New York film industry and what to look out for and how to reach your goal. If your goal is to become a famous director then I can’t help you and don’t buy this book. But if your goal is to get your first movie made and seen at a film festival and possibly distributed, I may be able to point you in the right direction.
It can be done. It has been done. You just have to want it.
WRONG!
You have a better shot of winning the lottery than becoming a household name as a director, filmmaker, dare I say auteur? Film schools are vomiting out would be Tarrantinos by the thousands every year. How many of those fortunate folks are going to be getting coffee in some production house next year. Fortunate? Yes. I will explain that later. The unfortunate ones will be putting their hard earned film school degrees to work in a shoe store somewhere, or perhaps in the food service – hotel cleaning industries.
So, why do it? You do it because you have to do it. Because not doing it is not an option, Because the thought of doing anything else is a death sentence.
This may seem a little over dramatic. However, unless you eat, breathe, sleep, talk, drink, piss and crap film, your chances of success in this business are slim to none.
Everyone has heard the expression, “This business will chew you up and spit you out”. Well the film industry doesn’t bother spitting you out. They just swallow you whole, until there is nothing left but the empty shell of what used to be a person. Let me quote Woody Allen from that masterpiece “Crimes and Misdemeanors” - “You’ve heard the old saying, it’s a dog eat dog world? Well in this business it’s dog doesn’t return other dog’s phone calls”.
The financial rewards are slim and the accolades are few and far between. It’s the resolve that you bring with you, that helps to get you through the many trials, tribulations, disappointments and successes (yes there can be successes).
There have been many books written on this subject. They cover every aspect of filmmaking from the technical aspects to raising money. Some of them tell you how to direct (I like those best, they are very amusing) and some give you insight into the work of other directors. Some of these books have merit; a lot of them do not. I have read most of them. I believe that most of what you need to know about making movies, is best learned by doing it. I am constantly asked by people who are contemplating going to film school if it is worth the investment. Time and again I have to tell them no. I just don’t see the sense in spending seventy thousand dollars to get a degree in a field that has virtually no chance of paying you back enough money to repay your loans. I also believe that there is nothing they can teach you in film school that you can’t learn on your own if you really want to.
The point of this book is not to teach you how to make it as filmmaker. There are no secret paths to get you there. The only thing I can attempt to do is go through the process step by step, relating my experiences in the New York film industry and what to look out for and how to reach your goal. If your goal is to become a famous director then I can’t help you and don’t buy this book. But if your goal is to get your first movie made and seen at a film festival and possibly distributed, I may be able to point you in the right direction.
It can be done. It has been done. You just have to want it.
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