Title:

It Takes an Iron Resolve to Make an Independent Film Production Take place

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Summary: This post is about the level of commitment that is necessary to make a low spending budget independent film. The author tells what it is like to take on the huge responsibility of producing your own movie with a quite modest quantity of income. He describes in detail a certain film production expertise he endured to make his own movie for festivals like The Sundance Film Festival, Houston Worldfest, Cannes, etc...

Key phrases: Sundance Film Festival, film production, independent film, film festivals, make a movie, low spending budget films, low spending budget movies, how to make a movie, make your own movie, entertainment business, film

Post Body: Commitment is an independent filmmaker’s most valuable resource. With out much of cash to grease the wheels of production, a low spending budget film producer should rely on creativity and determination to get their films created. If a individual wants to get their film produced badly sufficient, there is not a lot in this world that can quit it from happening.

Generating a film on your own with your own cash is a quite daunting job. It can also be extremely rewarding. As soon as you determine to take on the awesome responsibility of writing, directing, and creating your own independent film, you far better know what you are acquiring into beforehand. When you set the ball in motion, there is no going back. You either succeed and your film makes to the film festival circuit (which is a key accomplishment in and of itself), or you crash and burn halfway by means of the film production method and your film vision in no way sees the light of day.

The next time you watch a movie I suggest that you pay certain attention to the credits at the end of the film. Take a look at how a lot of names scroll across the screen and this will give you an notion of how a lot function goes into the creating of a motion picture. Then take away all of the names on the screen and picture your name in front of every single credit for each and every task and this will give you an notion of a lot function YOU will have to do to make your own movie.

As soon as I 1st graduated from film school I hit the ground running. I landed a decent task as the Director and Animator on an independent film that had Pat Boone’s name attached to it. I was hired to film clay animation stories about The Bible. I worked on that task for about 4 months and was paid fairly nicely for my efforts. I decided that the greatest factor I could do with the cash I saved was to make an additional film. I would take the information and income I gained and use it for my own benefit. I decided to make my own movie with the thought in mind that I would enter it in on the film festival circuit and hopefully win some awards. If that happened it would nearly definitely be a increase for my fledgling film career.

I wrote a script for a short film that involved a mixture of clay animation and live action, and I was ready to make a film. My strategy was to use all of my understanding and talent and do nearly all the function. For the parts that I could not do myself I would hire pals and industry associates at a substantially discounted rate. These folks agreed to function for low-cost in return for a modest creative control, a credit for their demo reel, and Maybe exposure if the film does nicely at any key film festivals. I only had to hire them for the filming of the live action scenes and for some of the write-up production function (like sound style, mixing, foley sound effects, etc…). The animation I would do entirely on my own.

I contacted a few buddies of mine that managed camera and sound equipment rental houses. They set me up with a 16mm camera package and a DAT (digital audio tape) package to rent at discounted costs. I rented these packages on a weekend (to get the additional 2 days for free of charge) and I began filming the live action part of my film proper away.

I worked really difficult that very first weekend. I fundamentally filmed most of the time with only about two to 3 hours of sleep every day. As soon as I was not filming/acting/directing, I was setting up lights, moving furniture, producing meals for every person, setting up props, distributing and apply makeup, rehearsing with actors, fixing costumes, and performing script rewrites on the set, to name only a couple of points. By the time Monday morning rolled around, I was mentally and physically exhausted, but I still had to bring back the camera and sound equipment packages by 10:00 am or I would be charged for one more day of rental. You do not have that luxury to just sleep in and not be concerned about it As soon as you are producing an independent film on a shoestring spending budget. There is no rest for the weary As soon as you are producing your own movie. Time is income, and you do not have significantly of either one of these resources.

I returned the camera and sound equipment packages just in time on Monday morning. Then I went straight to the film lab and dropped off my film. I then created an appointment for the following week (the soonest date I could get) to see my dailies (developed film), and counted the days until the day of my appointment arrived.

I arrived at the film lab a half hour early for my appointment to see my dailies. As I sat in the lobby waiting for my massive moment, I started to get extremely nervous. Unnerving thoughts started to fill my head. What if one of the rolls of film somehow got damaged in the lab? Perhaps the machine that develops the film broke Once my film was running by means of it and all of my film rolls are scratched? What if the cameraman I hired was not as great as his demo reel implied and all my rolls are under or over exposed? What if the guy who took my film at the front desk of the film lab is a disgruntled filmmaker who only took that task so he can ruin other folks’s film As soon as they hand it over to him? What if there was a mishap in the film vault involving fire sprinklers and all my rolls of film got ruined? Of course, all of these are irrational thoughts, but nonetheless they are the type of thoughts that go by means of the mind of an independent filmmaker as they are quietly waiting in the lobby of a film lab facility prior to their a ppointment to see the fruits of their efforts.

As it turned out, every thing was fine. My dailies looked great and that only inspired me to maintain the ball rolling with my film project. I put every single ounce of effort that my body and soul possessed into that project, and it paid off. That film (Mike And The Magic Lamp) won a lot of awards at many film contests that year (1998) such as a Silver Award at the Houston Worldfest in the exact same category that had observed past winners with such names as Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, and Quentin Tarantino. It was a best springboard for my film career. I have produced many films given that then and all of them have led to larger and much better projects. My newest film is a ninety minute science fiction enjoy story. I already have a few distribution delivers for this film, and I have however to enter it in a single film festival. I ought to be able to make a really decent profit if it does nicely on the film festival circuit, and I owe it all to my iron resolve to make my film career dream a reality. Where my spending budget was lacking, my det ermination picked up the slack.

Copyright 2006. Michael P. Connelly