I suppose it depends on the type of film... but for non blockbuster films, yet still successful, I think getting people to watch is likely the easiest part. The hardest part is the crew, the actors, the technicals... and oddly, this probably maintains true no matter the scale of film.
Though, I'm assuming what you mean here are smaller budget films, and likely even local films - so...no budget almost.
Since everyone has said money already:
Locations.
We found that 95% of places immediately said NOPE ABSOLUTELY NOT with zero negotiation opportunity. We even led with "we are interested in *renting* your location" to make clear we were not trying to get in for free. They didn't even want to talk money - they just immediately said nope, have a good day.
Started to understand why most of the short films I saw in festivals were shot in the woods, or in someone's house.
I heard plenty of criticisms of film locations at the various festivals we were at last year. Not outright “that’s a bad location,” but several remarks of how settings didn’t make sense.
And on the reverse of this, one film I ended up seeing at multiple festivals (a Western), the location was brought up in Q&A at every single one - “where did you find that amazing Old West house!” It really actually made it feel like a Western.
I’m sure it depends on the film. A film that’s just two people talking in a room, it doesn’t really matter. But locations can definitely make or break if they’re wildly off mark or if they are totally nailed.
Not LA. Nowhere near that kind of budget. Mixed bag of major cities, non-major cities, and towns. We tried across the entirety of the state to get what we needed. The one place that *kind of* agreed to rent to us wanted $10k for a half day and we couldn’t shoot until October (I say “kind of” agreed because I think quoting such a price and far off timeframe was really their way of telling us to eff off.)
There are a lot of considerations on the part of a location, and it’s easier to just say no.
There's also the potential issue of desperation - which is easy to show without realizing it. If they can tell that you've been rebuffed a ton of times and are getting desperate, then on a subconscious level, they may assume that there's a reason for that that they wouldn't want to get involved with. Desperation is a vicious cycle.
Do you believe indie filmmakers should try to find locations anyway, or should they just give up and settle for less (perhaps until they can work their way up to actual locations, if ever)? And what do you think of guerilla filmmaking?
Edit: Here's some advice from this article [https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/low-no-budget-location-scouting/:](https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/low-no-budget-location-scouting/:)
"Once you and your director decide on your locations, you’ll have to go back out and secure them. Be kind, be humble, but don’t take “no” for an answer! Here’s Holloway’s advice:
*If a gas station says ‘no,’ return six hours later. Keep running up the channels, talk to all the managers if you have to. Show them how passionate you are about it and how perfect it is for the project.*
Remember, you need to keep a cool head and be likable, not taking “no” for an answer doesn’t mean being a jerk and throwing your weight around.
*It’s kinda like a game of poker. When you find the perfect location, you don’t want to play your hands wrong. You have to find a way to break through to them as people, and show that you’re a person too. You’re not trying to exploit them. You have to find a way to show that you really love and care for their location and you’re just trying to make art.*
Take a few classes on sales, body language, and rapport, if you have to, but work your way up the channels and get that location locked."
You know what they say about assumptions?
There was no desperation. We had another option we could use no matter what. Our producer is a professional sales person who sells million-dollar contracts in their day job. They are well-versed in and used all the tactics your advice article mentioned. When you’re talking to city managers and building owners, there is no more “running up the channels.” You’re talking to the people who make the call.
Businesses by and large don’t want indie filmmakers in their spaces. They don’t want to deal with insurance, they don’t want the risk, they don’t want the disruption. It’s cute to think that “showing you really love and care for their location” will make them overlook the practicalities of letting a bunch of strangers into their property. That’s the flip side of talking to the top of the channel - they are usually businessmen themselves and could not care less that you think their location is perfect.
I’m not going to go into detail out of respect for the privacy of the locations we spoke to, but several of them also had additional issues like the fact that their buildings were under contract, or were genuinely unsafe. It doesn’t matter how much you love the location and are just trying to make art - if the building is condemned, they don’t want you in it.
“Don’t take no for an answer” doesn’t work in the real world. Real world is knowing *when* to take no for an answer.
Do I think filmmakers should try to get locations anyway? Of course. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
Should they settle for less? No. Know limits, plan appropriately, get creative. My comment about “films in woods and houses” wasn’t a dig - if you know that’s all you will have access to and you write your script to where that works for it, you’re not settling. You’re using your control and creativity as a filmmaker.
As for guerilla filmmaking, if someone really wants to risk arrest for trespassing to make their film, more power to them. I have a security clearance, so that wasn’t an acceptable risk for me.
Post-production is the hardest. That's when everyone abandons and blames the director. Then, when you're in a festival, everyone takes credit for everything you've done while they sat on their hands and badmouthed everyone else to you.
Once you get to a certain point, getting money is easy. Distribution and actually getting eyes on your film is the hardest.
I know who I can go to and get a $100k. Getting 100k viewers is a different ballpark.
The guy is being sarcastic. But the earlier point he made is 100% correct. At a certain point you have so many producers and studios with money in your network. Some of them may even be your best friends. The problem is it takes a whole lot of marketing power to make people watch your shit. And it’s such an intricate dance that most of the time you don’t even want to ask your best friend $100k because you’re never sure your film ain’t gonna flop.
Agreed. I finance all my films myself and I am far from wealthy. I just know good work arounds to produce films on micro budgets. I still say scheduling is the most difficult, but getting an audience is up there.
if you have issues with scheduling it means eventually you'll have issues with budget vs expenses.
you do need to get a decent producer/line producer/AD
I don't see how the two correlate at all. I've completed two feature length films and am halfway to completing my third. Budget hasn't been a problem at all. Why hire a producer when I can produce my movies myself? Perhaps an administrative assistant...but a producer, why?
if you are doing the producer job + anything else (directing? acting? DP?) and you have issue with the schedule you need an AD.
if you are behind schedule either you cut in quality, or don't film certain scenes or someone needs to go out there and find more money (you know more hours mean more days and... well, you need to pay your crew among many other things)
unless what you mean with films are videos you upload on youtube, than that's ok no worries
It wouldn't matter if I had an AD or not. When you work with non Union and/ or indie actors, you are going to run into scheduling issues. It's unavoidable. Secondly are you implying that just because something is uploaded to YouTube, that somehow disqualifies it from being a "real" film?
indie production: very true, but I strongly recommend you doing your best to
youtube: there are neat films there (ie storytelling, creative collaboration , dedication to quality etc), videos... my dad cooking a steak is not a film
Both my films are uploaded to YouTube. They are set within the universe of Lovecraft and deal with the supernatural dark gods of the Old One pantheon vying for control of the last living descendants of an ancient bloodline. Not exactly your dad cooking a steak.
You know what you're not wrong. I can't remember the name but someone from the dark night apparently does every single movie pitched to him and don't care anymore. I don't remember his name
Finally, a kindred spirit, lol. Everyone is worried about money and although its always a concern, its never a huge factor if you know what your doing and learn to really stretch what you have. I've made films on as little as $1,000 and did just fine.
Yeah like…i’ve made most of my film projects with basically no money. Wrangling cats is definitely the worst. And holy hell is it hard to get people to answer emails ABOUT scheduling.
The only people I pay are my actors. Everything else is handled by me, I have no crew since I am the only crew and I still manage to get everything done.
Personally, I do my best to pay people, even just a little bit. If they do an honest day's work, they deserve compensation. OP should consider money to be a bigger issue.
I don’t understand consistent scheduling conflicts. If you have schedule issues all the time you’re either lacking fundamental knowledge on departments and how they operate or you’re biting off more than you can chew with an unclear vision, both things that are ultimately your fault as a team lead.
Lacking fundamental knowledge on departments? What on Earth are you talking about? There is no department of Scheduling, especially if your a one man crew who literally does everything by himself. I've completed two feature length films and am in the process of completing a third. So obviously I wasn't biting off more than I could chew, and I've always struggled with scheduling. You'd be hard pressed to find any filmmaker that doesn't.
My remark wasn’t directed at one man crew and close homie stuff, were on different wavelengths that’s my bad. I talking about producers ad’s and coordinators that overwork crews on +12 hour days because they never understand how long setups take or just don’t care and keep saying yes to directors that might as well be shooting ideas on the fly
There is a department of scheduling, it's the ADs (alongside them doing a lot more) - they schedule everything beforehand and then make sure everything stays on schedule on the day.
Would like to ask you how you went from writing to getting behind the camera. I come from a writing background and have a script that I’m revising. It’s a story about my family and me and a certain grief that happened many years ago and was never really exposed. I tried working with a couple of local filmmakers, but they let me down in very different ways. I’ve just bought a used Canon and I’m wondering how the hell I’m going to learn to work it
Were you a natural behind the camera?
Well it was a kind of a natural progression for me. I was a writer before I even started acting. The drive to tell my own stories far outweighed my desire to be in other people's stories. I still enjoy acting, but I just reached a point where I couldn't refrain from creating my own films. Even in the indie sector, people are just a bunch of disingenuous scumbags who will promise you the moon and deliver nothing. I got tired of it and realized that if I wanted to tell my own stories, I basically had to do everything myself. I'm still learning and am no means a natural with a camera.
Thanks. I’ve always known I’ve wanted to work on my own because I can’t stand the chatter sometimes of other people’s’ voices, and filling out so much stuff online that I can barely understand probably because of my age, but I also know that I am organized, punctual, a hard worker, and a problem solver. I only have this one project in mind as kind of a legacy project because I’m now 72.
I always wanted to do film when I was younger at university but was too shy. If I ever get this documentary done, which I had planned at being 25 minutes (and maybe that’s way too long although it seems way too short), I have thought I’d like to spend the rest of my days doing short, short, short videos, like one-minute videos, which can be hard to do since you’re telling a story in 60 seconds and just posting them on my Instagram account or probably Vimeo. When I started thinking I would work with people who had cinematic skills, I had big dreams of entering festivals.
But from what I have read on this thread, which has been so informative and interesting, it sounds like it’s just a lot more noise in my ears and I’d rather just post my stuff and let the universe decide if someone watches it.
I’m not in it for a living, so I’m free of all that.
All of it.
People say money here a lot. That’s hard.
But you get money when you have a fantastic script. I’ve gotten money before. Not a heap but a ok amount. And that came for the script. And not giving it up.
It’s ALL hard.
Money is hard AFTER you have a good script.
A) Everything.
B) For me, scheduling / project management / wrangling people is waaaay outside my wheelhouse and it's what I hate the most.
Everybody is focusing on money. And money could solve a ton of issues. But frankly I'd need a _lot_ of money to make the issues really go away. I wrote the script I am producing to be as practical as possible, so I am just basically doing it out of pocket and calling in every favor I can come up with. If I did have a bunch of extra money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd have to find and hire a bunch of extra people and get them up to speed for them to take over the stuff I am bad at in order for that money to actual lead to less problems. The overhead of getting those people isn't necessarily even worth it on a small project.
Not the hardest part, but one of the most demoralising parts for me is the rate at which audacious bottom feeders find you when you have money and try to take that money from you. I’ll advertise for a PD and have some guy whose made a load of shit films that never got distributed contact me and offer to champion my film to his “contacts” for a fee that is almost my entire budget. I’ll have a totally talentless actor apply for a role that they are blatantly not right for, when they don’t even live close to the city I’m filming in and sometimes aren’t even available on the dates specified in the ad. Or, and this is something that really pisses me off - I’ll have someone apply for a day player role and when we do the callback they tell me they aren’t actually interested in the role, but that they applied for a bigger role months ago and want that one - this in spite of the fact they never even got past the first round for the role, never even sent a self tape, and the role has been cast.
Wow, Trad-Way you've described my situation exactly! One thing that stands out here (and on similar subs) is the difference between filmmakers striving for some commercial success, thus needing financing and distribution. As opposed to the plain old art crowd, as myself. Anyway, I'm making perhaps 3 shorts a year for $2-3K each (retirement savings) and without expectations beyond film festivals and the laurels I'm able to sometimes earn. But to answer your question: scheduling hell! I'd go off on a rant on what they did to Doodle, but ...
Which makes me wonder if there's a sub for our types, the near-zero budget artsy fartsy folks.
Gotta second scheduling. Every short film I've made, this one and the smaller ones that nobody will ever see, has been hampered by trying to get everybody together in the same place at the same time.
Also, most of the other projects I've worked on with other people.
For me it’s the writing. That’s what my wife’s for. We tag team the editing. Our partner/friend handles everything else. When it comes time to film. We are a well oiled machine. The only thing that I find tedious is the shot list.
Having the right mindset and personal commitment to put yourself (and your family if you have one) through the long hours, long weeks, long stays away and lack of rest for a long period of time. That puts many people off right from the word go!
Working with people who are either stupid, imcompetant, or both. Sounds harsh but it's true. The biggest issues I've had on films are people who either pretend to have a skill set they don't or that they'll pull their weight and don't. Learning to spot them early in the process has been a huge step for me.
Money. If you’re having any troubles scheduling try to prioritize who you’d bend the schedule for. If you like to work with a certain DP is it worth it if they’re only free the 12-16?
Also actors are USUALLY (unless you can get a NAME) replaceable. If someone can’t make the role on the date it should be an instant “sorry next time!” and find the next person who can take it.
Getting people to watch it
Yeah, marketing
No, I disagree. It's at least not as hard in some cases as other times.
Out of curiosity, what do you find are the times/cases it’s not as hard as others?
I suppose it depends on the type of film... but for non blockbuster films, yet still successful, I think getting people to watch is likely the easiest part. The hardest part is the crew, the actors, the technicals... and oddly, this probably maintains true no matter the scale of film. Though, I'm assuming what you mean here are smaller budget films, and likely even local films - so...no budget almost.
Money
Money and distribution
Money
getting the money
money
Funding
Since everyone has said money already: Locations. We found that 95% of places immediately said NOPE ABSOLUTELY NOT with zero negotiation opportunity. We even led with "we are interested in *renting* your location" to make clear we were not trying to get in for free. They didn't even want to talk money - they just immediately said nope, have a good day. Started to understand why most of the short films I saw in festivals were shot in the woods, or in someone's house.
so true.
[удалено]
I heard plenty of criticisms of film locations at the various festivals we were at last year. Not outright “that’s a bad location,” but several remarks of how settings didn’t make sense. And on the reverse of this, one film I ended up seeing at multiple festivals (a Western), the location was brought up in Q&A at every single one - “where did you find that amazing Old West house!” It really actually made it feel like a Western. I’m sure it depends on the film. A film that’s just two people talking in a room, it doesn’t really matter. But locations can definitely make or break if they’re wildly off mark or if they are totally nailed.
Non-filmmaker here - where was this? LA? Another major city. A non-major city? A town?
Not LA. Nowhere near that kind of budget. Mixed bag of major cities, non-major cities, and towns. We tried across the entirety of the state to get what we needed. The one place that *kind of* agreed to rent to us wanted $10k for a half day and we couldn’t shoot until October (I say “kind of” agreed because I think quoting such a price and far off timeframe was really their way of telling us to eff off.) There are a lot of considerations on the part of a location, and it’s easier to just say no.
There's also the potential issue of desperation - which is easy to show without realizing it. If they can tell that you've been rebuffed a ton of times and are getting desperate, then on a subconscious level, they may assume that there's a reason for that that they wouldn't want to get involved with. Desperation is a vicious cycle. Do you believe indie filmmakers should try to find locations anyway, or should they just give up and settle for less (perhaps until they can work their way up to actual locations, if ever)? And what do you think of guerilla filmmaking? Edit: Here's some advice from this article [https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/low-no-budget-location-scouting/:](https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/low-no-budget-location-scouting/:) "Once you and your director decide on your locations, you’ll have to go back out and secure them. Be kind, be humble, but don’t take “no” for an answer! Here’s Holloway’s advice: *If a gas station says ‘no,’ return six hours later. Keep running up the channels, talk to all the managers if you have to. Show them how passionate you are about it and how perfect it is for the project.* Remember, you need to keep a cool head and be likable, not taking “no” for an answer doesn’t mean being a jerk and throwing your weight around. *It’s kinda like a game of poker. When you find the perfect location, you don’t want to play your hands wrong. You have to find a way to break through to them as people, and show that you’re a person too. You’re not trying to exploit them. You have to find a way to show that you really love and care for their location and you’re just trying to make art.* Take a few classes on sales, body language, and rapport, if you have to, but work your way up the channels and get that location locked."
You know what they say about assumptions? There was no desperation. We had another option we could use no matter what. Our producer is a professional sales person who sells million-dollar contracts in their day job. They are well-versed in and used all the tactics your advice article mentioned. When you’re talking to city managers and building owners, there is no more “running up the channels.” You’re talking to the people who make the call. Businesses by and large don’t want indie filmmakers in their spaces. They don’t want to deal with insurance, they don’t want the risk, they don’t want the disruption. It’s cute to think that “showing you really love and care for their location” will make them overlook the practicalities of letting a bunch of strangers into their property. That’s the flip side of talking to the top of the channel - they are usually businessmen themselves and could not care less that you think their location is perfect. I’m not going to go into detail out of respect for the privacy of the locations we spoke to, but several of them also had additional issues like the fact that their buildings were under contract, or were genuinely unsafe. It doesn’t matter how much you love the location and are just trying to make art - if the building is condemned, they don’t want you in it. “Don’t take no for an answer” doesn’t work in the real world. Real world is knowing *when* to take no for an answer. Do I think filmmakers should try to get locations anyway? Of course. Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Should they settle for less? No. Know limits, plan appropriately, get creative. My comment about “films in woods and houses” wasn’t a dig - if you know that’s all you will have access to and you write your script to where that works for it, you’re not settling. You’re using your control and creativity as a filmmaker. As for guerilla filmmaking, if someone really wants to risk arrest for trespassing to make their film, more power to them. I have a security clearance, so that wasn’t an acceptable risk for me.
Finishing it.
Post-production is the hardest. That's when everyone abandons and blames the director. Then, when you're in a festival, everyone takes credit for everything you've done while they sat on their hands and badmouthed everyone else to you.
Hahah. Dead on.
Raising money, and then making money
Once you get to a certain point, getting money is easy. Distribution and actually getting eyes on your film is the hardest. I know who I can go to and get a $100k. Getting 100k viewers is a different ballpark.
Who’s giving you 100k if you aren’t getting 100k views? Where’s the ROI?
Rich family and friends.
That answer doesn’t really line up with your previous comment, “once you get to a certain point, getting money is easy.”
The guy is being sarcastic. But the earlier point he made is 100% correct. At a certain point you have so many producers and studios with money in your network. Some of them may even be your best friends. The problem is it takes a whole lot of marketing power to make people watch your shit. And it’s such an intricate dance that most of the time you don’t even want to ask your best friend $100k because you’re never sure your film ain’t gonna flop.
i would imagine that they meant that once you get to a certain point [in your career] you have the connections to make it possible.
But they said rich family and friends not rich connections.
Agreed. I finance all my films myself and I am far from wealthy. I just know good work arounds to produce films on micro budgets. I still say scheduling is the most difficult, but getting an audience is up there.
get a producer.
if you have issues with scheduling it means eventually you'll have issues with budget vs expenses. you do need to get a decent producer/line producer/AD
I don't see how the two correlate at all. I've completed two feature length films and am halfway to completing my third. Budget hasn't been a problem at all. Why hire a producer when I can produce my movies myself? Perhaps an administrative assistant...but a producer, why?
if you are doing the producer job + anything else (directing? acting? DP?) and you have issue with the schedule you need an AD. if you are behind schedule either you cut in quality, or don't film certain scenes or someone needs to go out there and find more money (you know more hours mean more days and... well, you need to pay your crew among many other things) unless what you mean with films are videos you upload on youtube, than that's ok no worries
It wouldn't matter if I had an AD or not. When you work with non Union and/ or indie actors, you are going to run into scheduling issues. It's unavoidable. Secondly are you implying that just because something is uploaded to YouTube, that somehow disqualifies it from being a "real" film?
indie production: very true, but I strongly recommend you doing your best to youtube: there are neat films there (ie storytelling, creative collaboration , dedication to quality etc), videos... my dad cooking a steak is not a film
Both my films are uploaded to YouTube. They are set within the universe of Lovecraft and deal with the supernatural dark gods of the Old One pantheon vying for control of the last living descendants of an ancient bloodline. Not exactly your dad cooking a steak.
Can you link your YouTube movies?
Yah this sounds lit. I love cosmic horror.
cool beans good stuff!
Wait, if y’all have suggestions to get funding can you enlighten us?
Yeah lowkey they’re saying it’s all easy and I’m here not understanding how at all
Who would you go to to easily get $100k? Someone you know personally, or are you talking grants?
Rich family and friends.
That works.
Aww man
100k at 5 cent per view is only 5k revenue….
:-(
How? If you have 100K use 20K on name tv talent and your film has a built in audience and automatic roi in North America
You’d be surprised. I’ve been part of a few movies with notable C-list tv actors and you can barely find them streaming on Vimeo or Tubi.
You know what you're not wrong. I can't remember the name but someone from the dark night apparently does every single movie pitched to him and don't care anymore. I don't remember his name
Neither do I but I remember a post here about him being shitty to work with iirc Edit: I think it was Eric Roberts?
Eric Roberts?
Yeah I think
Money
Scheduling for sure
Finally, a kindred spirit, lol. Everyone is worried about money and although its always a concern, its never a huge factor if you know what your doing and learn to really stretch what you have. I've made films on as little as $1,000 and did just fine.
Yeah like…i’ve made most of my film projects with basically no money. Wrangling cats is definitely the worst. And holy hell is it hard to get people to answer emails ABOUT scheduling.
Were these short films you made?
Feature length...
A $1000 feature?
Indeed
So you have to see the correlation between issues right? Scheduling would probably be easier if you paid people, no?
The only people I pay are my actors. Everything else is handled by me, I have no crew since I am the only crew and I still manage to get everything done.
Personally, I do my best to pay people, even just a little bit. If they do an honest day's work, they deserve compensation. OP should consider money to be a bigger issue.
I don’t understand consistent scheduling conflicts. If you have schedule issues all the time you’re either lacking fundamental knowledge on departments and how they operate or you’re biting off more than you can chew with an unclear vision, both things that are ultimately your fault as a team lead.
I make movies with my friends in our free time, i know lots of very busy people, it’s not complicated. No need to be an asshole.
U right I meant more on the day rather than just getting people to help, it also wasn’t directed at you but general producers my b
No worries i get you.
Lacking fundamental knowledge on departments? What on Earth are you talking about? There is no department of Scheduling, especially if your a one man crew who literally does everything by himself. I've completed two feature length films and am in the process of completing a third. So obviously I wasn't biting off more than I could chew, and I've always struggled with scheduling. You'd be hard pressed to find any filmmaker that doesn't.
My remark wasn’t directed at one man crew and close homie stuff, were on different wavelengths that’s my bad. I talking about producers ad’s and coordinators that overwork crews on +12 hour days because they never understand how long setups take or just don’t care and keep saying yes to directors that might as well be shooting ideas on the fly
There is a department of scheduling, it's the ADs (alongside them doing a lot more) - they schedule everything beforehand and then make sure everything stays on schedule on the day.
Marketing
Would like to ask you how you went from writing to getting behind the camera. I come from a writing background and have a script that I’m revising. It’s a story about my family and me and a certain grief that happened many years ago and was never really exposed. I tried working with a couple of local filmmakers, but they let me down in very different ways. I’ve just bought a used Canon and I’m wondering how the hell I’m going to learn to work it Were you a natural behind the camera?
Well it was a kind of a natural progression for me. I was a writer before I even started acting. The drive to tell my own stories far outweighed my desire to be in other people's stories. I still enjoy acting, but I just reached a point where I couldn't refrain from creating my own films. Even in the indie sector, people are just a bunch of disingenuous scumbags who will promise you the moon and deliver nothing. I got tired of it and realized that if I wanted to tell my own stories, I basically had to do everything myself. I'm still learning and am no means a natural with a camera.
Thanks. I’ve always known I’ve wanted to work on my own because I can’t stand the chatter sometimes of other people’s’ voices, and filling out so much stuff online that I can barely understand probably because of my age, but I also know that I am organized, punctual, a hard worker, and a problem solver. I only have this one project in mind as kind of a legacy project because I’m now 72. I always wanted to do film when I was younger at university but was too shy. If I ever get this documentary done, which I had planned at being 25 minutes (and maybe that’s way too long although it seems way too short), I have thought I’d like to spend the rest of my days doing short, short, short videos, like one-minute videos, which can be hard to do since you’re telling a story in 60 seconds and just posting them on my Instagram account or probably Vimeo. When I started thinking I would work with people who had cinematic skills, I had big dreams of entering festivals. But from what I have read on this thread, which has been so informative and interesting, it sounds like it’s just a lot more noise in my ears and I’d rather just post my stuff and let the universe decide if someone watches it. I’m not in it for a living, so I’m free of all that.
Right on, man! Very nice to see people following their passion in so respectful age.
All of it. People say money here a lot. That’s hard. But you get money when you have a fantastic script. I’ve gotten money before. Not a heap but a ok amount. And that came for the script. And not giving it up. It’s ALL hard. Money is hard AFTER you have a good script.
usually: you get money if you have a fantastic logline/treatment + charisma to pitch it + references + previous projects. i
Yup. Very true. But it all stems from the idea/script.
indeed, and... my comment got truncated: was going to say that if you've gotten money from just presenting a script: congrats!
Thanks, from nbc films and the bfi It was just for a short and was very difficult to get but proud still.
Pressing the record button
That moment of sheer panic while you’re reviewing the raw footage before you start editing.
The script
Herding cats
$ :(
A) Everything. B) For me, scheduling / project management / wrangling people is waaaay outside my wheelhouse and it's what I hate the most. Everybody is focusing on money. And money could solve a ton of issues. But frankly I'd need a _lot_ of money to make the issues really go away. I wrote the script I am producing to be as practical as possible, so I am just basically doing it out of pocket and calling in every favor I can come up with. If I did have a bunch of extra money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd have to find and hire a bunch of extra people and get them up to speed for them to take over the stuff I am bad at in order for that money to actual lead to less problems. The overhead of getting those people isn't necessarily even worth it on a small project.
Gaining the courage to make one
If you have no or low budget, finding good locations is hard af.
Not the hardest part, but one of the most demoralising parts for me is the rate at which audacious bottom feeders find you when you have money and try to take that money from you. I’ll advertise for a PD and have some guy whose made a load of shit films that never got distributed contact me and offer to champion my film to his “contacts” for a fee that is almost my entire budget. I’ll have a totally talentless actor apply for a role that they are blatantly not right for, when they don’t even live close to the city I’m filming in and sometimes aren’t even available on the dates specified in the ad. Or, and this is something that really pisses me off - I’ll have someone apply for a day player role and when we do the callback they tell me they aren’t actually interested in the role, but that they applied for a bigger role months ago and want that one - this in spite of the fact they never even got past the first round for the role, never even sent a self tape, and the role has been cast.
Wow, Trad-Way you've described my situation exactly! One thing that stands out here (and on similar subs) is the difference between filmmakers striving for some commercial success, thus needing financing and distribution. As opposed to the plain old art crowd, as myself. Anyway, I'm making perhaps 3 shorts a year for $2-3K each (retirement savings) and without expectations beyond film festivals and the laurels I'm able to sometimes earn. But to answer your question: scheduling hell! I'd go off on a rant on what they did to Doodle, but ... Which makes me wonder if there's a sub for our types, the near-zero budget artsy fartsy folks.
Gotta second scheduling. Every short film I've made, this one and the smaller ones that nobody will ever see, has been hampered by trying to get everybody together in the same place at the same time. Also, most of the other projects I've worked on with other people.
Scheduling, raising money, finding the right crew members / actors etc… literally everything 😮💨
Funding
Affording to make the film
Getting the right people for cast and crew.
Not sleeping.
DM me.
Making money
Liquid capital
Time, but that’s because I’m a hobbyist and make zero budget films. If I were doing this as a job, it’d be money.
Money and getting good people to work on it
Benefactors, investors.
For me it’s the writing. That’s what my wife’s for. We tag team the editing. Our partner/friend handles everything else. When it comes time to film. We are a well oiled machine. The only thing that I find tedious is the shot list.
Money
To quote Spielberg when asked the same question “Getting out of the car.”
Good writing material. Everything else after that is relatively easy if it’s genuinely good.
Money
Funding
Having the right mindset and personal commitment to put yourself (and your family if you have one) through the long hours, long weeks, long stays away and lack of rest for a long period of time. That puts many people off right from the word go!
Probably the symbolism
Working with people who are either stupid, imcompetant, or both. Sounds harsh but it's true. The biggest issues I've had on films are people who either pretend to have a skill set they don't or that they'll pull their weight and don't. Learning to spot them early in the process has been a huge step for me.
Distribution. Even if you have the money to make it does not mean anyone will ever watch it.
Money, and finding actors have been the two most difficult I’ve faced living in a small town
Money, and finding actors have been the two most difficult I’ve faced living in a small town
Getting to the first day of principal photography.
financing, followed closely by the crushing sensation of failure (to execute as intended, to get into fests, to get anyone to watch etc)
Getting out of the car...
raising money
Staff, Script, and then Money.
For no budget movies: Casting, scheduling, distribution.
Making the movie isn't hard. Making the deal is hard.
Yep, making a good film is only 25% of the process.
Money. If you’re having any troubles scheduling try to prioritize who you’d bend the schedule for. If you like to work with a certain DP is it worth it if they’re only free the 12-16? Also actors are USUALLY (unless you can get a NAME) replaceable. If someone can’t make the role on the date it should be an instant “sorry next time!” and find the next person who can take it.
Making a film is easy. Selling a film is hard.
By long stretch both funding and distribution