The Do-It-Yourself Filmmaker

Paul Peditto, Boris Wexler

Description

How to create great videos on a budget
The best techniques at the best price
An A-Z guide on producing
Save money and time with valuable tips
The world has opened up for anyone to produce a video that can be seen anywhere and anytime. But how do you make an excellent production on an affordable budget? Two experienced filmmakers guide you through the process of planning, creating and distributing your video to the widest audience with the largest impact.
Foreword xv
Introduction xix
1 Life Lessons for Surviving outside Hollywood 1
1. Three Paths to Glory 2
1.1 Studio movies 3
1.2 Indie movies 5
1.3 Micro-budget movies 6
2. To Live and Die in Los Angeles 9
3. Do You Need to Go to Film School? 11
4. When Should You Give up on a Screenplay? 11
5. How a Casino Dice Dealer Wrote a Movie That Ended up
in Every Video Store in North America … in An Age of
Such Things As Video Stores 13
5.1 Know who you’re getting into bed with! 15
vi The DIY Filmmaker
5.2 Hire the best entertainment lawyer you can
possibly afford 16
5.3 Trust your instincts with casting 16
5.4 There’s no such thing as a do-over 18
5.5 When hiring a director, choose one who has
actually been on a movie set 18
5.6 Don’t direct the movie about of life 19
2 Working As a Director
(It’s All about Relationships) 21
1. The First Assistant Director (AD) 22
2. The Director of Photography (DP) 23
3. The Script Supervisor 24
4. The Producer 25
5 The Production Designer 26
6. The Hair and Makeup Artists 26
7. The Sound Engineer 26
8. The Talent 27
9. Writer on Set 28
3 Micro-Budget Screenwriting: What to Consider
before You Write Your Movie 29
1. Top Ten Considerations 30
1.1 Limit locations 30
1.2 Limit characters 32
1.3 Kids, Weather, Animals, Blood, and FX Effects=
Just Don’t Write ‘Em! 32
1.4 Write longer dialogue scenes 34
1.5 Limit the page count 34
1.6 Beware of overreliance on postproduction
digital solutions (fixing it in postproduction) 34
1.7 Avoid exterior night shots 34
1.8 Avoid special prop or makeup needs 35
2. B Movies 36
3. Writing a Logline 36
Contents vii
4. Writing the Synopsis 37
5. Rewriting: Keats Never Did This 39
5.1 The first five pages of the script 41
4 Making the Movie You Can Afford 49
1. Scheduling 53
2. Learning to Adapt 54
3. Budgeting Levels 57
3.1 Get the best cast you can 59
3.2 Save money for postproduction 59
3.3 Save money for festivals 60
3.4 Keep a contingency fund 60
4. Budgeting: Four Categories 60
4.1 Above the line 60
4.1a Development 61
4.1b Story and other rights 61
4.1c Producer’s unit 61
4.1d Director’s unit 62
4.1e Talent 62
4.2 Below the line 65
4.2a Production staff 65
4.2b Production design and art direction
(set construction, set decoration, props) 66
4.2c Director of photography, cameras, and lenses 67
4.2d Camera crew 69
4.2e Gaffers, grips, and lights 69
4.2f Production sound 70
4.2g Effects (mechanical and special) 71
4.2h Set operations 71
4.2i Wardrobe, makeup, and hair 72
4.2j Transportation and locations 72
4.3 Postproduction 73
4.3a Editing 73
viii The DIY Filmmaker
4.3b Color correction 73
4.3c Visual effects 74
4.3d Score 74
4.3e Post-sound design and mixing 74
4.4 Other costs 74
4.4a Insurance 75
4.4b Legal 75
4.4c Budgeting software 76
4.4d The ever-evolving budget 76
5 Fundraising 79
1. Private Investors 80
1.1 Create a pitch package 83
2. Crowdfunding 85
2.1 Anatomy of a Kickstarter campaign that was funded 86
2.1a Assemble a team 87
2.1b Conceive the plan 87
2.1c Video pitch 87
2.1d Text pitch 87
2.1e Gifts 91
2.1f Personalize email 93
2.1g Social media 94
2.1h Updates 94
6 Legal and Tax Aspects 95
1. Creating the Legal Entity and Structuring
the Investments 95
2. Tax Credits 97
7 Casting 99
1. Where to Find Actors 100
2. Auditions 101
3. Callbacks 102
Contents ix
8 Postproduction 105
1. Editing 105
2. Scoring the Film 110
3. Sound Design 111
4. Color Correction and Visual Effects (VFX) 113
5. Putting It All Together and Rendering the Cut 115
9 Marketing and Distribution 117
1. Distribution 119
1.1 Distribution basics 122
2. Film Festivals 123
2.1 The different levels of film festivals 123
2.1a Tier 1 festivals 124
2.1b Tier 2 festivals 124
2.1c Tier 3 festivals 125
2.1d Tier 4 festivals 125
2.2 How festivals select films 126
3. Deliverables for Film Festivals and Distributors 127
3.1 Key elements in an electronic press kit (EPK) 127
3.2 Deliverables for distributors 129
4. Film Markets 130
5. Representation 131
5.1 Unions and guilds 131
5.2 Sales agents 131
5.3 Entertainment attorneys 132
5.4 Talent agents and managers 132
5.5 Publicists 132
6. Types of Distribution Agreements 132
6.1 Production Finance Distribution (PFD) Agreement 133
6.2 Negative Pick-up Agreement 133
6.3 Presale Agreement 133
x The DIY Filmmaker
6.4 Terms to understand in the contracts 133
6.4a Rights 134
6.4b Platforms 134
6.4c Length of time 135
6.4d Distribution fee 135
6.4e Recoupable expenses 135
6.4f Right to make changes 136
7. Boutique Distributors 136
Download kit 137
Table
1 Top 20 Grossing Movies in 2012 4

Sujets

• Entrepreneurship
• Performing arts

Informations

• Publié par: Self-Counsel Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 6
• EAN13: 9781770409903
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The DIY Filmmaker
Life Lessons for Surviving Outside Hollywood
Paul Peditto & Boris Wexler
Self-Counsel Press
(a division of)
International Self-Counsel Press Ltd.
USA Canada

Copyright © 2015

International Self-Counsel Press
All rights reserved.
Contents

Cover

Title Page

Foreword: Surviving outside Hollywood

Introduction

Chapter 1: Life Lessons for Surviving outside Hollywood

1. Three Paths to Glory

Table 1: Top 20 Grossing Movies in 2012*

2. To Live and Die in Los Angeles

3. Do You Need to Go to Film School?

4. When Should You Give up on a Screenplay?

5. How a Casino Dice Dealer Wrote a Movie That Ended up in Every Video Store in North America … in An Age of Such Things As Video Stores

Chapter 2: Working As a Director (It’s All about Relationships)

1. The First Assistant Director (AD)

2. The Director of Photography (DP)

3. The Script Supervisor

4. The Producer

5. The Production Designer

6. The Hair and Makeup Artists

7. The Sound Engineer

8. The Talent

9. Writer on Set

Chapter 3: Micro-Budget Screenwriting: What to Consider before You Write Your Movie

1. Top Ten Considerations

2. B Movies

3. Writing a Logline

4. Writing the Synopsis

5. Rewriting: Keats Never Did This

Chapter 4: Making the Movie You Can Afford

1. Scheduling

2. Learning to Adapt

3. Budgeting Levels

4. Budgeting: Four Categories

Chapter 5: Fundraising

1. Private Investors

2. Crowdfunding

Chapter 6: Legal and Tax Aspects

1. Creating the Legal Entity and Structuring the Investments

2. Tax Credits

Chapter 7: Casting

1. Where to Find Actors

2. Auditions

3. Callbacks

Chapter 8: Postproduction

1. Editing

2. Scoring the Film

3. Sound Design

4. Color Correction and Visual Effects (VFX)

5. Putting It All Together and Rendering the Cut

Chapter 9: Marketing and Distribution

1. Distribution

2. Film Festivals

3. Deliverables for Film Festivals and Distributors

4. Film Markets

5. Representation

6. Types of Distribution Agreements

7. Boutique Distributors

Download kit

Dedication

About the Authors

Notice to Readers

Self-Counsel Press thanks you for purchasing this ebook.
Foreword: Surviving outside Hollywood

When I got my first office and phone number, there was little more exciting than recording my outgoing voicemail greeting. I was a burgeoning filmmaker, eager to start, ready for the calls to start pouring in. And I did get a lot of calls; they just weren’t for me.
My new phone number had belonged to someone else before me — another filmmaker, no less. What are the odds? With each voicemail from increasingly irate creditors, I slowly began to piece together what had happened. He was one of those filmmakers who had been inspired by Spike Lee to make a feature on credit cards — sure he’d be able to sell the finished film, sure he’d pay off his cards and make a little money. Unfortunately, when he finished the film, it did not get distribution, barely showed in any festivals, and caused him to sink into a mass of debt that followed him — and filled my voicemail — for years.
That was when I first realized how risky filmmaking really is, how important it is to ground my passion, how necessary it is to take a hard look at the resources at hand and make them work for me rather than against me. That’s why I’m so excited for this book, the one in your hands. Paul, Boris, and Carolina do this every day with their own projects and are here to help you do the same with yours.
For many of us, we start out aspiring to make films like Hollywood or similar entities. This makes total sense because these are the films we are most exposed to. But we don’t always realize that Hollywood’s notions of filmmaking are often unreasonable for us to emulate. Studios spread their risk over multiple films (the successes counterbalancing the failures) while film boards minimize their risk with subsidies. For us outside Hollywood, we don’t have these benefits — we’re usually fully invested in one film at a time, each venture potentially “make or break.”
Hollywood producers regularly tell me there’s only one way to make films, and that it’s impossible to make a movie for less than $20 million. Neither is true for those of us outside Hollywood, but many believe this, and it can lead us to overreach or give up.
However, there’s a middle ground that has come into view as access to high-quality equipment has become more affordable, computers are able to do the work that once required specialized machines, and software has become more sophisticated. Navigating this middle ground is the challenge before us, and it is an exciting time to be making films. We can create new models, learn from our peers, experiment, and take reasonable risks. This book can help us take those first steps, to find our direction and to roll camera.
Paul and Boris redefine micro-budget to reflect our individual circumstances and resources, to take stock of what is within our reach, and to maximize “doing it our own way.” Whether you’re about to embark on your first film or your tenth, you will find many helpful tips, perspectives, and firsthand experience to help you realize your vision. Making a film is always a gamble, but this book helps stack the odds in your favor.
Surviving outside Hollywood is possible and this book will show you how.
— Josef Steiff
Josef Steiff is a writer and independent filmmaker whose films have been exhibited in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He wrote and directed the award-winning feature The Other One as well as the short films Borders, Catching Fire, Eclipse, I Like My Boyfriend Drunk, and How Will I Tell? Surviving Sexual Assault . As a producer, he line produced the feature length More Beautiful than a Flower for MBC (Korea) and coproduced Rhapsody. He currently oversees the MFA Programs in Creative Producing and Cinema Directing at Columbia College Chicago.
Introduction

Do you need to be in Los Angeles to consider yourself a filmmaker? No.
Do you need to be in Los Angeles to start your career as a screenwriter? No.
Do you need to have an agent or a manager to place well in screenwriting contests, to be coached by screenwriting gurus, and attend screenwriting conferences to start your career as a filmmaker?
No, no, and NO!
I stand before you a true convert to the new religion: Do-It-Yourself Filmmaking. This is not a new church. Low-budget movies have been around since William K.L. Dickson filmed Fred Ott’s Sneeze in 1894. [1] John Cassavetes made films for low money. So did Orson Welles, who made bad wine commercials to finance his low-budget Shakespeare adaptations. Robert Rodriguez literally wrote the book about low-budget films, and major directors such as Spike Lee and Darren Aronofsky got their starts on the cheap. Credit card filmmaking has been around forever, the watchword being film making. These early low-budget efforts were all shot on film — which brings us to what is new in the equation: Digital Technology.
What is new is being able to pick up a Canon 7D, or an ALEXA, or a Red Digital Cinema Camera, and shoot a movie saying exactly what you want to say, and maintaining control of both content and distribution. Also new are digital platforms to sell your product that didn’t exist ten years ago. These platforms have leveled the playing field and democratized the entire process of the art. We take these rapid advances for granted. It’s the speed of the change that is often truly breathtaking, and the wonder of where it all will lead.
So what’s any of this got to do with you, Good Reader? Hollywood. Home of the true 1 percent. Behind this gated community are the kidney-shaped pools, impeccable hedgerows, million-dollar mansions, and Lamborghini excess — the Country Club of which you are most definitely not a member. You cannot apply to this club. The gatekeepers know you are not of their cloth. They can smell you. You are the Unwashed. They can feel your wanting, your desperation to join them on the inside. They have set up impenetrable motes and ramparts to stop you. How will you scale these walls?
For your part, you have played by the rules. You wrote query letters to find an agent, followed the message boards, paid through the nose to take advice from the gurus, and bought their books even though it didn’t much seem to help. You sent into as many screenwriting contests as you could, put your scripts on websites that claimed the inside ear of “industry professionals” — meaning the 1 percent. You did all these things with a belief in your work as a writer. You just wanted a chance, a chance to … what? To have an agent, take meetings, pitch and get sent on assignment work, work your way into the Writers Guild, pump out one, two, or five movies, establish a reputation, and get on the board! You dream of