Navigate Through The "Catch-22s" of Filmmaking

My Indie-Produced film logo.

Brand recognition is everything in the independent filmmaker's world. But you may ask, "How can I create a brand when no one knows my story?" The important I've learned from my classes in filmmaking is augmented by really enlightening articles, like the ones that are mentioned in Indiewire online. One of my favorite, more recent articles, was the 10 Tips for Producing a Micro-Budget Film. The most important thing that any indie (or starting-out) filmmaker should remember is that there are some things you have to compromise one (like shooting in one location to keep costs down) and other things that you absolutely MUST do.

For instance, even though your film may make it to Cannes or Toronto Film Festival, you will always have an agent or distributor ask "It looks great, but who's in it?" This being said, the most important thing I've been working on more recently is getting a casting director. But you would swear a casting director is as hard to pin down as an A-list actor themselves.

Here are some tips that helped me - Navigate the "Catch-22s" of Film-Making:

• Pick a "Die-hard" core-crew that isn't "starving" to get paid (I use this term delicately because I believe you should always pay your team SOMETHING, but be realistic with them from the beginning and they'll be your anchor for the long-haul).
• Have a Professional in Your Corner (this professional has to be like a mentor to you and isn't someone "loosely" affiliated to the project or an investor. This person can be a professional like a distributor, agent, attorney (they actually make good friends is you pay them a retainer) or someone you really hit it off with at a filmmaking mixer...They can be good friends too)
• Cast existing talent that someone can Vouch for (what I mean by this is, as you already know, not an A-list actor...But you can find talent through local casting agencies that have actors that are serious about their craft and have multiple demo reels). 

The biggest, most important aspect of filmmaking is knowing when to let bad things (or people go). For example, I had a terrible distributor on my first movie. It made lots of money worldwide, but I barely saw a cent of it. The "silver-lining" is that when I go to film markets (like AFM), agents still remember my movie because they all heard about how much money my indie movie made. While this was the first time professionals where giving me the time of day, I was also angry because I could tell by their inferences that my distributor made a "killing" off of my naivety in signing a contract.

This story all points back to my second bullet point, have a professional in Your Corner. Well, the professional in my corner is a well-known entertainment attorney, Elsa Ramo, who is always good at giving me some good perspective (especially when I want to quite the business altogether). She simply said, "Stephanie, you made a mistake in signing a deal. It is to be expected with your first film. Now move on."

I've been moving on ever since my first "pay-out flop". What I mean is, although my film was a commercial success, it didn't solidify my "staying-power" as a filmmaker in the entertainment business. I would like to encourage all indie filmmakers out their to not stop at just one indie film project...You'll never know that you tried your best until you've done the whole production at least twice. In my case, this will be a third time. And this time, I feel the most in-control because I understand the business, but more importantly the dynamics of filmmaking.

Launch of Comic on Tapastic! Exclusive Movie Content for Subscribers

Something our team has learned (as far as making a movie), is that it is also important to build upon our existing fandom through indie #webcomic outlets such as Tapastic! If you haven't checked out the website yet, please do. Not only does it have our fresh take on the zombie sub-genre, but there are literally thousands of other indie comics that LOOK professionally made!

Don't take my word for it, check out more here:

http://tapastic.com/episode/172942
 

My Learns While In The Middle of Film Finance

In Film, The Challenge Is To Negotiate

I’ve done film challenges before, with their pressure-cooker deadlines and getting know and then love/hate all the team-members you’re stuck with as you spend almost 48-hours straight with them. And as grueling and stressful as this can sometimes be, it is all done for the love of creating a story through film. But not many film-makers can love, or even appreciate the art, of making a successful negotiation.

I’ve found in the last month, from taking my Negotiation and Deal-Making class online, that the love for the craft and the passion behind making a deal go hand-in-hand….If you want to be a successful indie film-maker. The biggest take-away I go from this class is that even if I don’t like a person that I’m about to work with, I can at least find a way to work with their passions. It is said in that it is important to “separate the people from the problem” in any negotiation.

This tactic was mentioned in Getting to Yes, a very smart, negotiation tactic book. This ideal very recently helped me out when I met a potential financier in NYC. He was smart and Harvard educated. But looking behind the title and seeing this man for what he’s really worth (or why he was there meeting me that day) I knew that we could make a deal. He was there to make money and gain experience producing a film and I wanted to get a responsible hedge-fund manager that knew how to “talk money” to investors.

What I loved the most about my real-life negotiation this month is that I got the instinctual feeling that both this financier and myself can learn a lot from each other and ultimately make each-other more successful. Although it seems everyone wants to be a director in this business (ask the film students I went to school with), I’‘m finally getting the handle of what it is to be a savvy negotiator in this business.

And although I’m not filming this spring, which I outlined in my learning timeline, I’m much happier with where I’m at now as part of being a good negotiator is not rushing anything!

Know Your Audience! -How Blumhouse Does It...

What does J Lo have in common with the horror movie industry? Well, a lot whether you readily know about it or not. You've heard me mention before how A-List actors and celebrities are no longer shying away from horror movie projects? But why do we see actors like J Lo, more and more, grace the silver screen under a well-known horror movie label? Well, Latino audiences are apparently the 'silver lining' to a sometimes dwindling box office. This fact made news in Variety a couple of weeks ago as the article explains how latinos tend to line-up for a good scare when looking for a movie.

The movie Boy Next Door that features Jennifer Lopez along-side a hot and young male lead may just be the formula to success when ticket sales are low. At least this is how Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions looks at things. Earlier last year in 2014, Jason is getting accolades for his indie-produced flick Whiplash which demonstrates the breadth of expression that Blum plays with as far as his taste in movies. In short, he takes calculated gambles with what projects he chooses to associate his brand with.

For nearly 8 years now, Blumhouse Productions made their name (and money) for advertising themselves as "that horror movie company" that makes, well, creepy movies. But what incentives can you enjoy when you become successful in the box office? Well, if you choose your projects carefully like Jason Blum, you get to continue on, branching out from the horror genre, and sign major deals with Universal Studios, etc. to make whatever kind of movie you want! This is just another reason why a chose to make horror movies first and then branch-out into other genres. And, as always, it will work because I won't have any qualms about choosing the best stories to be adapting to the big screen.

Novelist JK Rowling Speaks About The "Benefits of Failure"

While perusing the best of Ted Talks, I found one of the most-inspiring writers of all time, J.K. Rowling, has a optimism and a fresh take on how failure helped pave the path to where she got to award-winning novelist today. She mentions in her blog, "There's an expiry date on what you can blame your parents for around your own failures in life." Poverty is only romanced by fools, she goes on to describe as the harsh conditions around her upbringing was not the focal point of her speech...

As she speaks at a commencement speech at Harvard, she acknowledges how many of the students she's speaking to are not too "well-acquainted" with failure. -She shares her own personal experienced poverty growing up, a short-lived and imploding marriage and then the coffee shop she escaped to to write. Failure helped Rowling feel "set-free" as she was truly aware of who she was without any delusion and get down to the bare-bones at what her passion is in life.

"Failure helps you realize your strengths to survive," she goes on to speak. Personally a very recently, I found myself standing at a precipice of what I thought was a fulfilling life: a steady job with a paycheck, benefits and friends.... Or who I thought were my friends at the time. I was afraid if I jumped off from this rock of a what I considered a very stable existence that I would fall, get injured and never recover. I thought my day job was everything to me. In truth, I think I was brain-washed to believe that it was the best part of my life. I let myself get brainwashed.

After being un-employed (just doing odd jobs) for 8 months, I came to realize the things most important to me... My husband and our growth as individuals and a couple, our 7 zany but wonderful pets and my passion to tell good stories. If I was asked to strip away all the layers around who I am and introduce myself I would say, "I am Stephanie and I am a writer who loves to tell enigmatic stories." And like J.K. Rowling, I hope my stories will be as inspiring as the giving and helpful life I've lived.

"We make a life by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

Become The Master of Review - Research Topics You Want To Make Into Movies

So last I checked in, I told you guys about how I became a movie-reviewer for horror-movies.ca. Well, I one-upped myself and started reviewing activities centered around Zombie and Surviving the Zombie apocalypse for The Zombie Education Alliance which is a pretty cool site for all things zombies... Not just the Walking Dead... which is going to have a new spin-off series called "Cobalt", by the way.... Probably so Robert Kirkman (creator) can kill-off more characters we care about... I digress.

The important thing here is, if I haven't mentioned it before (and I apologize if I did), it's important to constantly review the subject matter that you want to make your movie "in-the-vein" of... Sure, you don't want others ideas to taint YOUR vision... Or your movie/script idea is so art-housy that no comparison can do it justice, but you're in the BUSINESS of making a movie. So it's important to check the film market catalogs every once and a while to see if your type of movie is actually getting picked up by sales agents and if your idea is sell-able internationally.

Most importantly, when you become a critique in the horror-movie or TV business, you're getting it out there how you - as a viewer - like certain things and can see how blatantly some ideas or genres (yes, even zombies) can be played out. Often times we're so harsh on ourselves as writer/producers (I am, anyways) that we don't even take the time to let enough people that aren't family to review our work. Opposite problem - you're too afraid your idea will get taken because its so fresh, so original, you would simply DIE if someone stole your idea...

NEWS FLASH - You aren't a real writer is you have only ONE IDEA or story in your head to tell the world. And if you do have just one... Keep thinking about it....When you're done thinking about all the cool moments and things you've experienced in your life or "what if" scenarios - you'll realize you have a dozen great ideas.

The reality is, films with almost the exact same story-line get released in the theaters sometimes in the same year! -Massive stream of consciousness or conspiracy theory? -I don't think so. We all instinctually have great stories within us that we just KNOW the public will want to see. The questions is, "Do you have the balls (or lady balls) to tell a unique story or like it is?"

Feel free to leave your comments on my Walking Dead Mid-Season 5 Finale Recap or on my Blogger below:

http://www.zombieeducationalliance.com/walking-dead-mid-season-5-finale-recap/

Don't Just Write, Podcast! - MAD Podcast3

My husband and I have been working on a "Mad About Comics" podcast as we love to also talk about successful comic-to-movie cross-overs and not-so successful. What we like about our podcast is that it really is a video cast that includes pictures around the subject matter we are talking about.

Our latest episode has been a little delayed as I've been super sick with the flu that's been going around. But we finally edited the damn thing and here it is!