How to Shoot Your Movie On Time and On Budget

Recently, I discussed How To Make a Movie for $5000. That's all well and good, but now I want to take a it a step further - ACTUALLY shooting it! Here are some suggestions based on my experiences working behind the scenes on big budget movies, shooting short films, and filming my indie feature film The Great Intervention.

1. Forget Storyboarding. Unless you are doing some kind of spectacular action or fantasy film (and you're not) this is a waste of time. Sure there are a lot of storyboarding programs so you no longer have to draw them by hand. But you do not need this. You have something called a BRAIN. Chances are, you wrote this movie yourself and you "saw" it all in your head anyways.

Instead: Make a Shot List. What is a Shot List? It is of course, a list of shots. You need a Shot List for every scene in your movie, but once you get the rhythm down, you may be able to do a lot of it on the fly, if need be. Look at your scene. How many characters are there? (Hopefully no more than four - see my other article) Let's say three. You now have three shots, because every character in the scene deserves their closeup. Next, you'll want to "pull back" on the scene a little, maybe a medium shot of two of the characters, and a medium shot of the the third. (Two more shots.) Finally, you want a "Master Shot" of the whole room, all the action in the scene, from beginning to end. (One shot) Now, let's list them in reverse order.

1. Master Shot
2. Medium Shot Person A and B
3. Medium Shot Person C
4. Close up Person A
5. Close up Person B
6. Close up Person C

Now, unless you are going for some kind of Sami Raimi-type of thing, that should basically cover your scene from beginning to end.

First thing you do, on the day of the shoot, is block the scene. Have your actors act it out as they would naturally do it in the space, and tell them not to worry about where the camera is. That's YOUR job. Watch them do the whole scene. If, during the blocking of this scene you realize that the characters begin talking in one part of the house and end up in another, yell "Cut." Every time the Master Shot has to pick up and move, that is another "scene" with its own list of closeups and medium shots.

2. Be on time. ALWAYS  be early! If you are late, it sends out a domino effect, which slows down production and morale. Have lunch on the 6 hour mark (as required by SAG) and make sure there are plenty of snacks.

3. Don't be too ambitious in the number of scenes/shots, but be not too tame, neither. You should always either be filming, rehearsing, or setting up for the next shot. Professional film sets break down their scenes into eighths of a page - that tells you how slow and methodical they can be. You don't have that kind of luxury.

4. Try to have only one location per day. Every time you do a "company move" you are adding hours to your day. Group all the scenes together that have the same location, regardless of their order in the film.

5. Use as few extras as you can. In a microbudget film, there isn't enough money to pay even the basic $54/8 hours a non-union extra charges. This means it's going to be incredibly hard to get anyone to do it! Besides, a lot of extras adds up to a lot of bodies on the set, and a lot more mouths to feed at lunch time.

6. Avoid fancy lighting. The number one thing that slows down a film shoot is setting up and moving bulky lighting equipment. The Big Boys can spend all day and night with fancy globes and spotlights, but you don't have the time. Cameras nowadays (especially those groovy SLR cameras that shoot HD) are really great with light - you can do so much with so little - use that to your advantage.

7. Move your camera around like a photo camera. It used to be, cameras were bulky, had to be on a dolly, and had to be reloaded every 10 minutes or so of film. Now you don't have any of these to worry about, so "get in there" with the camera. Keep it rolling. Instead of yelling "action" and "cut" all the time, just direct your actors off camera - have them do what is called a "series" of takes in a row, without stopping and starting.

8. Try to stay calm and focused. Breathe in, breathe out. You most likely will have to be your own First AD (the person who actually keeps the ball rolling on major film sets) so prepare to kick your own ass. Oh, and of course, don't forget to have fun - you are living the dream of directing your movie!!!

Waiting For Something To Happen

It seems like a lot of the film marketing/selling business is waiting. You send a DVD to a film festival, which gives you a notification deadline - you mail a DVD to a potential distributor - you hand a DVD to a famous celebrity...

And then you wait.

Wait for that call, or, in most cases, an email which says "Thank you for your submission..."

I have attempted all of the above with The Great Intervention. Today is the deadline on two festivals I entered that seemed appropriate - Dances With Films and The Los Angeles Comedy Festival.

I am not optimistic about my chances.

This is not due to the quality of the film - I think The Great Intervention is good enough. I'm beginning to feel that film festivals are parasitic enterprises that feed off the entry fees of indie filmmakers and then program their festivals using inside connections.

Maybe this is sour grapes - I have no inside information. To this date, the only film festival rejection was from Tribeca, which was not a surprise. Thinking back, that $120(!) entry fee (I think there was some overnight delivery involved) could have maybe been spent on advertising or postcards, or some other tangible product associated with the film.

I also recently sent the film to a collaborative distribution company, which filmmakers can pay a fee and receive access to counseling and discounts with their partners. They also directly distribute a small, but impressive list of titles, a few of which I had actually heard of or seen.

I was curious if they would be interested in The Great Intervention. The initiation fee, while not huge, would definitely be worth it if they helped me distribute directly. I started my conversation with them via email, which was promptly and courteously returned, offering to watch the film even before I joined, which was cool. So I sent a DVD.

And waited.

One month went by, and I courteously emailed back saying "Did you receive the DVD?" I received a prompt reply; yes we have received it - please be patient and we will get back to you.

I waited again.

Two months passed. At this point, it seemed clear in my mind that the film had been forgotten - a three-month wait seemed a little excessive. So I wrote politely back, asking for an update.

And waited.

The following response came after about two days - enough time, it seems, to finally watch the film:


"Hi there Steve:
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Thanks SO much for the opportunity to watch your film.
As a non-profit, we only have a certain limited number of films we can take on for direct distribution at any one time. Right now, our slate is quite full.
We'd have to pass on direct distribution of your film.
However, we can provide distribution education and consultation if that interests you....meaning we could talk to you at great length about what opportunities are out there for you to distribute the film in the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) space."

Gee thanks SO much for your reply.

I'm going to pass on joining your collaborative.

It seems to me, this generic answer could have been given to me within a reasonable time frame, where I might have at least felt my film was properly considered. They might have also found one tiny specific thing to say about the film to let me know that they did, indeed, watch it.

And finally, I have had the lucky opportunity to get it personally to some A-List celebs that I have had contact with over the years, as well as an unbelievable opportunity to hand it to a very prominent TV show creator (always have a copy of your project on you, people!)

Will any of them watch it? I don't know. But I will continue to try and get the word out in any way I can.


And then wait for some good news.

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook

The old Real Estate motto was "location, location, location." Today, we modernize the slogan. Let's "Face" it - Facebook is everywhere. With over 250 million people connected, odds are you either have an account or are going to get one. And, if you're an indie filmmaker or musician, you need to be on there stat.

But if you are reading this, you're probably not an idiot, you surely know what Facebook is. Here's just a few tips to help you maximize your usage.

1. Create a Fan Page and Like it. Once you have a regular account, you can fairly quickly and easily create a Fan Page for just about anything. This can be the home page for your movie! Fill out the information and suggest that your friends "Like" it and you're off and running.

2. But that's just the beginning. A static Fan Page is boring and will get few interactions. Conversely, a page that does nothing but advertise itself over and over again with postings will also turn people off. Instead, think of a creative way to post regularly - either using a quote from a character in the movie, posting an article or video somehow related to your subject matter, or even creating a weekly blog (such as this one) to add fresh content. Facebook will let administrators see right on the page how many times your update was viewed, amongst other things.

3. Snazz up your page with new profile modifying applications. Have you gone to a Facebook page, and it stands out from normal pages because of a snazzy design? Companies are popping up everywhere to add functionality. Sites such as Wix.com and Thrusocial.com offer free apps that can increase functionality. Wix's site has limited Facebook designs, but this company's other applications (its Flash and now iPhone-friendly templates) are so great that this surely will be as well. For a start, pick out a few free apps from Thrusocial (such as the link maker, which can link to a DVD page or official movie site) and the video player, which will enable you to embed your trailer right on the landing page.

There are a ton of Facebook modifying pages, each of them with intriguing offers, although some of them can start being quite expensive ($19.99 a month and up.) Tabfusion.com seems like a good compromise, charging a yearly fee ($10/year $20/3 years) per app, which is good esp if you only need one or two. There is a pretty good list at http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/23/1-best-ways-customize-facebook/ but there are a few newer and better ones in the comments section, so be sure to read that.

4. Advertise your page. Getting people to "Like" your page outside of your close circle of friends is always a challenge. But now you can advertise cheaply and effectively with Facebook Ads! These tiny targeted ads are like the ones that dot our Facebook pages already. It's a snap to create an ad - they even give you a preview - but be cautioned that the ads are not automatically approved. Ads that show nudity or imply nudity are not allowed, as well as curse words, of course. Another no-no is implied functionality, with phrases such as "Click here to watch a preview!" probably won't be allowed. Once your ad is approved you can fund it very easily via Paypal. One trick to getting more "Likes" is targeting "Friends of people who already Like your page." This is an option in your ad display preferences and it seems to work best. When someone sees that one of their friends already Likes something, they are more inclined to click. Also, go with a per-click campaign rather than just impressions (appearing on a page) as it will be more results-oriented.

5. What does this all mean? Nobody is quite sure, actually. A "Like" isn't a sale, and even if someone does like your page, there is no direct way to reach them, save for a status update, which they may or may not see. As an experiment for my film The Great Intervention, I purchased $100 worth of advertising to see what would happen. To be honest, my head starts spinning when we get in to all this analytics stuff, which, I guess, I should attempt to tackle in another post. Suffice to say, "insights" or "analytics" as it's called over at Google, does give you a breakdown of how your advertising dollars were spent, much of which I can't make heads or tails of. But, a simple breakdown seems to be that I got 30 "New Likes" - yet somehow that only increased my "Lifetime Likes" about 10 people (which seems to be the number which appears when it says "XX People Like This". Then we get in to the CPC, CTR, and all those other crazy numbers I don't understand. For anyone inclined or interested, here is a screenshot of my $100 campaign.

If anyone would like to offer their expertise as to whether this was a "successful" campaign, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll keep trying to drum up support for my film using a combination of these ideas, and I suggest you do for your project as well.

YouTube - The Web's Biggest Free Marketing Tool

No, it's not just for videos of surprised kitties or bizarre music videos. YouTube has become the world's television set - why isn't your indie film on it? Here's a few steps/ideas on how to best utilize this free service.

1. Create a YouTube account if you don't have one, and make a Channel. Call this channel thenameofyourfilm. People visiting your channel page will see your latest video and will be able to subscribe to updates from there.

2. Put up previews and clips, using keywords associated with your content. You might put up an extended scene, or music video related to the film. Try out different trailers and get people's opinion. YouTube has a built-in insights page that is pretty informative as to who is watching your videos, what links or keywords they are following, and even how long their attention span lasts on your video.



3. Do you already have earlier, more popular videos on Youtube? Use the Annotation feature to create your own free ad! Click on the  Edit Annotations button at the top of your video's page. Be sure to place the annotation across the entire length of the movie by sliding the blue slider so it makes a solid line across the timeline, and give a quick pitch for your film by typing in the box on the right. You can link to a channel or playlist by clicking the link button and pasting in the video url. My video Satan Lend Me a Dollar has over 130,000 views on YouTube. You can see how I use it to try and pump up views on my movie The Great Intervention.



4. Of course, share these videos on Facebook, and you can even use new flash-based widgets to embed them into your Facebook page. (More on that in a later post.)

5. Finally, create a weekly podcast and upload it to YouTube as well as to your blog. You could have it relate specifically to your film, if you think there's enough material to do something every week. Or, you might want to expand a little, maybe make it a podcast about your film company, maybe do bios of some of the actors.

6. Create your OWN demographic with your show. The key is volume and regularity (that's what my doctor said too!) The more videos you put up, the more views you get, especially if they're all linked via the previously mentioned feature. I decided to create a weekly pop culture/politics-type program called The National Toilet. Every Friday, I create a short, five-minute podcast lampooning the worst of society as reflected in the headlines. This keeps my videos relevant and tied to popular keywords. So far, I am only on my second episode and I have more than doubled my viewership from the first! And with my annotation, I place a link to my promo for The Great Intervention, hoping that people who enjoy the podcast may be of like mind to enjoy the movie.




Give some of these a try and leave your own suggestions as well.

Marketing Crash Courses

It seems like every day I'm stumbling upon another website offering to spill all the secrets of selling and marketing your film. These often come at a price, but many offer specials and discounts. Here is an ever-growing list of some resources available to help you market your film. I will try and update this periodically as I see fit.

http://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/ - Soup-to-nuts online film school for $299. Offers classes in marketing.

http://filmspecific.com/ - an indie site with lots of free and paid information, including an e-book called the Self-Distribution Starter kit for $29. Other pricing plans are available.

http://www.shericandler.com/ - a publicist with her own blog, specializing in indie films. Free information in the form of articles and blog posts, and Sheri also available for consultation.

http://www.cineticmedia.com/index.php - "Where Art and Commerce Meet" is their motto. They also offer something called Film Buff, which can help indie filmmakers with all sorts of marketing strategies. No prices listed on the site, which usually means this can be pricey.

http://moviemavericks.com/advertising-on-moviemavericks-com/ - this site offers free advertising to indie filmmakers and perhaps a chance for a review. Or so it says - an email sent to the address was not returned.

Indiplaya.com - They just made a big announcement about new content channels at SXSW this year, but their site looks pretty weak. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/23/1-best-ways-customize-facebook/ - Facebook has a lot of marketing possibilities but it's hard to convert Likes into $s. However, these customizing apps may help you do just that by making a more engaging Facebook Page. Be sure to check the comments for some other cool sites not listed in the main article.

http://thinkoutsidetheboxoffice.com/ - John Reis' site is often referred to as the grandaddy of all distribution/marketing sites. His book is often listed as "must read." Alas, with any print book nowadays, the information gets stale quickly. You can buy a digital version with updates at this site.

http://www.internetmarketingforfilmmakers.com/ - This guy has a very slick website and loves to show you videos. He offers a money back guarantee, so you could check out what he has to offer and decide for yourself if it is worth it.

Places to Sell/Market Your Indie Film Online

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I will try and add to this as I come across resources and will comment when I have more info.

1. Createspace.com - created by Amazon, this is the granddaddy of on-demand. You can reach a huge marketplace through Amazon. However, they charge about $4 per disc - not terrible but not great (see below).  The on-demand feature may be cool, but you have to send them a DVD which they encode from on their end, meaning you will end up with an SD streaming version instead of HD.

2. Kunaki.com - This may be the coolest, greatest thing EVER for indie filmmakers! Kunaki is a bare bones print-on-demand company that only charges $1 per DVD - that's right $1! Customers can pay with credit card OR Paypal. You design a full-color DVD sleeve AND color printed face! Here's the catch: NO customer support, except via email. You have to upload your files via PC (not Mac) to their server. If you are a Mac person like me and have mostly friends that are Mac, this is a HUGE pain in the ass! The upload kept stopping and starting and I have to babysit this thing for SEVERAL DAYS to get it finally completely uploaded. That caveat aside (PC users should have no problems) this looks like it may be the best option, at least for sales directly from your website. They even send you a free DVD for your evaluation, how cool is that?

3. Film Baby - this looks like a companion/offshoot of CD Baby. They charge $40 to get you up and running and charge $4 per DVD and have other non-exclusive distribution options. If you use Kunaki (above) that eats up about $5 of profit per DVD - again not terrible especially if your DVD can retail over $10. (Most DVDs on the site are priced in the $15 range.)

4. Flixfling - This seems to be an indie film alternative to Netflix. You can contact them about carrying your movie and they will ask you to send them a DVD.

5. Casimero - this site offers to stream your film for a monthly fee to Facebook.

6. Film Club - Just stumbled on what could be a cool way to network your movie. I'm thinking you can search for film clubs that might be interested in screening your movie.

7. Meetup.com - here's another idea: type "indie film" and your zip code and find film groups that might be interested in screening your film.

8. Withoutabox.com - This is the the behemoth that controls most of the entry process into the various film festivals in the world. Sure, you can pay $50 a pop (and up) to enter your film in Sundance et. al. but I suggest using the search engine to find fests that don't charge anything to enter.

9. Don't forget your hometown newspaper! In addition, AOL has created Patch.com - which focuses on hyper-local news for each of its many "patches." The La Mesa Patch did a great article on The Great Intervention.

10. Tubemogul.com - this site has a free service that helps you distribute videos to the many different sharing sites across the web. This can help you place preview videos on sites you never knew existed. Using the site, however, has proved pointless and frustrating, as none of its stats seem to work for me.

11. Openfilm.com - This looks very enticing! For as little as $2.95 a month you can get your site on Boxee and other TV/Web hybrid systems. I use Boxee, and if you could get a video on their service they say you are now in 11 million homes. You can turn on and off your movie as well, in case you decide later to sell the rights or whatever. Upon further investigation, I could not find an Openfilm app within Boxee. I emailed them to find out what was up and they said that some of their films are located in the the user's Movies section and that the app is "coming soon." We shall see.

Five Quick Steps to Greenlighting Your Own Indie Film

Hello everyone - I have decided to expand the scope of this blog beyond blatant promotion of my indie film The Great Intervention. I hope it also serves as inspiration/information for other aspiring filmmmakers to follow their dream and create an indie film with no budget.

That said, here is my first post for all you aspiring filmmakers, lovingly entitled "5 Quick Steps to Greenlighting Your Own Indie Film"

1. Come up with your idea. Okay, this is the only part of the step I cannot specifically help you with; however, I can help you get inspired. First of all, let me suggest: write what you know. Additionally, consider taking ScreenwritingU.com's Pro Series. True, the full series is upwards of $500, but this six-month online course takes you (at least in theory) from concept to pitch. The first part of the series is especially good, as it forces you to create literally hundreds of screenplay ideas using a simple formula. This is where I got the seed of the idea for The Great Intervention. If you can't afford the full course, keep an eye on their stand-alone courses that may inspire you and are considerably cheaper.

2. Register your idea/script with the Writer's Guild of America, or if you're East of the Mississippi, The Writer's Guild, East. For about $25, this will protect your idea from theft. In theory, if you are producing and shooting the movie yourself, the creation of the movie itself will be your copyright. However, if your shoot date is a ways off, this will establish a registration date for 5 years.

3. Go to SAGIndie and fill out the Ultra Low Budget Application. One of the most important things for any film, of course, is excellent acting. Thankfully, the Screeen Actor's Guild has made it easier than ever for professionals to work on your production. If your budget is under $200,000 (and if you're reading this blog, it surely is) you can hire SAG actors for $100 a day with this contract. There is a little bit of paperwork to fill out, so it's important you start this procedure at least THREE WEEKS before shooting begins. The SAGindie site contains a ton of information and you can also post your casting notice on it for free.

4. Get production insurance. For a long time, this was the biggest stumbling block to getting your shoot Guild compliant: finding short term insurance at an affordable price. When I did my first SAG film Left for Dead in Malaysia way back in 2004, this was a huge challenge. SAG couldn't even legally point me in the right direction. I ended up buying secondhand coverage through a producer whose credits included Nudist Colony of the Dead. It was stressful, as the guy waited until the last possible minute to fax SAG the correct paperwork. Thankfully, nowadays short-term insurance is easy to find, with links even on the SAGindie page. I ended up going with Supple-Merril & Driscoll who have a quick and easy online form and can return a quote quickly. My 10 day shoot cost me a mere $600. And not only will getting the proper insurance put you in the good graces of SAG but it may help you in securing any locations you might need. One indie production I worked on was able to secure a supermarket for free precisely because they had this insurance. NOTE: do NOT get Worker's Comp through them - see below.

5. Hire a payroll company. Finally, you're going to need a payroll company to make the whole package complete. For a very small fee, ABS Payroll in Burbank can not only handle all of your pay to your SAG actors, as well as doing all the pain-in-the-ass paperwork and contributions to Pension & Health, BUT it can also give you Worker's Comp coverage for a fraction of the stand-alone price, saving you thousands of dollars.

Follow these steps and you will be on your way to production of your Indie Film!