DIY Filmmaking Sucks

Preparing for your Kickstarter crowdfunding launch

Ready to launch your big Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or other crowdfunding campaign? 

Probably not. 

It's a hell of lot more work than you expect.

Many projects fail. But 80% of those projects that reach at least 20% of their goal will succeed in raising it all (according to Kickstarter's own stats). And those with significant early traction have an even better chance of success.

This summer, my longtime filmmaking partner Benjamin Morgan is shooting his next feature, Mothers Milk. Their Kickstarter campaign just started yesterday and already they've reached 40% of their goal.

How did they do it? 

It wasn't magic. It was hard work and preparation. Ben writes about their strategy and tells exactly how it's done:

Mothers Milk Blog: Kickstarter Day One

P.S. Consider donating to their Kickstarter -- it's a great way to help your fellow indie filmmakers, plant some good karma seeds and see how it's done from the inside on an ultralow-budget feature film project.

Quick tip: their $100 DIY Film School level is an awesome perk if you can afford it. They will share their secrets freely: raising money, production, distribution, whatever. It's a great way to get direct access to these guys and of course, to support the film. 

 

Crowdfunding plan for Kickstarter or indieGoGo campaigns

MovieMaker magazine has a fantastic article mapping out how to crowdfund your film. It's crucial to see the crowd as even more valuable than the funds. Read why and how:

Community Capital: an Actionable Crowdfunding Timeline (MovieMaker)

 

Shoot it right down the middle

We're in post-production on our indie sci-fi feature In-World War and currently doing coloring and visual treatment tests on a few scenes.

As we go through this process, I now see that a supposed weakness in how we shot the film is actually a huge strength.

As a guerrilla, ultra-low budget feature, we didn't have the time, team or tools to do massive lighting set-ups or complex shots. Also, as both the producer and director, I was swamped with production-level details and didn't have a chance to do storyboards or even extensive mood boards (a major error --  next time I'll make the time for both), much less have indepth shot-by-shot discussions with the DP.

The result is that we shot it as fast as we could and DP Donavan Sell lit it in a way that would allow us maximum flexibility in post to adjust the look the film through the coloring process. As Donavan often said, he was shooting it "right down the middle". 

However, the dailies came out extremely bland and pretty flat. I was a bit disappointed. I wanted a cinematic indie aesthetic. Something that rang out (cue the trumpets): CINEMATOGRAPHY!

As we created and revised the assembly edit, the same issue kept bothering me. The colors and lighting didn't pop.

Then, we started experimenting with the coloring.

And learned I couldn't have been more wrong.

Donavan was exactly on the money. His "down the middle" lighting allowed us huge flexibility for coloring. By not baking an extreme lighting look into the raw footage, we are able to tweak and push the color and visual treatment of the footage as much as we want.

What I thought was flat and uninteresting was actually exactly what we needed.

And since about 90% of the footage is 4k RED with its deep color space, we're in a great position to do something extraordinary with the visual treatment.

All because we shot it right down the middle.

Thank you Graham Leggat

Life is so precious.

And when we lose someone who blazes bright, igniting a long tail of inspiration and accomplishment, one cannot help but pause in gratitude and loss.

Yesterday, Graham Leggat, the Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, passed away after an long battle with cancer. He resigned last month, as his illness resurfaced and reached the stage of no return.

It hit me like a ton of bricks for many reasons. He has a young son (I too lost a parent when I was a child) and he was my secret idol of successful -- and cool -- film community leadership. In his six years as ED at SFFS, he had transformed the organization. And despite being the head of the preeminent film organization in the region, he always had time for a hello and idle chitchat at events.

Who was I, but a scrappy no-name DIY filmmaker? He treated me with the respect and kindness one dreams of receiving for doing any craft or art.

He was a class act that made me feel appreciated as a filmmaker.

And not because I had anything to offer him or the organization (no hot film, no fame, no money, no connections), but because he was an honorable, democratic guy who lived the essense of the SFFS mission: film appreciation (as opposed to celebrity worship: I'm looking at you Sundance).

His financial and audience accomplishments were many. When he took the reins, the SFFS was known only for the renowned San Francisco International Film Festival which took place two weeks each year.

Today, it's a year-round organization and, despite a cratering economy, he was responsible for huge growth measured by every metric:  doubled the number of members, increased annual budget by a factor of three (each year balanced too), increased grants, and much more, including a recently-opened theater that shows SFFS-programmed films daily. His year-round programming includes my personal favorites: new small festivals in the fall focused on contemporary Italian, French and Taiwanese films (plus three other new small fests each fall).

Above all, the most important thing he did from a DIY filmmaking perspective -- and the reason why I fell into his orbit and got so involved in the SFFS -- was taking responsibility for the filmmaker services programs of the Film Arts Foundation.

I was one of the many refugees from the financial imposion of the scrappy Film Arts Foundation, the long-suffering, anemically-funded, vital organization dedicated to supporting local Bay Area filmmakers through classes, events, a magazine, fiscal sponsorship, gear rental and more. Looking back on it, who in their right mind would start an organization whose funding was based on fees and tickets sold to wannabe indie filmmakers? By definition, these are filmmakers with no money, with films no one has heard of.

But that's where so many of us started. And it was a hugely important support structure for our local filmmaking community.

And that's why Graham picked up the pieces and gave us shelter at SFFS.

For years, there was a low art/high art chasm between FAF and the SFFS: FAF was dedicated to support the local filmmaker community, a ragtag dysfunctional family making weird film art of debatable quality and limited audience appeal (basically, it was film school for people no longer in college), while the SFFS was dedicated to bringing highly acclaimed films and legendary filmmakers from around the world to San Francisco audiences.

And never (or very rarely) did the two missions cross paths....mostly because the SFFS took limited (some would so say no) interest in local films. (Yes, I'm still bitter they refused to show Quality of Life at the San Francisco International Film Festival-- despite that we were one of only two American films to win a Jury award at Berlin that year. Graham was hired a year later.)

When FAF finally went belly-up, the SFFS stepped in and took over these vital functions. The two halves of the Bay Area film community -- filmmaker support and film appreciation -- were finally joined under one roof, as it should be. Graham was key in seeing the connection and making it happen. 

And my life, my new film In-World War, and my involvement in the fimmmaker community have all been so much richer for it.

All the while I've watched Graham do his magic: introduce films, work the room, stop to say hello and generally do it all with the calm panache and easy cool of a Scottish secret agent.

So basically I knew his days were numbered.

I fully expected to one day hear that he was leaving us, scooped up by some bigger razzle-dazzle festival or national arts organization. His trajectory was unmistakable. He was a catch.

Then one day last month, I got the email: Graham was leaving. 

But through the door I least expected.

He was resigning because his cancer had returned (I didn't even know he had fought it off a year and a half ago) and it had spread too far, too fast. He had known through the recent San Francisco International Film Festival but kept it to himself, to avoid making the festival about him and keeping the spotlight on the films and the filmmakers.

I was devestated. Graham was not a good friend -- he wasn't even a friend at all. He was more of someone I looked up to immensely and knew in passing well enough to say hello with a moment of recognition. And of course it hurt evenmoreso knowing of his young son and remembering (as I do every day) the loss of my mother to cancer far, far too early.

I reached out to him via email, sharing my gratitude for his work and envy for his seemingly effortless skill and success. As a student of leadership, I told him of my own selfish sense of loss, for I wanted to learn more from watching him do his thing. He replied that he loves to share his thoughts on management, being a favorite subject of his.

So the last time I saw him, at an overflowing "small" gathering in his honor at Tosca a few weeks ago, I took a moment to ask him if he had any bon mots of management advice. He responded immediately:

"If you're going to be hung -- and if you're in management, you will eventually be hung -- you might as well be hung for who you are than who you're not."

Graham's secret of course, is that this isn't about management.

For all the advice I've tried to collect here on this site on how to get your film funded, how to write a great script, how to make a movie that people want to see and how to get people to buy it and see it, I can think of no better admonishment for myself or my fellow DIY filmmakers.

We must make the films that are true to each of us. We must be ourselves and not that which we think others want. 

Because at the end of the day, we all leave this tired Earth eventually (some long from now and some far too soon) and that what we touched leaves the only marks that we passed this way. Best that we be true to ourselves, no matter what others say or think or do.

Thank you for that Graham Leggat (and thank you for all the rest too).

And farewell.

 

Kickstarter fundraising -- insider information at last

Is it me, or is Kickstarter taking over the world?

Well thank goodness.

We desperately need to create a culture of giving amongst our family, friends and the wider audience for indie/DIY film, music and art. Yes, it's great that Kickstarter gives us an awesome platform to raise funds, but more importantly, the concept is gaining traction as a cultural movement.

People are starting to see themselves as micro-foundations, giving small-change donations to support our starving art projects. Hurray for art! Give today dammit!

So for a look under the hood at how Kickstarter chooses their "Projects We Love" and other insider tips, check out this fantastic article:

New York Times Magazine: The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter

And in case you missed them, we've also had two lengthy previous articles about Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and crowdfunding best-practices:

Secrets of successful IndieGoGo and Kickstarter crowdfunding
Ten more tricks for using Kickstarter to fund your film

The No Budget Film School is the real deal.

Longtime DIY filmmaker and friend Mark Stolaroff is teaching his legendary No Budget Film School again in August in Los Angeles. If you're down there or can travel to LA, it's worth it.

Between Mark's experience and the impressive speakers he's assembled, this is just about the best way to turbo-charge your ultra-low budget filmmaking projects. Even if you can't be at the class, you should join his list, since he sends out great insightful info (he's already been a guest writer on this blog once).

NO BUDGET FILM SCHOOL PRESENTS:

"The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking"

Saturday & Sunday, August 20 & 21, 2011 * 9:30am - 6:00pm

Raleigh Studios - Los Angeles, CA

For more information and to register, visit:
http://nobudgetfilmschool.eventbrite.com/

No Budget Film School presents its famed two-day micro-budget filmmaking class in Los Angeles August 20 & 21, 2011.  Specifically designed for no-budget filmmakers who are ready to finance their own projects, the lessons, tools, and techniques gained will maximize limited resources and minimize critical errors that can doom otherwise worthy projects.  Producer Mark Stolaroff--former principal of IFC's Next Wave Films--and guest experts teach the specific methods, models and priorities unique to micro-budget filmmaking, whether the budget is $200,000 or $2,000, in this in-depth, one-of-a-kind class. Attendees will walk away with powerful ideas that they can use immediately, saving them time and money.  These cutting edge techniques can NOT be found in a book, at film school, or in other film classes.

If you're through talking about being a filmmaker and ready to become one, this will be the most practical filmmaking course you will ever take.

Sign up today since spots are limited:
http://nobudgetfilmschool.eventbrite.com/

Strangely clear, super cheesy video on your HDTV? Finally a solution.

Have you ever been in the TV section of a big superstore and noticed a flat screen TV (or 20) showing a Blu-Ray DVD that made the film look like it was filmed at a local TV station? Everything looks really video-like and not at all filmic. As you're watching, you notice that the special effects don't match the rest of the picture while everyone seems lit for the local weather report.

Perhaps you've even seen this happen on your TV at home and noticed it when watching films or shows on your HD cable or DVD. Yikes. Is this what HD's gonna give us: crappy home-video quality blockbusters?!?

The first time I saw this, I literally stopped in my tracks, horrified. I was at Sears walking by a huge HD flat screen TV. A VERY expensive model. They were playing the first Spiderman movie. Instead of a multi-million dollar film, it looked like a student video project. Or a behind-the-scenes video. I prayed this wasn't the HD future we've been promised.

Well, it's not. Basically, it's all about the settings on the TV itself. So if you have a TV that's ruining your movies this way, you should definitely read this and change your settings immediately:

http://prolost.com/blog/2011/3/28/your-new-tv-ruins-movies.html

Two simple tricks for using Facebook to do market research for your indie film

In order to get people to see your film, you need to have a target audience and know how to reach (and how to talk to) them.

There are two paths to reach your audience, both of which have a proven track record:

You can study, research and intimately understand your target audience.

    - or -

You can just copy what works from people who've already done it.

I recommend number two: copy what works from people who already know how to reach the same audience.

Who has the time and money to do the type of research needed to fully understand a given audience? Who even among us DIY filmmakers has this training to be a market researcher? (Okay, okay, you should try to do the research nonetheless. It's good for you to learn the marketing skills.)

But, the easiest way to tell your target audience about your film is to copy from the masters.

It's a pretty straight-forward approach. First, you find out what movies (and other stuff) that your audience likes already. Second, you look up these projects and take notes on what works and just do something similar.

Remember, it's not stealing if you don't use their footage, logos, images or text. All you need to do is find out what other films that your audience already likes (and tv shows, and books, and music, etc.).

Most likely, you already are a member of your film's target audience (after all, why go through the painful experience of making a film you're not passionate about?), so you can probably make some good guesses about favorite films for your audience. These are the ones you like most. Easy.

If you're not a member of that audience, or if you just want to go the extra mile (highly recommended) to discover what films your target audience likes, Facebook is your friend.

Here are two tricks on how to use Facebook to do market research on your target audience. It assumes you have at least a few hundred friends on your own personal Facebook page and/or at least a few hundred fans on your film's Facebook page.

Option 1: Your Facebook friends
Use your own circle of friends as a free market research bank.

Since like attracts like, you probably have Facebook friends that are in your target audience too. (If not, well, this won't work.)

- Click on Friends
- Click on Edit Friends (don't worry, we won't be editing anything)
- Click on Recently Interacted to see the other options...
- Click on Search by Interest
- Enter the name of a (major) film that you already know appeals to the same target audience
- You'll get a result of people who say they like that film and are your friends
- See what other films come up often in those people's interests

Now that you have a list of film, check out those trailers (even if the film is old -- see if you can find the trailer online somewhere). Study how they convey the story, the feel of the film and how the marketing for the movie says "hey target audience, this film is for YOU."

Option 2: Your film's Facebook page
If you already have a Facebook page for your film (with a minimum of 100+ fans -- and ideally not just your own friends and family only), you can do this separate cool trick.

- Go to your film's page, logged in as one of the admins.
- Click on Use Facebook as Your Film Name (where "Your Film Name" is, um, your film's name).
- You are now logged in as if you were your film, rather than your own personal account.
- Click on News Feed.
- See the section called "Recommended Pages" on the right of the page? It will tell you a list of other movies, TV shows and other fan pages that your fans like. (Don't bother clicking on "See All" though -- it's best to see the info about how many of your fans like each recommended page -- and you can't see that on the "See All" page unfortunately.)
- Additinally, you should be able to reload the page and different "Recommended Pages" should come up, with the specific number of fans that like those things too.

Keep notes with the films, TV shows and other fan pages that people Like. Obviously, you're more interested in those with highest number of Likes amongst your fans.

Now that you have a list of what your target audience is into, go to these other films' Facebook pages and visit their actual websites -- and study them. Look at how the film sites talk about their projects, the style of design/art they use, and basically how they present themselves to the world.

You'll also want to research HOW these films reached the audience. This will be tougher, but perhaps you can dig around online for articles and discussions about how a film marketed itself (an easy search via Google: "movie name" marketing). Did they just buy ads or did they do local events or did they print up temporary tattoos and hand them out at Comic-Con? See if you can find out more about their marketing and outreach and PR plans.

For films, definitely take a look at their trailers and the posters -- see what elements they use and try to emulate the look. People have one second to make up their mind about a project when they see a poster or in the first few seconds of a trailer. Help them by being similar to what they like already.

And then take your notes and use similar strategies for your film. Basically, create a DIY and cheap version of their marketing plan for your film. Don't steal taglines or images -- just the underlying ideas and strategies: you're not trying to copy WHAT they say, but HOW they say it.

Why does it matter how other films are marketed?

These films (from your Facebook research) have attracted people who are interested in your film (or in things like your film) and if you learn their tricks, you can better attract to your film an audience composed of like-minded people.

While you're at it, why don't you check out the Facebook page for our indie sci-fi film, In-World War, and become a fan by clicking "Like" on our page. Seriously, look at all this free stuff I write for you: my gentle, good-looking, highly-intelligent reader. The least you can do is Like our film's Facebook page. Think of the children.

Multiple camera shoots on your indie film

Shooting a DIY indie film with multiple cameras may actually save you money -- and help avoid painful headaches in editing.

Sure sure, you're thinking, I'd love to shoot with two, three or ten cameras. But who can afford that?

Though it goes against the DIY ethic, shooting too fast, too cheap and too on-the-fly can get you into trouble.

Please, learn from my mistakes.

Recently, I've been editing together a rough assembly edit of a new scene for our DIY sci-fi film In-World War and I'm pulling my hair out. It's a walk-and-talk scene on the street that we shot as a 2nd unit pick-up, with characters stopping as they make points to each other in the conversation.

As pre-pro on the scene prior to production, I storyboarded it out, but honestly the scene scared the crap out of me. How could we get the CU inserts to match the wider walking shots without creating a really tightly choreographed blocking of the scene? I was afraid -- even if that detailed choreography were possible given our time constraints -- that the scene would look too stiff and too contrived rather than loose and natural as they walked and talked.

Sure enough, on location, the blocking got mixed up and it was compounded by the frantic nature of DIY filmmaking: too many shots (and locations) to get in one day and not enough time to plan them out.

On top of that, since we were shooting in partial sunshine in the mid-morning, the light kept changing. It would have been smarter to shoot on the shady side of the street (it was NYC, so the buildings were tall). That meant that some shots just couldn't match.

Still, we got some great performances and a ton of coverage and I figured we could just cut around the problem areas.

Oh sweet hubris. Enter the cruel iron law of indie filmmaking:

In the end, the edit room reveals all.

And it isn't always pretty.

The footage -- shot by shot -- looks awesome. It's visually impressive work by our 2nd Unit DP Dane Brehm and the actors' performances were great too.

But the shots. Just. Don't. Cut. Together.

Director: FAIL.

In the end, I think we'll be fine and the scene will work. I massaged the current edit by stringing together what matching motions I could find. Given all we shot we should have had many more options. Still, I'm considering doing the whole scene mostly in the wide master shot as an alt choice -- cutting to tighter shots when they fit but staying with the master as the spine of the scene (rather than just establishing wide and then cutting the whole scene as Med/CU back-and-forth, which is my pref).

The tighter shots just don't match well enough with the action and lighting in the master.

How would I do it different next time? Consider these two approaches for scenes with significant movement and interaction between characters, particularly over a large distance and when you need to match different shots (i.e. walk and talk scenes, fight scenes, etc.).

1) Plan ahead and go slower on set.

• Block out the action ahead of time with the actors in rehearsal and then write down the steps and distances on paper (basically like a dance routine -- but choreograph the steps to dialog in this case, not music).
• Once it's locked, run through the sequence in rehearsal with the DP present and figure out camera placements -- how many set-ups do you need to get the master(s) and the close-in coverage?
• On location, run through it again and put marks on the ground for actors and camera. Make sure the actors are hitting those marks -- naturally and without forcing their steps. It should look natural and unplanned. That's what the planning and practice get you: performances that make the movement look unplanned.
• Give yourself time on set to compare footage of tighter shots to wider master shots -- make sure they match and if not, reshoot right there.

All this work in pre-production and production will take time (and even on DIY film sets, time = money), but it's the best way to make sure you have footage you can actually edit together sanely.

No problem, see?

Yeah right. Most of us DIY filmmakers live in the real world where we have no time for extensive pre-pro and rehearsals, the DP isn't available during rehearals, the production schedule is overloaded and there's no time for the perfection of detailed choreography.

2) Or use mutiple cameras.

• Make sure your footage cuts together by shooting the same performance with the same lighting, using two or even three cameras.
• The cameras should be the same model (i.e. not a good idea to intercut a RED with iPhone footage) and probably the same or similar lenses...though ask your DP to dictate that. I'm no camera kit nerd.
• You'll need solid camera crews for each camera (at least a camera operator though ideally AC too). This isn't a time to bring an unexperienced PA as camera op. Nothing is worse than an out-of-focus shot.
• Try to set it up so one camera can be the master and other camera (or two) can be used for the close-ups. It will make the wide shot challenging (ensuring that you don't see the 2nd and 3rd camera crews), but the pay off of a perfectly matchable series of wide and tighter shots will be worth the headache.
• The great thing with multiple cameras is that you don't need a ton of rehearsals or super-detailed marks for the actors to hit. You can play more loose and more spontaneous. Naturally you'll probably want to go hand-held or at least heavily steadicammed out. The adventurous DIY DP might try to use the tripod for all cameras and just quickly carry each camera/tripod to the next mark.
• Bottom line: you probably can't afford to shoot with multiple cameras for the whole shoot, but if you identify a few key complex scenes where that might help, you'll end up with a much happier editor and more options in the all-knowing and unforgiving editing room. And a better film for audiences to enjoy.

Crazy? Yes. But that's DIY filmmaking for you.

Insane idea for increasing your film's theater revenue

For those self-distributing their film: this is a bat-shit crazy idea that surfs the wave of goodwill that happens at the end of a showing when you do a filmmaker Q&A.

SFGate: Mike Daisey's cash experiment at Berkeley Rep pays up

Here's what you do: Give cash away at the beginning (your cut of the ticket sales) in denominations that don't match what people payed ($1 in some cases, $50 in others) -- and then ask them at the end to return the cash if they liked the movie, and add a bit extra if they really liked it.

Or they can keep the cash if they didn't and if they don't support the film.

Not quite a money-back guarantee but based on one guy's experience (for a theater show), people clearly are more generous than not. He actually earned more this way than he would have through ticket sales alone.

It makes sense: people don't want to be seen as jerks and want to support indie artists and performers. I would only do this if you're doing a Q&A at the end of the film, so they can see you're a flesh and blood person, with feelings and hopes and dreams.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

BTW, I doubt it works if you don't show up. Without the pressure of the filmmaker (or someone from the filmmaking team) standing right there, people are more likely to just leave after the movie is over and then that's that.