mercredi 25 septembre 2013

Film Making

By Sam Mile


An issue-oriented smaller movie is one that has a style of social relevance at it's core. Substance abuse, poverty, the environment, homelessness ... these are all examples of a brief movie with a socially appropriate theme. This is substantial as it is MUCH easier to get donations of time, devices and supplies when there is a "cause" behind the film.

In the mid 90's I was able to get a 12 minute 35mm movie produced for under a thousand dollars, an absolutely unusual quantity. Catering, locations, film stock and processing, misc supplies, equipment - practically everything was covered through generous donations because the movie had two significant social concerns as the primary themes - kid abuse and it's resultant connection to substance abuse later on in life.

The method? Experience manufacturing directory sites and cold call until you cannot talk any longer. A typical pitch went like this: "we're dealing with a movie that handles some lovely intense social problems and we're asking yourself if there's someone we can speak with about making a donation of ..." It takes a great deal of calls, but it works.

Getting donations is in one sense quite easy as numerous production companies want to contribute. The problem that comes from this alternative to short movie financing is in the additional coordination efforts required, for you'll should adjust your schedule to the benefactors. An example of this is that we needed to cancel a movie shoot 2 weekends in a row because the 35mm camera that was being contributed to us became unavailable as it was booked out on a paid shoot (a truth that has to be accepted taking this method). But as quickly as the rental business's schedule cleared, the camera was ours and we had the ability to shoot, saving hundreds of dollars in rental costs.

Another issue with taking this path is producer coordination. It's better if you have a distinct producer dealing with acquiring donations as it's a full time task in and of itself. It's finest to have one producer to manage shooting logistics and an additional to manage donations. In the end, while our team was able to complete a lot with very little funds, the movie suffered since the director/producer (myself) was overworked with handling logistics and had less time to spend on imaginative shots, acting, and so on. Having an one-of-a-kind producer to manage donations will address that problem!




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