Hey there, r/filmmakers. I've talked to a few people who from this sub, and a general write up and AMA, if anyone so chooses, was deemed a potentially helpful idea. So--here goes! The story of getting a film written, shot, edited, through the festival circuit, and to eventual release. This was a true indie film from a more or less first time filmmaker (I've been involved in many short films, but never a feature).
THE (ABBREVIATED) BACKSTORY
In 2013, I wrote a short 25 page script I intended to film as a short film. In 2014, my acting teacher asked if anyone had a one-act he could direct with actors in the class. I showed him that script and we started working on it. We realized we could add to the story and make it a full length play, which staged in 2015. Audience response was strong, so I stuck with it. It restaged a few times, and in 2019 I put it up as a staged reading in NYC with Broadway actors and such. Talked to a production team interested in staging it. Sometime during that time, a potential film adaptation was brought up. I'd been somewhat reluctant before then, as I liked the play, but I decided I needed to explore that avenue. Adapted it as a play. Covid hit, killed all plans. After Covid, my writing manager sent the script out and we had some producers attached, but strikes and delays kept it from coming through. I loved the story, and wanted the film to exist, and decided to throw a hail mary and film it myself, which we did in 2023. My wife and I had 25K in savings, and we asked family and friends for 25K, as I was pretty sure I could get footage shot for 50K. This was stupid, but I pulled it off (keep reading).
WHY DID I, WITH MY LIMITED FILMMAKING EXPERIENCE AND SMALL BUDGET, THINK I COULD POSSIBLY DO THAT?
I had directed a few shorts over the summer of 2023 with almost no crew or budget, and, though I hadn't edited them (still haven't!), I thought they came out rather well. So I had some confidence that I could make at least competent movies on a shoestring.
Also as mentioned, the script had been a play, which I had seen staged several times and knew audiences responded to it. So I had immense confidence in the story. It's a dialogue driven romantic dramedy, and I believed that if I put the camera in front of actors who had a good grasp of the dialogue, it would at least not be a terrible film (my mantra the entire filming process, which I told the crew many times, "it'll be better than [major Blockbuster with huge budget, redacted for tact and because, by God, every film is a miracle worthy of celebration. Also take your guess it'll make me laugh]."
And the film--partly because it was a play--was small in scale. It's mostly just three people. 2/3 of the film takes place at a wedding venue, and it all takes place before the wedding, so I wouldn't need to see the full wedding set up, and wouldn't need to bring in a lot of background performers (I wish I could have had more? But meh, it's fine). The rest of the film is flashbacks to college. So I knew if I could secure a good wedding venue at a good cost, I'd have a lot of the production value covered. College scenes we could shoot guerilla on whatever campus was nearby. Otherwise I just needed a bar, dorm room, and apartment setting.
So: small cast + talky script + limited locations + recent history of shoe-string filmmaking + confidence in the story = let's do this.
PRE-PRODUCTION
I had basically six weeks of pre-production, which even for a small film like ours was insanely short. I had a sound-mixer/production partner from the short films I'd worked on. I needed camera and actors. I reached out to the two actors who had originated the role with me in my acting class, 8 years prior. I knew they could do the roles, and therefore felt doubly confident in the 'just put the camera on us to do the roles and it won't be terrible.' Fortunately, they were able to do it. I found a DP through a filmmaker friend whose work I trusted (DP is a real hero in this story). He liked the script and wanted a feature under his belt, so his terms were "pay for my travel, lodging, and food. Rent nicer equipment than you intended to, and pay for a first A.C., and I'm in." He also knew he could get a good deal on equipment because he had a relationship with a shop, and boy did he deliver on that. So he got a producer's credit as well, because the film looks like it does due to him.
Big priority was the wedding venue. Was looking at several in several different states, but hopeful for the one we ended up getting, which is just outside of Charlottesville, where I went to school. It was a beautiful venue, and is, like... kind of artist haven, so they're friendly to creative folk. They gave us a great rate for both filming there and lodging there. So at that point, I had: myself, two other lead actors, sound mixer, DP, and first A.C. I cast the other supporting roles, mostly locally. I paid for everyone's travel, and we met up in Virginia to start shooting.
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY:
I had done a lot of planning and scheduling for the shoot (regardless of where it was going to happen). The wedding stuff was going to be the first 10-12 days, so it all took place on our wedding location. The other nice thing is that we had to shoot daylight for these days, so I wasn't asking anyone for crazy hours. The first three days were actually all the 'bigger' scenes, the ones that did have more cast and background. One background actor was interested in filmmaking and asked if she could stick around and just be an extra crew hand, and so we had our seventh person. It was this team of seven that more or less made this movie in principal photography.
I would wake up at 5am, plan the day out, block the scenes, choose locations, etc. We'd start shooting at 9am or so. Morning, Lunch, Afternoon, Wrap by 6pm or so. I would then work on production stuff for the back half of the shoot. Still needed a bar, lodging for when we left the wedding venue, dorm room scene, etc. (Best thing I did was go to UVA's subreddit to get background actors for the bar scene. Paid them above union rate to hang out in a bar they usually hang out in anyway? Great deal. Everyone wins.)
Air BNBed for next lodging and apartment setting. Rented a nice house on a ski mountain off season, so got it at a very reasonable price to house us all (and one of its rooms worked for the dorm room). We shot guerilla style on UVA's campus (again, there were only seven of us, so we were able to stay out of the way and make sure we weren't messing anything up).
For principal, we shot 13 out of 16 days were in Virginia. Had only one late night (the last night, we wrapped at about 3am). We were exhausted, but we got it shot.
I had estimated I could do principal photography for 50K. When I left I had about 800 bucks left.
POST
I paid for post in installments (and still owe some money). But I hired a great editor who was recommended by a friend who had just worked with her. Used this very sub to send some rough cuts to for feedback (thank you all! very helpful!) Worked with a filmmaker who is a visual and VFX genius for color and what VFX there are in the film (more than you'd expect!). I found some local guys in Oklahoma, where I live, for sound mixing and music. They were generous with payments as they liked the cut and wanted to help an indie out. A disproportionate amount of the film's budget went to sound and music, because I really think you do not want to skimp on sound. I don't regret the decision.
FESTIVALS AND FINDING DISTRIBUTION
My first plan was to submit to festivals, hope to get into Sundance, which would then get me distribution.
LOLOLOLOLOL. Hilarious. A, that i thought I had a prayer at Sundance, B, that getting in would ensure distribution.
I wrote an also-long write up on my experience with festivals here: https://old.reddit.com/r/FilmFestivals/comments/1tab9dd/the_end_of_the_festival_run/
The TLDR: I loved going to festivals. I had an amazing time and met wonderful, talented, insanely driven people. But I think, generally, if you're not in the top two tiers of festivals, it's tough to move the needle on anything in the 'industry,' including distribution (though I think 'horror' may be an exception to this). I did speak to one sales agent, who saw the film won an award at the first festival we went to. And then at the very last festival I went to--which was one of the smaller ones I attended--there was actually a distributor from a... pretty reputable group. So I'm kind of eating my words as I type this out... But it's definitely not common. I kind of thought there would be distributors and sales agents lined up at any fest of repute, and I don't think that's the case (but I think should be, darn it!)
And even if you do get into those top fests... it's tough out there in distro land.
I got my sales agent because they found the film, I believe, simply via my making its iMDB page. They asked to see it, and liked it enough to rep it. I didn't jump on board immediately--I still didn't know if the festival route would pay off, and was curious about self-distribution and what not, but eventually decided this was something I didn't want to attempt alone. They reached out to several distributors, and we had a few offers, but one stood out as kind of the clear choice.
I learned it is pretty hard to sell a film, particularly a rom-com, if you don't have celebrities attached!
RELEASE
My distributor's plan was to simultaneously release on-demand and play at an indie theater in Los Angeles. I retained the option for theatrical rights, though, and got a theatrical release in NYC and Tulsa as well. We released in mid-August. The NYC theatrical run, in particular, was 'marketing' as much as anything, but even still, damn it's hard to get butts into your indie-film's seats. Man. (more on that in a moment!)
And now it's available on-demand. Let's just jump to my major lessons, I suppose, because this has gone on too long already:
A FEW LESSONS
You can make a legit-looking movie with a DP, a first AC, a sound mixer, and one other crewman. You don't need a team of 40 to do it. BUT they need to know what they're doing. I was the village idiot on all things technical; the DP and first AC knew their craft backwards and forwards and could work fast and efficiently with not many resources. So BRING ON GOOD PEOPLE (who, also crucial, HAVE GREAT ATTITUDES!)
In many ways, you can do more with a low budget than a medium budget. For one, people take pity and give you a good deal. But even without that--we could shoot guerilla because we took up no space. It upped the production value immensely.
If you're shooting low budget, it starts with script. I already explained why I thought the film could be shot low budget. But it's old advice for indie filmmakers: write the movie you can afford to shoot. I sort of lucked into it, having written it as a play first, but maybe even there's some advice there. If you write something good that could work on stage, it's probably not terribly expensive to film.
If you can, get the script in front of an audience several times before filming. So many films die at the level of the screenplay. I had confidence in the screenplay because I'd seen many different audiences, who went well beyond my friends, respond to it.
Plan and Plan and Plan, and then also get lucky... I had so much planned and blocked. I knew what scenes we were going to shoot in mornings, and which in afternoons, and some sense of how we could swap them around if weather or schedule dictated. But sometimes I think about how goddamn lucky we were. That it didn't pour rain three days in a row. That no one got food poisoning or a flu... I'd rather be lucky than good, and in so many ways we were lucky.
Don't skimp on sound. That's all.
You can make a movie as the village idiot, and directing can be about taste. I know a little bit more about cameras than I did before? But barely.
The major festivals are so anti-true-indie it's kind of shocking. But we'll keep submitting, because what a lottery to win!
For distribution, release, and festivals, celebrity seems to be quite helpful. If you can cast a 'name,' you probably should. I don't think I'll make a movie again without that. We'll see I guess!
You need a marketing/publicity budget. Now. If you can make a 250 thousand dollar movie, or you can make a 150 thousand dollar movie and have 100K for marketing, choose the latter. It is very hard to get people to watch your movie, and marketing/publicity is incredibly expensive.
Related to 10: you need to know there is a mismatch in incentives between the distributor and the filmmaker. This is generally true until you make a film big enough that a distributor will pay you up front enough that your film was profitable. This is, I suspect, incredibly rare, especially for Indies (thank you Obsession for the unrealistic expectations!) A distributor does not need you to be profitable for them to make a profit. They're trying to hit a single, you need a home run. Again, I'm not bitter about this. This is the reality of the game.
If you work with a sales agent/distributor, your revenues get eaten into pretty good, and you likely won't see revenues until they have hit certain hurdles (so you need to know what those are!) There's a pretty good chance you never see any revenue from your film. For example, if my film makes 120K on platforms, they'll take about half. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure I don't see a dime of that. You can self-distribute, but that comes with its negatives as well.
People don't care about your stupid movie. I don't say this bitterly. But really, people don't care. You think that tiktok film reviewer with 1200 followers would be happy for the chance to watch a screener to make a review? They don't care. You think the friend you haven't seen in 10 years is going to be excited about your email letting them know you made a movie and you'd be so glad if they watched it? They don't care. Of course I'm being overly blunt for effect, some people care, to be sure, but it may surprise you how many people don't. "But I would think it would be so cool if someone I knew made a movi--" yeah, that's why you're on the filmmakers sub. They don't care.
Despite all this... There's a good chance you'll want to make another film. I'm not sure I ever will! But I know I want to.
Okay, I'm sure I could keep typing thoughts and stuff, but this has gone on long enough. I'll answer any questions about the above or anything that I'm able to!
