An issue-oriented brief 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 short movie with a socially appropriate style. This is substantial as it is MUCH easier to get contributions of time, devices and supplies when there is a "source" behind the movie.
In the mid 90's I was able to get a 12 minute 35mm movie produced for under a thousand dollars, an absolutely unusual amount. Catering, places, film stock and processing, misc supplies, devices - virtually every little thing was covered with generous contributions due to the fact that the film had 2 major social problems as the primary styles - child abuse and it's resultant connection to substance abuse later in life.
The approach? Go through production directory sites and cold call till you cannot talk any longer. A typical pitch went like this: "we're dealing with a movie that handles some appealing intense social problems and we're wondering if there's somebody we can speak to about making a contribution of ..." It takes a great deal of calls, however it works.
Getting contributions is in one sense rather easy as many manufacturing business want to contribute. The difficulty that originates from this option to brief movie financing is in the additional sychronisation efforts needed, for you'll need to adapt your schedule to the contributors. An example of this is that we had to cancel a film shoot two weekends in a row since the 35mm camera that was being donated to us became not available as it was booked out on a paid shoot (a reality that needs to be accepted taking this approach). However as quickly as the rental business's schedule cleared up, the camera was ours and we were able to shoot, conserving hundreds of dollars in rental fees.
Another problem with taking this course is manufacturer coordination. It's much better if you have a distinct manufacturer working on getting contributions as it's a full time job in and of itself. It's best to have one manufacturer to manage shooting logistics and an additional to manage contributions. In the end, while our group had the ability to accomplish a lot with hardly any funds, the movie suffered due to the fact that the director/producer (myself) was overworked with handling logistics and had less time to spend on imaginative shots, acting, etc. Having a distinct manufacturer to manage donations will fix that trouble!
In the mid 90's I was able to get a 12 minute 35mm movie produced for under a thousand dollars, an absolutely unusual amount. Catering, places, film stock and processing, misc supplies, devices - virtually every little thing was covered with generous contributions due to the fact that the film had 2 major social problems as the primary styles - child abuse and it's resultant connection to substance abuse later in life.
The approach? Go through production directory sites and cold call till you cannot talk any longer. A typical pitch went like this: "we're dealing with a movie that handles some appealing intense social problems and we're wondering if there's somebody we can speak to about making a contribution of ..." It takes a great deal of calls, however it works.
Getting contributions is in one sense rather easy as many manufacturing business want to contribute. The difficulty that originates from this option to brief movie financing is in the additional sychronisation efforts needed, for you'll need to adapt your schedule to the contributors. An example of this is that we had to cancel a film shoot two weekends in a row since the 35mm camera that was being donated to us became not available as it was booked out on a paid shoot (a reality that needs to be accepted taking this approach). However as quickly as the rental business's schedule cleared up, the camera was ours and we were able to shoot, conserving hundreds of dollars in rental fees.
Another problem with taking this course is manufacturer coordination. It's much better if you have a distinct manufacturer working on getting contributions as it's a full time job in and of itself. It's best to have one manufacturer to manage shooting logistics and an additional to manage contributions. In the end, while our group had the ability to accomplish a lot with hardly any funds, the movie suffered due to the fact that the director/producer (myself) was overworked with handling logistics and had less time to spend on imaginative shots, acting, etc. Having a distinct manufacturer to manage donations will fix that trouble!
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