I've had a pretty exciting week. My film, All You Need, was accepted to the Oscar qualifying, LA Shorts Fest, which is going on right now at the Laemmle NoHo 7. Opening night they gave the Maverick Award to Jon Favreau and he spoke about being an independent filmmaker (and also how he became the director of a little movie called "Iron Man.")
Jon (I've decided I can call him Jon because if he ever met me I am sure we would be besties) has a really inspirational story for any indy filmmaker out there. He came to LA to be an actor after working on "Rudy," but wasn't getting the opportunities that he wanted so he decided to write his own film.
LESSON #1
That is where "Swingers" came from - the desperation of an out-of-work actor. He scraped together film scraps and made this movie with his friends.
How many times have I talked about making stuff happen for yourself? You can't sit around whining that you never get any auditions and think that somehow a job is going to magically fall into your lap. Do what you can to make the stories you want to act in. PRODUCE YOUR OWN STUFF!
LESSON #2
When "Swingers" became a hit, Jon thought that his acting career was going to take off - but it didn't. Instead he started getting meetings to be a writer and a director.
Sometimes life will take you in the direction you are supposed to go, even if it's not the direction you originally planned on going. I think Jon is really happy with his life as a writer/director. Yes, he wanted to be an actor, but in doing "Swingers" he found his true calling. Plus, he gets to act sometimes too. (I kinda love his character in "Iron Man.")
LESSON #3
When Jon was looking at ways to market "Cowboys and Aliens" he decided to create viral videos. Instead of doing these himself or through Universal, he decided to ask Freddie Wong because Jon's son would watch Freddie's videos on YouTube and they impressed Jon. Freddie created this short film: Cowboys & FreddieW featuring Jon Favreau and he got to shoot on the Universal backlot.
You never know who sees what you create. It is important to maintain an online presence and to create the best things you can. Jon said, "Everyone gets a shot." You just have to be prepared when it comes. Keep working on your craft, so that when your shot comes you are at your absolute best and you don't blow it.
If you want to see my film, All You Need, screen tomorrow night at the Laemmle NoHo 7, you can purchase tickets here: Laemmle Ticketing.
Showing posts with label filmmakers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label filmmakers. Show all posts
Monday, September 10, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
So, You Filmed Your Short, Now What?
When you wrap your short film shoot, you feel so accomplished. However, that joy doesn't last long because this is when the real work starts. Especially if you are doing this uber low budget without the luxury of a fancy-pants editor.
I know what you are thinking: yeah, yeah, yeah, editing takes a long time, etc. Oh, no, before you can even dream of starting to edit your masterpiece you must label - all those days of footage (and you will soon regret all those Take 30s) every one of them must be labeled.
Okay, now that it's labeled you can start to build your movie, right? Wrong! Before that you must sync all that sound. I don't know if you've ever synced sound, but it is pretty much the most tedious job you'll ever do. You will start to want to murder the director for always yelling cut so much.
Great! Now that you've spent days prepping your footage you get to finally start editing. Yay! You are thrilled because you know all those takes you did are going to be gems. Slowly you start to piece scenes together and you realize there is no such thing as a perfect take. In this one the acting is amazing ... but the focus is soft. This one is perfectly clear, the acting is decent, but the actor has their glass in the wrong hand and it won't match the other shots. This one is 100% perfect if only your neighbor hadn't started mowing his lawn halfway through.
Don't worry because it will eventually start to come together and you'll find the shots and you will finish it. But, now you've spent weeks and weeks staring at all the footage so you know every flaw and the idea of actually watching it in front of other people will make you nauseous. But it's done - mostly. You still need to fix up the sound, add effects or a soundtrack, which if you don't know how to do yourself costs a lot of money. In my case I spent twice on sound editing than I did on the entire budget of the short to begin with.
Now you have your film that you've spent months working on. Yay for you! Okay, great, now what? Do you post it online and hope it goes viral, do you do the film festival thing and hope Harvey Weinstein sees it and wants to make you the next Matt Damon?
I chose the Film Festival route with my film, All You Need. And here is something you don't think about: film festivals are expensive. So, there is an extra couple hundred bucks not considered in the original budget. Also, how do you chose which ones to submit to? The big ones where you have a chance of getting seen by big people or the small ones that you have a shot at getting into?
I don't know the answers. I submitted to bigger ones and will see how that goes. If it doesn't go well then I guess I will try the smaller ones. I am up for any suggestions you guys have on places to submit my film to.
I know what you are thinking: yeah, yeah, yeah, editing takes a long time, etc. Oh, no, before you can even dream of starting to edit your masterpiece you must label - all those days of footage (and you will soon regret all those Take 30s) every one of them must be labeled.
Okay, now that it's labeled you can start to build your movie, right? Wrong! Before that you must sync all that sound. I don't know if you've ever synced sound, but it is pretty much the most tedious job you'll ever do. You will start to want to murder the director for always yelling cut so much.
Great! Now that you've spent days prepping your footage you get to finally start editing. Yay! You are thrilled because you know all those takes you did are going to be gems. Slowly you start to piece scenes together and you realize there is no such thing as a perfect take. In this one the acting is amazing ... but the focus is soft. This one is perfectly clear, the acting is decent, but the actor has their glass in the wrong hand and it won't match the other shots. This one is 100% perfect if only your neighbor hadn't started mowing his lawn halfway through.
Don't worry because it will eventually start to come together and you'll find the shots and you will finish it. But, now you've spent weeks and weeks staring at all the footage so you know every flaw and the idea of actually watching it in front of other people will make you nauseous. But it's done - mostly. You still need to fix up the sound, add effects or a soundtrack, which if you don't know how to do yourself costs a lot of money. In my case I spent twice on sound editing than I did on the entire budget of the short to begin with.
Now you have your film that you've spent months working on. Yay for you! Okay, great, now what? Do you post it online and hope it goes viral, do you do the film festival thing and hope Harvey Weinstein sees it and wants to make you the next Matt Damon?
I chose the Film Festival route with my film, All You Need. And here is something you don't think about: film festivals are expensive. So, there is an extra couple hundred bucks not considered in the original budget. Also, how do you chose which ones to submit to? The big ones where you have a chance of getting seen by big people or the small ones that you have a shot at getting into?
I don't know the answers. I submitted to bigger ones and will see how that goes. If it doesn't go well then I guess I will try the smaller ones. I am up for any suggestions you guys have on places to submit my film to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)