Tuesday, November 28, 2017

How I Made a Microbudget Feature Film, Part 8: Distribution

The purpose of this series is to share my experience of making my microbudget feature film, Wait, while being as transparent as possible. This series is specific to my experience only. Please do not take these posts as universal How-Tos. Also know, this series is intended to shed light on the process of making a film, not on the quality of the film itself. 

How do you know when your film has completed its festival run? As mentioned in my previous post, your film will likely get rejected from more festivals than it’s accepted to. This level of rejection could motivate you to keep submitting your film to new festivals. I have to get into one more. This is the last one. It HAS to get in here. But, at some point, you have to call it and move on.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

How I Made a Microbudget Feature Film, Part 7: Festivals

The purpose of this series is to share my experience of making my microbudget feature film, Wait, while being as transparent as possible. This series is specific to my experience only. Please do not take these posts as universal How-Tos. Also know, this series is intended to shed light on the process of making a film, not on the quality of the film itself.

You made it. It seems like a blur. But you made it. You wrote the thing, planned the thing, shot and edited the thing, and now you’re ready for people to see it. Film festivals are a tricky beast. On the outside, submitting your film to festivals seems universally positive. But once you go through it, you realize there are a lot of highs and lows to manage while your film goes on its festival run.

Monday, November 13, 2017

How I Made a Microbudget Feature Film, Part 6: Music

The purpose of this series is to share my experience of making my microbudget feature film, Wait, while being as transparent as possible. This series is specific to my experience only. Please do not take these posts as universal How-Tos. Also know, this series is intended to shed light on the process of making a film, not on the quality of the film itself. 

The right music can seriously enhance the emotion of your film. Music can be so important to a film’s DNA that it can actually function as its own character. Fellow blogger-turned-filmmaker, Nikhat, recently asked me for advice on how to acquire the rights to protected songs for movies, which I’ve outlined here below. But if you’re making a microbudget film, acquiring song rights is an option you likely can’t afford. So before I dive into that, let’s talk about a way you can get great music for a reasonable price.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

How I Made a Microbudget Feature Film, Part 5: Post-Production

The purpose of this series is to share my experience of making my microbudget feature film, Wait, while being as transparent as possible. This series is specific to my experience only. Please do not take these posts as universal How-Tos. Also know, this series is intended to shed light on the process of making a film, not on the quality of the film itself. 

You made it. You wrote the thing, you planned the thing, and you shot the thing. Now you have to creep back into the madness of your mind and put the thing together. Now you have to make your film come to life.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

How I Made a Microbudget Feature Film, Part 4: Production

The purpose of this series is to share my experience of making my microbudget feature film, Wait, while being as transparent as possible. This series is specific to my experience only. Please do not take these posts as universal How-Tos. Also know, this series is intended to shed light on the process of making a film, not on the quality of the film itself. 

In Part 3, I said that during pre-production, you spend a lot of money on a few things, and in post-production, you spend a little money on a lot of things. Spending money is a big stressor, but strangely enough, while you’re actually shooting your film, you don’t spend too much dough. But believe me, you have plenty of other things to stress about during filming.