I would describe script development as this: long, intense, often lonely part of the creative process that takes place before everyone falls in love with your script and wants to jump on board to work with you. Without that however, nothing can be produced because there is nothing to produce. The idea spark lands on…
filmmaking
If You Are New to Filmmaking …
There is one unbreakable rule of filmmaking; if you want to be a filmmaker, you must make films. You can study books, films, and videos, but if you don’t put all that knowledge into practice, you will never know what works and what doesn’t in the filmmaking process. Luckily, we live in times with easy…
Final Thoughts on Producing My Low Budget Feature Film
FILM FESTIVALS AND FRUSTRATION THAT ARE IRREVOCABLY PART OF THIS PROCESS As some of you probably know by now, film festivals are a costly part of the filmmaking business. I have submitted Anna to over 30 festivals and didn’t get accepted to even one.Yes, it was depressing, frustrating and hard to take at times. Some…
How Did the Post-Production of My Feature Film “Anna and Modern Day Slavery” Go?
MARKETING & PROMOTION At first, I tried to keep everyone who was directly involved, or who contributed to my film, in the loop with emails, tweets and FB posts. But when life demands started crowding me, I needed to focus on my main priority. At that time it was delivering the final cut. During the…
On the Set of My Micro-Budget Feature Film “Anna & Modern Day Slavery”
PRODUCTION Unforeseen forces can both help you or screw things up (the weather, conflicting schedules, etc.). For us, our biggest challenge wasn’t having one of our leading actors available for the whole shooting. Oh, and the fact that the camera we hired from Berlin(Germany) didn’t record sound was also a massive problem and a significant…
Filmmaking Isn’t Just Pointing Camera in One Direction and Recording
Many people go into the business of making videos and films, believing that pointing the camera in one direction and pressing record is the way filmmaking works. Unfortunately, this idea is hugely misleading since filmmaking is not only about pointing your camera in one direction and recording whatever happens in front of it. Of course,…
Filmmaking Is Much More Than Just the Equipment
Telling a story, developing a story, organising production, selling the finished product, finding the audience; all those elements are part of every filmmaking process. Unfortunately, nowadays it seems that quite many filmmakers have forgotten that having the newest or most expensive equipment is not the beginning, the middle, or the end of the filmmaking process. Every production…
You Made A Film What Happens Next
This is the big question; every filmmaker asks themselves during the production process. Partially, you should know who your target audience is, and who is going to watch your film, before you start the development process and invest a ton of time and energy into that project. The sooner you start thinking about your distribution…
Filmmaking Is A Collaborative Art
I believe that filmmaking is a genuinely collaborative art. Of course, as independent filmmakers, we can and often wear many hats to get our projects off the ground. Over the years, most likely than not, you have picked up a range of hands-on skills and tonnes of practical knowledge, which surely would allow you to…
Organisation Is the Key
I believe that to be working independently in the creative field one needs to be highly organised, especially when you have a part-time or sometimes even a full-time job that isn’t related to your artistic career but allows you to pay your bills. If you aren’t organised, time can easily slip through your fingers and…