"Corrado" - A production blog

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i'm a little confused now then, because i've always heard if you dont get any advance money upfront then you most likely dont get paid due to creative book-keeping and accounting by the distributors.

if the above is true and b-movies dont pay anything upfront then basically the filmmakers never get paid.

i read in another thread here on this website (forget the guy's username) but he was talking about how he sold his $20k horror movie (with no name actors) to lionsgate and made like a $10-15k profit from the advance.

so which is it?
 
It can be both... normally if you want an advance... you have to have a really good film... or really a film with known actors....

Known actors that people around the world know...
 
It's a delicate balance, you have to protect your reputation as a filmmaker; you have to document everything: your expenses, your contracts with talent and crew, the rights for the music, your investors and personal investments. You have to be reasonable in negotiating for the upfront money.

Let's say you've made your movie for $300,000 and you have a name actor in the movie. If the distributor offers you $50,000 upfront and doesn't pay you anything more for two years, you can do an audit and demand to get your share of the revenues. Your contract might say, you get 65% of the net after the distributor has recovered his advance, the marketing costs (you should cap these costs at $10,000 to $25,000 per year) and furthermore the distributor has already deducted his 35% -- you have a case for getting your movie back. However, you have to sue and it takes five years for the case to come up for trial in LA County. Plus, your reputation as a producer is that you sue. It will take you a few more years to recover from that. In my opinion it's not worth it. That's why the saying is, what you get upfront is all the money you'll ever see.

One way you can survive as a filmmaker is to make the movie for $25,000 and say you made it for $300,000; but that's not easy to pull off :-) Of course, you don't get a name actor to work for you for $5,000 so you can do this scenario. If you try, there are union problems and other problems. Bob Dylan has a line in one of his songs, if you're "outside the law you have to be honest."

The Internet might have the answer for indie filmmakers. I think indie filmmakers should form sales organizations to go into the foreign and domestic markets and sell the movie for them. Every four or five filmmakers in a region should form their own distribution arm. These companies could be by genre or simply by budget. You don't want to be in the market with a $300,000 movie when your partner is selling a no budget movie out of the same booth.
 
That's why you get a good sales agent...

They'll know who pays and who doesn't...

I might be wrong Vic... yes keep books... maybe I'm reading into this and you don't mean that... but why tell a buyer what you made your film for... like Adam's film... they'll be able to have a good idea... and they'll think Adam spent more money on his production than he did...
 
My horror film "Plasterhead" was made for $20,000. We got a sales agent, got a distributor, and did indeed get an up-front amount of cash. It was significantly more than our budget. It can be done. On the flip side, during a meeting with a distributor, they told us that they get about 20 films on their desk every day that they don't even watch because they a) didn't come through the proper channels (ie. unsolicited mail without an agent), or b) don't have an interesting press kit with artwork that caught their eye. In our case, we had both, and that's how our film ended up in Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
 
Okay I'm confused, we now have FilmBoy and FilmMan posting in the same thread - lol!

How do you get a sales agent? They come to you! I get probably a half dozen calls and e-mails per week from sales agents. If you put your movie in Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and on IMDb they will find you!
 
I read a post you mentioned Avi L's name in...

I'm not a library but I think every Indie should study his track record...

I'd do everything you can to learn what he has done to make money (if you care about it). 95% of it has been from low budget $200k-$1mil movies...

PS

Anyone wanna buy a 2007 Cadillac Escalade for $$8k? 50k miles on it, pearl white, minor (softball size) hail damage, new windshield, windows, wheels & sunroof. The interior looks like it is brand new (can't believe it:))...

Please PM me, this is the automobile for you!
 
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taormina said:
Okay I'm confused, we now have FilmBoy and FilmMan posting in the same thread - lol!

How do you get a sales agent? They come to you! I get probably a half dozen calls and e-mails per week from sales agents. If you put your movie in Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and on IMDb they will find you!
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i'm just trying to learn as much as possible so eventually i can be a FilmMan too! :) hopefully i'll be one after my first feature.

do you have a sales agent and if so how'd you go about picking one? just based on their track record?
 
ChipG said:
Anyone wanna buy a 2007 Cadillac Escalade for $$8k? 50k miles on it, pearl white, minor (softball size) hail damage, new windshield, windows, wheels & sunroof. The interior looks like it is brand new (can't believe it:))...

Please PM me, this is the automobile for you!
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is this a chop shop deal or something? :huh:

if it was a 2007 range rover i'd already have the check written, lol. :beer:
 
FilmBoy77 said:
i'm just trying to learn as much as possible so eventually i can be a FilmMan too! :) hopefully i'll be one after my first feature.

do you have a sales agent and if so how'd you go about picking one? just based on their track record?
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Yes and research... talk to people who have them and you'll find out who's good and who not...

The best way is to have a completed film... create a website and get a buzz going about your film in pre-production... do this if you have known talent in your film or not... of course sounds like I'm beating the drum... but having known talent (talent that is known here and overseas) in your film is the best way to go... for those who can't afford that... then create a buzz about your film... ie this thread... here and other places...

Have great production values... in other words it needs to look like a movie that is well lit (sorry no dogma films unless that is your market)... great sound... good actors... actors not your best friends... and good of course a good script... not talking Academy Award winning (which wouldn't hurt)... but a good script...

Again create a website that looks like the studio made it... ie Adam's site... in other words it looks like you paid someone to do it... even if you did it yourself...

Get a posting in the trades mags... and you'll have them calling you... but again... have a completed film... they'll all want to see it before hand... say sorry you can come to the screening with all the other buyers... I'll let you know the time and place... now if you want to post a well made trailer on your website... you could do that... but make it look like a trailer... which is an artform in itself...

And of course my number 1 rule... don't tell them how much you made it for... don't tell them Tom Cruise is your cousin and he owes you a big favor... so he worked for scale... well thinking about it... that's not a good example... because that would be good marketing... but what I'm saying if you got a known actor for example again who normally makes a $100k... let the buyer think you paid them that instead of the fact you only paid them $10k...

The reason why... like I told someone or posted... if you're selling your car and you put a sign on it that says $1k... and I over hear you telling your best friend I'll take $750 for it... well my first offer is going to be $675... or maybe I'll go up to $700...
 
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taormina said:
We work smarter, harder, and forsake the comforts of unionized crews, long shoot schedules, mega trailer farms, craft service every ten minuts, and fat producers walking around doing nothing.
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I definitely have to agree with this. The entertainment industry is bloated and self indulgent, gotta trim the fat and be smart and bust ass.

Herzog worked in steel factories to finance his early films... formed his own production company and worked out of his apartment for years... hard work, smarts, and tenacity are ALL YOU NEED

we as humans are always going to want good stories... we need them... so for everyone reading all these industry numbers, just stop. Remember that you are a storyteller, so get out there are start telling stories because the world wont stop for you. Nothing is going to line up perfect, in fact, sh*t will probably get worse. Use that as motivation....

sorry I'll end the rant right here.
 
hoofandmouf said:
sorry I'll end the rant right here.
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Actually its not a bad rant... : )

The odds of it happening over night or not in our favor... its work... and a lot of sweat and it takes time to learn your craft...

A friend went to a screening or it was two writers talking about how they became overnight successes with three summer movies... they both looked at each other and laughed and said they wrote their first script together 10 years ago... and had sold some scripts... but known were produced... finally a script got into production.... then they were hired to rewrite another film by the same studio... and again got another rewrite... both major rewrites that they only got screen credit...
 
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GaryinCalifornia said:
Actually its not a bad rant... : )

The odds of it happening over night or not in our favor... its work... and a lot of sweat and it takes time to learn your craft...

A friend went to a screening or it was two writers talking about how did they become overnight winners with three summer movies... they both looked at each other and laughed and said they wrote their first script together 10 years ago... and had sold some scripts... but known were produced... finally a script got into production.... then they were hired to rewrite another film by the same studio... and again got another rewrite... both major rewrites that they only got screen credit...
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It's a good rant!
 
FilmBoy77 said:
i'm just trying to learn as much as possible so eventually i can be a FilmMan too! :) hopefully i'll be one after my first feature.

do you have a sales agent and if so how'd you go about picking one? just based on their track record?
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I do not have a sale agent. I could've had many of them...

I've decided for right now as soon as Corrado is done I want to go directly to some distributors who want to see the film. If they buy it I will save myself a 10-20% commission. I may elect to go with a sales agent at some point but not right away.
 
GaryinCalifornia said:
A friend went to a screening or it was two writers talking about how did they become overnight winners with three summer movies... they both looked at each other and laughed and said they wrote their first script together 10 years ago... and had sold some scripts... but known were produced... finally a script got into production.... then they were hired to rewrite another film by the same studio... and again got another rewrite... both major rewrites that they only got screen credit...
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Sounds a little like Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, etc., and also their excellent wordplay.com website). Among other things they mention in the vast collection of great articles on their site is that they didn't submit any of their first several scripts at all. They waited something like five years before doing so - when they were confident they were ready. Even then it took quite a while longer for them to reach real success.
 
Patryk_Rebisz said:
Very interesting blog.

For those interested, if i might add, a few points that you discovered as you started shooting (that i have personally learned by DP'ing over 60 productions including 6 feature-length film). With $300k you could easily go for a bigger camera. I just shot a 400k feature with 2 Panavision Genesis and was in 7th heaven -- not only the camera is rated at 500 (as opposed to 320 of HVX before the adapter) you don't need any silly adapters. And the image is super crisp with no compression and over all need way less light then your set-up.

I think your desire to own everything slightly kicked you in the ass ultimately. Although you are right that renting on a 4 week shoot is expensive you can afford though to rent bigger lights and with bigger lights come "bigger" look. On a recent feature whenever i could i was lighting with 4k HMIs coming in through the windows and each time the G&E powered up the lights without the light even pointing in a specific direction i already was getting "something cool." From the few stills of the film i saw it has a "nice" look of what we came to expect from well lit HVX with 35mm lenses but nothing beyond that -- no edge or look which in part is because you lacked some bigger lighting units to create the punch.

That said though huge congrats on finishing the shoot!
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Wow thanks alot for this info Patryk.:) Yeah! we're one of the "Own everything, no rental type people", but you really put things into perspective for us. Thanks again.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Sounds a little like Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, etc., and also their excellent wordplay.com website). Among other things they mention in the vast collection of great articles on their site is that they didn't submit any of their first several scripts at all. They waited something like five years before doing so - when they were confident they were ready. Even then it took quite a while longer for them to reach real success.
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I think so... but not sure... sent an email to my friend...
 
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