Corrado Part II

Dear Adam,

I read with great interest your production blog on "Corrado". It is proof that the saying "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid" holds true... I learned a great deal from your blog and I thank you for sharing...

I have two questions if you don't mind me asking...Did you include the equipment you already owned when it came to declaring your budget? Also, do you recommend posting the day rate you're willing to pay when you put the call out to Breakdown express and the like?

I wish you the best of luck with RRB. You can do it.

Rich
 
Rich Poche said:
Dear Adam,

I read with great interest your production blog on "Corrado". It is proof that the saying "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid" holds true... I learned a great deal from your blog and I thank you for sharing...

I have two questions if you don't mind me asking...Did you include the equipment you already owned when it came to declaring your budget? Also, do you recommend posting the day rate you're willing to pay when you put the call out to Breakdown express and the like?

I wish you the best of luck with RRB. You can do it.

Rich
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Rich,

Thanks for the kind words!

1. Very interestingly, no. I borrowed $415K to make Corrado. This does not include my own personal investment of about $130K, about half of which was equipment.

2. It depended on what the role was. Remember that I cast most of my actors without putting out a call. I did have to cast about half of them through breakdown, and that was for mainly scale roles. On a couple I can recall, I put breakdowns out for name only people for a grand a day, and got tons of response.
 
I DID IT !!!! well, I read all the thread of Corrado I and now II in a few days .... it feels I know you since so long now :) It has been a lovely entertaining reading. I read some posts last year but then I lost the thread and now I came across the last postings but I wanted to read them all at once.
I somehow saw a "changing" Adam throughout all of them. From a very beginning on fire to a more concious and experienced toward the end. It seems you banged your head on the distribution wall which was a bit of a surprise for you. But your energy and overall approach to life is guiding you through every obstacle. You surely are an inspiration for many on every level, you DO the stuff rather then only TALKING about it. That is what makes many people so enthusiastic about your story. I read so many posts stating that, you are truly inspiring all moviemakers out there :)
You surely have the hot blood and energy of an Italian guy ! Why the name Taormina ? Are you parents from there ? Yellow/red ….. the same colors of my home city ;)
Sorry for my not perfect English.


PS
In bocca al lupo, ti seguiro' a distanza telematica ;) Magari ci si becca in Europa ;)
 
CiPO said:
I DID IT !!!! well, I read all the thread of Corrado I and now II in a few days .... it feels I know you since so long now :) It has been a lovely entertaining reading. I read some posts last year but then I lost the thread and now I came across the last postings but I wanted to read them all at once.
I somehow saw a "changing" Adam throughout all of them. From a very beginning on fire to a more concious and experienced toward the end. It seems you banged your head on the distribution wall which was a bit of a surprise for you. But your energy and overall approach to life is guiding you through every obstacle. You surely are an inspiration for many on every level, you DO the stuff rather then only TALKING about it. That is what makes many people so enthusiastic about your story. I read so many posts stating that, you are truly inspiring all moviemakers out there :)
You surely have the hot blood and energy of an Italian guy ! Why the name Taormina ? Are you parents from there ? Yellow/red ….. the same colors of my home city ;)
Sorry for my not perfect English.


PS
In bocca al lupo, ti seguiro' a distanza telematica ;) Magari ci si becca in Europa ;)
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Ciao CiPO...

Thanks very much for the kind words! My Father comes from Sicily, my mother from Calabria. I visited Taormina several times and I really liked the town, plus they have a world class festival there so it seemed like a natural. My avatar s basically just the Sicilian flag.....

Thanks for taking the time to write this!

PS: Tutto il mondo e un paese!
 
taormina said:
Rich,

Thanks for the kind words!

1. Very interestingly, no. I borrowed $415K to make Corrado. This does not include my own personal investment of about $130K, about half of which was equipment.

2. It depended on what the role was. Remember that I cast most of my actors without putting out a call. I did have to cast about half of them through breakdown, and that was for mainly scale roles. On a couple I can recall, I put breakdowns out for name only people for a grand a day, and got tons of response.
Click to expand...
Thanks for answering my questions, Adam. A few more if you have a moment :)

Did you hire a payroll company to pay your actors or did you pay them directly? I remember reading something along the lines of Sizemore's manager saying "you paid your money, he's yours..." but I can't find the thread. I'm curious if you did your own payroll or hired a company.

You mentioned that the SAG requires a bond...Is this a percentage of your proposed budget?
 
Ciao Adam,

thank you for the answer :)
Now I have a question about the distribution process. From what i read it seems really a bit of a complex money machine. As all places where there is money, you have some guys who try to control it and dictate the rules. The US system of course is of its own, it's Hollywood and in Europe we just watch it as an exotic beast :)
There was some interesting posting about selling the rights abroad, which means also in Europe using maybe a sales agent or someone representing you.
What do you think a successful mediator should have to be able to represent you in Europe and sell the rights for the EU countries ? I know it is complicated but with the today technologies maybe this game could change a bit to the benefit of the indi filmakers.
Imagine to create "something" which represents them and their films, an "Agora" where filmakers can meet local buyers on a more direct level. A sort of AFM but virtual, on Internet.
You got filmakers putting their assets on sales and pitching them (trailers, video material, proposals, you name it). Then you get a section where local (from every European country) distributors can come and check around, virtually meeting many directors and their masterworks. The Agora would be owned by the filmakers themselves through some easy sharing mechanism. You could have in place some strong mechanism to protect the assets and to ensure the buyers are legitimate (little paper work and admission fee).
You could even have a section where private investor could put their money to finance new film projects, imagine lots of small investors putting all kind of amount. The sum of which could be used potentially to finance a film, of course having some well thought revenue sharing process. All aspects should be considered to be able to give a direct bridge to indi filmakers to reach a large target audience without having to fork much money (if not nothing at all). The same filmakers could be creating the basic rules for the Agora and be able to offer many products to the finaly buyers skipping lengthy and expensive mediators.
I have some problem with the language to explain all I have in my mind but I hope it is a start to tease you and the others to express an opinion.
Think yourself what would you need to represent your movie abroad ?
CIPO
 
Rich Poche said:
Thanks for answering my questions, Adam. A few more if you have a moment :)

Did you hire a payroll company to pay your actors or did you pay them directly? I remember reading something along the lines of Sizemore's manager saying "you paid your money, he's yours..." but I can't find the thread. I'm curious if you did your own payroll or hired a company.

You mentioned that the SAG requires a bond...Is this a percentage of your proposed budget?
Click to expand...

Some actors are what's called "loan outs" This means they have their own corporations. You simply pay them the fee, and they figure out their own taxes. In fact, any recognizable actor is a loan out. Only the small ones need taxes, social security, etc. with held. For this you can use a payroll company - in my case I did it myself because I had so few actors that were not loan outs.

SAG requires a bond, and it's a percentage of the total cast budget. This number varies depending on the agreement you sign with SAG, but it is typically 20-40% of the cast budget, payable by wire or cashier's check, before filming begins. On Corrado, this number was negotiated down to about $22,000, which they returned six weeks after the shoot, in full (we had no claims and behaved, I guess!)
 
CiPO said:
Ciao Adam,

thank you for the answer :)
Now I have a question about the distribution process. From what i read it seems really a bit of a complex money machine. As all places where there is money, you have some guys who try to control it and dictate the rules. The US system of course is of its own, it's Hollywood and in Europe we just watch it as an exotic beast :)
There was some interesting posting about selling the rights abroad, which means also in Europe using maybe a sales agent or someone representing you.
What do you think a successful mediator should have to be able to represent you in Europe and sell the rights for the EU countries ? I know it is complicated but with the today technologies maybe this game could change a bit to the benefit of the indi filmakers.
Imagine to create "something" which represents them and their films, an "Agora" where filmakers can meet local buyers on a more direct level. A sort of AFM but virtual, on Internet.
You got filmakers putting their assets on sales and pitching them (trailers, video material, proposals, you name it). Then you get a section where local (from every European country) distributors can come and check around, virtually meeting many directors and their masterworks. The Agora would be owned by the filmakers themselves through some easy sharing mechanism. You could have in place some strong mechanism to protect the assets and to ensure the buyers are legitimate (little paper work and admission fee).
You could even have a section where private investor could put their money to finance new film projects, imagine lots of small investors putting all kind of amount. The sum of which could be used potentially to finance a film, of course having some well thought revenue sharing process. All aspects should be considered to be able to give a direct bridge to indi filmakers to reach a large target audience without having to fork much money (if not nothing at all). The same filmakers could be creating the basic rules for the Agora and be able to offer many products to the finaly buyers skipping lengthy and expensive mediators.
I have some problem with the language to explain all I have in my mind but I hope it is a start to tease you and the others to express an opinion.
Think yourself what would you need to represent your movie abroad ?
CIPO
Click to expand...

The problem with this idea is relationships. That's why you sign with a big sales agent - you leverage their relationships. They know people who buy films, period. This experience is culled from years of working the film markets and is invaluable.

Plus, the sales agency route itself will get old after a while. After your second and third film, you'll go set these projects up at studios and not even deal with sales agencies or territory by territory sales. It's a filmmaker's natural progression, if he does well.

I also think that selling the film yourself is a mistake. it will take far too much of your time. Time that could be spent making another film or writing one.
 
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of me making the first phone call on Corrado! It was the day I called Sizemore's agent....
 
CiPO wrote: Imagine to create "something" which represents them and their films, an Agora where filmmakers can meet local buyers on a more direct level. A sort of AFM but virtual, on Internet.
Click to expand...

This is how the AFM started in the early 80s. It has taken thirty years to build it up to this level. Too much time and money would have to be expended for indie filmmakers to develop. It's re-inventing the wheel. The AFM was meant for independents but when the studios saw how much money was being made by indie films, they took over the AFM and drove out the indie filmmakers, leaving only the genre filmmakers, whom they didn't mind cornering the market on exploitation films. This is why serious filmmakers do so poorly in the foreign market. And you're right, the Internet may be the only answer, but that remains to be realized. The problem at present is billions of websites; how's the filmmaker going to find his/her audience? How will we drive traffic to our websites selling one or two indie films or even twenty films without spending a fortune on web advertising?

CiPO wrote: You could have in place some strong mechanism to protect the assets and to ensure the buyers are legitimate (little paper work and admission fee).
Click to expand...

A big effort would be required to find all this info out. It requires an organization with attorneys and accountants to be able to monitor the buyers and distributors from abroad. Again, this is what the AFM does for its members (the fee for each member joining is $10,000.)

CiPO wrote: You could even have a section where private investors could put their money to finance new film projects, imagine lots of small investors putting all kind of amount. The sum of which could be used potentially to finance a film, of course having some well thought revenue sharing process.
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A public offering like the Silverscreen Partners? You have to have a huge stock broker like the old Merryl Lynch to float the IPO for such fundraising. Again, it would cost a fortune in accountants and SEC attorneys.

Mind you, all these are great ideas, and filmmakers like Adam have looked into all this or at least have contemplated them. What do you think Adam does when he sails the seven seas LOL.

So the model you present is a good one -- virtual distribution and studio -- but in practice it's easier just to get a sales agent or a small distributor to handle an individual film.

I have advocated (without much success) the need for indie filmmakers to take their films to the foreign markets together. However, the glitch in this is that most indie filmmakers want to make it big and especially the genre filmmakers who make movies like Corrado and ALPTD. What happens as soon as they get their films out into the market place and make a few million dollars? They go SAG and UNION even :) They get "picked up" by majors and become household names. That's where the band of the indie brotherhood falls apart.

For serious filmmakers, the only plan I see working is for those indie filmmakers who don't want to make blockbuster movies (for whatever reason) to find a sales agent who represents them, preferably a sales agent who isn't a filmmaker and never wants to be a filmmaker -- a straight businessman who is hired to handle indie films for a small group of indie filmmakers that don't want to make exploitation films of any sort -- almost impossible to find, unfortunately -- and then taking these films to the foreign markets (AFM, CANNES, Berlinale) and selling them for a commission of 5 to 7% maximum. I know, next to impossible....

But like I said, a good idea nevertheless....
 
Shoreline has forwarded me the new key art. They take my poster and my stills and create their own key art for the film markets.

I don't get approval on these posters, these are strictly for marketing purposes, but you can see where their priorities are...

I actually kind of like it.
 

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The poster isn't a super WOW image, but it's still a pretty nice poster because it works, -- it definately let's you know Sizemore is in the movie. The tough look on Tom's face and the shell casings kind of hints at what you're going to get, a known actor & lots of violence. Now all we need is to get some popcorn and a drink and it's time to lift the curtain and see the silver screen. Well done for taking a thought and making it physical.
 
SORRY Adam and others for being so long here.

filmman said:
This is how the AFM started in the early 80s. It has taken thirty years to build it up to this level. Too much time and money would have to be expended for indie filmmakers to develop. It's re-inventing the wheel.
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We don't need to go too OT in Adam's thread however it's to get the opnions from all you very experienced filmmakers :)
30 years ago there wasn't Internet, now there are probably many little sites out there trying to do something but they are usually done by "other" people and not by filmmakers.
The only power that you all have (I am not yet considering myself fully a filmmaker) is to stick together and scream loud together. The Agora should be a virtual market place where all players could meet and dedicated to the foreigner markets (from a US POV).

The AFM was meant for independents but when the studios saw how much money was being made by indie films, they took over the AFM and drove out the indie filmmakers, leaving only the genre filmmakers, whom they didn't mind cornering the market on exploitation films.
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Agora should give back the power to you, you are the one sweating and sailing 7 seas .... if we (now I put myself in otherwise I feel bad :) ) hide all behind the shadow of the majors it's not gonna work. But imagine if all filmmakers from this and other forum would start to organize it together and make it real with their owns tools, energy and contacts. Thsi Agora should be really the property of all filmmakers and not owned by external business companies only going after profits.

This is why serious filmmakers do so poorly in the foreign market. And you're right, the Internet may be the only answer, but that remains to be realized. The problem at present is billions of websites; how's the filmmaker going to find his/her audience? How will we drive traffic to our websites selling one or two indie films or even twenty films without spending a fortune on web advertising?
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The power is to be all together. Now we are talking ideally and just brainstorming. But imagine if all indie filmmakers would be part of this project and would also advertise it through their normal ways (contacts, in the film with end titles, through viral marketing). The power would be to stick together and have many films represented in the Agora where end buyers, agents, distribution companies would come to buy. They need you and they need your films which many times are very well done and cost less then the ones from the majors. There is a market for them anyway, then why not going more direct all together ?
Again it's an ideal concept, far from being exploited but maybe worth to consider.

A big effort would be required to find all this info out. It requires an organization with attorneys and accountants to be able to monitor the buyers and distributors from abroad. Again, this is what the AFM does for its members (the fee for each member joining is $10,000.)
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A joining fee for the buyers would be feasable but the key of being virtual allows you to reduce costs and keep it simple. With clear rules defined by all of you.

A public offering like the Silverscreen Partners? You have to have a huge stock broker like the old Merryl Lynch to float the IPO for such fundraising. Again, it would cost a fortune in accountants and SEC attorneys.
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We are not talking about going to the public market to rise funds. ut we give the possibility to many private investors (small and big) to put some money on folm projects and share the possible revenue. Following some mechanism that you can decide. Nothing to do with SEC, IPO and such.

I have advocated (without much success) the need for indie filmmakers to take their films to the foreign markets together. However, the glitch in this is that most indie filmmakers want to make it big and especially the genre filmmakers who make movies like Corrado and ALPTD. What happens as soon as they get their films out into the market place and make a few million dollars? They go SAG and UNION even :) They get "picked up" by majors and become household names. That's where the band of the indie brotherhood falls apart.
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Yes, Agora can live only if the indie stick with it. It's like a small town where only filmmakers live in. They come and they go but the town should not get deserted :)

But like I said, a good idea nevertheless....
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And maybe not as hard as to make a film ;)
Thx for the time in answering anyway.
 
Adam,

it's nice to see the poster coming along. It's like an official picture of your "baby" ..... as you said already it's all about name actors, right ? ;)
 
taormina said:
Shoreline has forwarded me the new key art. They take my poster and my stills and create their own key art for the film markets.

I don't get approval on these posters, these are strictly for marketing purposes, but you can see where their priorities are...

I actually kind of like it.
Click to expand...

I think it will do the job but would like to have seen a more creative poster maybe with a few more faces.

Was the marketing expenses set at a certain figure in your contract?

and are they recouped by Shoreline before any payments are made to you?

Which markets are they taking the film to? I'm in Cannes this year and I hope it's there.
 
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