Corrado Part II

Yeah I really love this thread, and Adams' really giving some great tips for folks - very pragmatic down to earth advice here. I mean my own story and feature might provide you an interesting alternative depending on its success haha, theres no name actors among the cast, its a disaster based film, though it has a quirky production method incorporating conventional narrative drama with mulitiple web contributions from actors around the world etc. Its a film that is well - trying to artistic first i suppose you could say, but still intends to be commercially pleasant for its investors.

(www.whiteoutthemovie.co.uk)

Having a road map to some success for those aspiring to produce films beyond overt genre, is important too. Often the advice over this side of the pond, is to utilise genre for incorporating clever and innovative ideas - ala storytelling. I've found that to be the case among the most hardcore fans of particular genres too. They want the expectations of the genre, but cynical superficial delivery fails to meet there expectations (on the other side of the coin, the hardcore genre fans also represent a smaller slice of the pie) But how much pie do you need to survive hehe (tag line probably for American Pie XII
 
Really great quote that applies to this thread, and filmmaking in general. File under: How can I get my movie off the grouns?

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." - Charles R. Swindoll
 
FilmBoy77 said:
I went to the AFM in 2009 .
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I went in 2008 and HATED IT...but learned a lot. Met with Stacy Parks and enjoyed our discussions and I made a deal for a friend's movie and hooked up with Kely McClung there and started helping him with Kerberos shortly after (just to add a little spark so he could finish it off). Plus, completely unrelated, sold Immigration Tango that week which became my first theatrical release. So a lot of good stuff came out of my AFM 2008 experience but I have to say that it was really frustrating too. I'm generally positive but that experience shook me a little at the time. Luckily I'm a stubborn SOB and used it as fuel to "get 'er done" (hopefully Ted doesn't have trouble with that phrase :) ) and "buck" the odds.

I wasn't talented enough to pre-sell anything.

-Martin
 
Martay said:
I went in 2008 and HATED IT...but learned a lot. Met with Stacy Parks and enjoyed our discussions
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I didn't know about Stacey back then, but I met some cool people and learned a little bit. I saw a whole lot of filmmakers in those expensive suits twiddling their thumbs and hoping a buyer or ANYBODY would come check out their films. I felt bad for a lot of them. Some of those suites were so far tucked away there's now way anybody of importance would find it unless they had a meeting setup in advanced -- which the website stresses.

I have a cousin who's an actor out there, he had a script, told someone working at a distribution company that he had the interest of Denzel Washington and access to $20 million dollars. What he had was some letter of intent from Denzel's people and the whole $20 million dollar access thing was such a stretch from the way he explained it to me that it was almost laughable....BUT low and behold, next thing I know, he sent me a text while I was in one meeting saying he was in the blue room (whatever room it was where you had to have a buyer's pass) meeting with some distributors and they were discussing his script(s). He pitched, they liked two of his three ideas, passed his script around the company the next week and gave him a call telling him they all liked his script and the ball's now in his court. He was screwed because he told them he had access to that money thinking that if he could get the distributors on board then he could go back to Denzel (who's salary alone would probably be the entire budget so not sure why he used that) and say he had distribution already setup.

Going back to what Adam said a few posts back...seems like he should've left out the part about Denzel and the $20 million and got someone more realistic and tried to get them to "paper the deal" from there.
 
Martay said:
Luckily I'm a stubborn SOB and used it as fuel to "get 'er done" (hopefully Ted doesn't have trouble with that phrase :)
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Welp, less see here now... I reckon that "git 'er dun" thang's about sum kinda sex initeria--initiala---however the hell ya spel that...anyways, like when ya git a girl to, like...be with a man the first time...ya know?

An whuts that SOB thang about? You been doin' a buncha cryin' boy?

Shee-hut...
 
bosindy said:
Hi Adam,

I have a couple of questions I hope you can answer.

1) I haven't been to AFM, you pre-sold H14, what kind of distributors did you deal with? territories, kind of deals etc.?

2) you mentioned you bring a package deal, 1 sheet, poster etc ... at what point do people that do deals on pre-sales want to see a script?

3) At what point did you actually get money from the disty's for production? (what was essential to have in place)

4) How did you leverage the pre-sales to fund the gap between the < 1.4M when Cuba didn't work out and the final total budget of 3.5M?

5) were there any issues in getting a completion bond given your experience with Corrado and was it required for the presales?

thanks
Jim
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1. Some studios, some foreign distributors. Can't really get into specifics.

2. A poster with a synopsis on the back in 8 1/2 x 11 (otherwise known as a 1 sheet) is enough to get the discussion started. They will ask to see a script if there is further interest. Some will not ever ask to see a script - they will buy off the poster- especially if your film is in a definable genre with a good cast.

3. As with all distro deals, you usually get a small amount down on the first day of principal, with the rest due on delivery. You finance the paper for the rest.

4. That part is still classified.

5. No issues getting a bond. All films stand alone and are judged on their individual merits. Yes, a bond is required every time you finance something.
 
interesting, thank you.

2 more for now if you have a minute.

As far as attaching marketable talent, I remember you using IMDB Starmeter and looked for talent under a certain number. what are you using now to judge if talent will sell?

Are there any costs in making your last two films that you did not anticipate and weren't adequately represented in the budgets that you can share as cautionary tales?

thanks again.
 
bosindy said:
interesting, thank you.

2 more for now if you have a minute.

As far as attaching marketable talent, I remember you using IMDB Starmeter and looked for talent under a certain number. what are you using now to judge if talent will sell?

Are there any costs in making your last two films that you did not anticipate and weren't adequately represented in the budgets that you can share as cautionary tales?

thanks again.
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1. No, starmeter is not really accurate. The thing to do now is either talk with your distributor, or look at their past releases and see who's in them. It's the same group of actors for each show, usually. There's a pool of a hundred or so marketable, bankable, and achievable names out there.

2. H14 - no. The production company that did that show were pros. Everything on time and on budget. No fires. Corrado can't be commented on because it was not a real budget. I did like 5 jobs, jobs I should not have been doing. It was FAR from a full budget so yes, lots lacking there.

To be honest once a seasoned line producer draws up your budget, you should have nothing to fear if you make your days. A little contingency will also account for any emergencies, of which small ones are relatively common on set (broken or malfunctioning piece of equipment, minor injury causing delay, minor location issues, adverse weather, etc.).
 
taormina said:
2. A poster with a synopsis on the back in 8 1/2 x 11 (otherwise known as a 1 sheet) is enough to get the discussion started. They will ask to see a script if there is further interest. Some will not ever ask to see a script - they will buy off the poster- especially if your film is in a definable genre with a good cast.

5. No issues getting a bond. All films stand alone and are judged on their individual merits. Yes, a bond is required every time you finance something.
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How can you put together a good poster if you have no stars attached? Or did you steal a stock photo of Cuba Gooding and get a photoshop guru to work that into your poster? Is that okay to do posters with stars who arent signed on?

And on the bond, I heard you can't get a completion bond on anything less than $2mil. So lets back up, this whole going-to-AFM strategy you've laid out is only for $2mil and above?
 
yea i'd like to know that too...outside of obvious actors taking $10 mill a pic or opening for studio films every year, seems like bankable actors on the $2M to $3M level are whoever the distributors consider bankable which is hard to know.
 
There's a book that gets re-publshed pretty frequently that attempts to keep up with this, by A-List, sub A-List, B-List, etc. I can't remember the title. I believe it's pretty well respected in the industry.
 
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