If I were a multi-miilionaire or billionaire

roxics

roxics

Veteran
To me the biggest obstacle in indie film is not the gear or even the actors. Although good actors are key. It's not even the script, although that is the most important thing. The biggest obstacle is location.

Maybe it's just because I'm a genre and period piece fan, but indie filmmakers don't have a ton of choices. Most indie films are based on found locations and many either take place in the modern world or in the woods or desert.

If I were a multimillionaire or billionaire I would set up a couple indie film theme parks around the country. Each park would have different sets. There would be a wild west town, a medieval castle, a medieval village, a futuristic city street with some futuristic interior sets, a clean and tiddy space ship interior set, a dark and grungy spaceship interior set, a series of underground tunnels (but not actually underground) and jungle set with rope bridges and caves. Plus a sound stage that had a bunch of random things in front of a green screen, like different types of jet/plane cockpits.

Basically things that indie filmmakers on a shoestring budget would not normally have access to.

There would also be main building that featured some conference rooms for casting sessions and meetings and a few theatrical screening rooms. As well a props and costume rental department. It would literally be an indie film studio where indie filmmakers could buy time for cheap.

There would be three ways you could go about using the facilities.

1. Either pay full price by the hour to use different sets.

2. Get usage of the facilities for free or discounted by signing a deal where the studio takes a percentage of profit from the film as well as possible first distribution rights. With this option you would not be denied a discount, but would probably have to pay full price up front and get a reimbursement check or studio credit once you presented the final film. This way the studio is not giving discounts for films that never get finished.

3. The studio likes the film and trusts the filmmaker enough that they bankroll the production or part of the production including free use of the studio and possibly money to make it up front, in return for a larger profit of the film and first distribution rights.

Can you think of any other types of sets you would like to see at such a studio?
 
Great locations can no doubt give good headway into production value...

But the holy trinity of writing/directing/acting will add more to a film every time.
No exceptions.
 
Two out of 3 of your scenarios require the indie filmmaker to fork over a chunk of cash for use of the facilities. If they had that kind of cash, they wouldn't have a location problem. And how many indie movies would be out there using the exact same "locations"? That would get old too, I would think.

How about this? If you were a millionaire or billionaire, why wouldn't you just put your money into financing good indie film projects?
 
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."

Part of what wows me about a well-done indie project is what its creators have accomplished -without- recourse to the big-ass resources. The spaceship interiors in Dark Star still work, for Dark Star. Had O'Bannon et all had access to a standing professional-grade all-up Hollywood big-noise spaceship interior, it would have detracted from the fun of the film.

Give people great gobsmacking sets and I think you increase the odds that you'll wind up with a film about great gobsmacking sets. Happens all the time.
 
Sad Max said:
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."

Part of what wows me about a well-done indie project is what its creators have accomplished -without- recourse to the big-ass resources. The spaceship interiors in Dark Star still work, for Dark Star. Had O'Bannon et all had access to a standing professional-grade all-up Hollywood big-noise spaceship interior, it would have detracted from the fun of the film.

Give people great gobsmacking sets and I think you increase the odds that you'll wind up with a film about great gobsmacking sets. Happens all the time.
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Be fair though, it's not as if all creativity is taken out just because you have access to a medieval village or anything. Sometimes that's the difference between actually makiing the film and not making it. Especaily if your buget is only 5k-10k. Great locations do matter. Everything in a film matters.
 
Then you find a story to tell within the framework of what's available, to you - and within reason, what's available tends to depend upon you.

Limitations are everywhere. Think having a $100-million budget frees you? Hell, no. We've spent the last several weeks on the current project (which is in that budget range) cutting, squeezing, compacting, cheapifying or eliminating set after set and location after location, to satisfy the studio.

One never escapes limitations. So one had better learn to deal with them most effectively, right out of the gate. Sure, having-access-or-not to bigger resources may dictate the kind of film you can make. So make the best possible film, within those limitations.

Sure, great locations matter, but if the audience walks out marveling at the beauty of your locations something has gone wrong.
 
Sad Max said:
Then you find a story to tell within the framework of what's available, to you - and within reason, what's available tends to depend upon you.

Limitations are everywhere. Think having a $100-million budget frees you? Hell, no. We've spent the last several weeks on the current project (which is in that budget range) cutting, squeezing, compacting, cheapifying or eliminating set after set and location after location, to satisfy the studio.

One never escapes limitations. So one had better learn to deal with them most effectively, right out of the gate. Sure, having-access-or-not to bigger resources may dictate the kind of film you can make. So make the best possible film, within those limitations.

Sure, great locations matter, but if the audience walks out marveling at the beauty of your locations something has gone wrong.
Click to expand...

I agree completely. You'll never escape limitations. That said, if I could pay $100 or so an hour to have access to a medieval castle location for shooting a indie feature or short film at an indie film park, I would totally do it. If I needed a shot of a guy in an f16 cockpit I might be able to fake it with CGI, but it would probably look like garbage and cost me more to try and build a physical cockpit for that shot than to just rent use of such cockpit already in a sound stage. At least with such a place I could free up my writing a little by knowing I have access to stuff like that. But I would still need to be creative because there will always be limittions.
 
I think the biggest mistake independent films do is rushing things, because they think they don't have the time. But if you rush your performances, you are ruining one of the few aspects of your film on which you can compete at the same level as a bigger budget production, the acting. The best thing an independent filmmaker can do is allow themselves the time to get things right. Build that into everything you do. The goal shouldn't be to make it in the least amount of time, but the most that you can afford. Remember FAST, CHEAP, GOOD...you can't have all three.
 
Sad Max said:
. We've spent the last several weeks on the current project (which is in that budget range) cutting, squeezing, compacting, cheapifying or eliminating set after set and location after location, to satisfy the studio.
Click to expand...

Please tell me you're not getting rid of the engineering set AGAIN. (if this is the project I think it is :) )
 
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