"The Rest of Your Life" - my first feature

Will Clegg

Will Clegg

Veteran
Hey guys,

I'm posting this thread about my feature because we just finally released a DVD for sale after 4 long years (actually five, if you count from when I started writing).

Here are a few links:
- official website: www.therestofyourlife-movie.com
- trailer in HD (720p): http://www.vimeo.com/1215100


I wanted to give a quick overview of the process for us, and then if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer. Hopefully my mistakes (and the few good decisions) can be of benefit to one of you when you make your first feature.


- Summer of 2003: I go on a cross-country road trip by myself, photographing America and taking notes on a dictaphone for a screenplay about today's twenty-somethings. The ideas are scattered at best, and I'm not sure what will come of them. I have tried to write three feature scripts in the past, but never made it beyond page 30.

- November of 2003: I'm back in Charlotte, NC living with my parents, depressed as hell and not sure what to do with my life. I start to write about that.

- December of 2003: Screenplay is a mess but I keep going anyway, getting feedback from my close friends. One of them, TJ, challenges me to finish the script, promising to produce the film if I finish the script (he was an actor/producer in Boston for a while).

- January 2004: I surprise everyone (most of all myself) when I finish the 130 page screenplay, entitled "Don't Forget About Death." The first rewrite starts immediately. The first of twelve. We form Captain Obvious Productions and make a short film togther. Though I have made a dozen shorts in college, this is the first film project for many involved. Thankfully I find a very talented DP and we rent a DVX. Hilarity ensues.

- April 2004: I think we're on the 8th draft by now. The title is now "The Rest of Your Life" (much better), and we realize that we're not getting any big stars in this movie. But we press ahead. A prospectus comes together. A lawyer agrees to work for us on a deferred payment plan. This looks like it might actually happen. Another short film comes together, much stronger than the last. I like my DP a lot now - he's hired for the feature. Even though there is still no budget.

- May 2004: I quit my job. We cast the two lead roles. Oh my god I am actually going to make a feature how do I do this.

- June 2004: The pivotal month. We go door-to-door (literally) to the wealthiest people we know and raise $100,000. In six weeks. I am floored. As we are raising the money, we gain confidence, and we start pre-production. I find a UPM who makes everything so much easier. My DP signs on. A First AD appears. More crew materialize through these first few connections. Insurance bond completed. Location scouting. Final rewrites. Casting. Rehearsals. LLC formations. Bank accounts opened, check cards received. Camera reserved (Varicam!!). Everything is happening all at once, I am working AT LEAST 15 hours a day, every day, but I am happier than I have ever been. Did I mention that I'm not getting paid?

- July 2004: Production. We have only three weeks to shoot 115 pages. Thank god for video and a small crew. We shoot six days a week with an underpaid crew and it is HOT in July in Charlotte. Tensions rise, but mostly I can bring them down again. We fire the costume designer after 4 days because she has no idea what is happening. Her assistant is awesome and takes over. Somehow, it never rains on us, even though July is usually a very wet month in Charlotte. We only have to reshoot one scene (backfocus issue). Production ends before I even realize that it has started. I am thoroughly exhausted.

[more in the next post]
 
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- August 2004: I start capturing footage to our brand new Mac dual-G5. I think this machine is the coolest thing EVER (and it is, for another month or so). Immediately, and without reason, I dive straight into the first cut. Five days later, we are watching a 120 minute version of the film. It sucks!
I take a two week break and another editor comes in. I give him no real instructions other than "Make it better." He does. Much better. My mind gets a well-deserved break. We record some ADR, sound improves immensely.

- September 2004: Smokey (the editor) leaves for LA and I am back in the driver's seat. Now I can look at the film a little more objectively, and I start to trim.

- October 2004: The film is done (yeah, right). 108 minutes. I feel good. I submit it to every film festival ever.

- November 2004: Holy unemployment Batman! I need a job, because I have had no income for 6 months. I begin a new side career as a bartender, and it agrees with me. No responses form the festivals. I decide to go to Sundance to see how this whole festival things goes down (I have a free place to crash in SLC, so it's not too bad on my dwindling bank account).

- December 2004: We finally screen the film publicly at a Film Forum in Charlotte. Response is generally good, but I start to hear some harsh criticism for the first time. I think I am ready to hear this, but it turns out I am not. Must grow thicker skin.

- January 2005: I go to Sundance. I see an average of three films a day. I am overwhelmed. I love it, and while I am there, I meet a producer's rep who wants to rep our film. She produced the movie Pumpkin, and another film that is in Sundance this year. I am ecstatic. We sign up with her.

[more below]
 
- February, March 2005: Nothing happens. I am impatient.

- April 2005: We get in to a decent film festival!! The RiverRun Festival in Winston-Salem, NC is going to show our film and even though I know we mostly got in because many of our crew went to NC School of the Arts, I am happy! Until we get panned by the local newspaper, that is. And only 30 people show up to our screening in an auditorium that seats 600.
Thankfully, our second screening is jam-packed (only 125 seats this time). I leave feeling a lot better.

- May 2005: Charlotte is boring. I decide to move back to New York City. Hoboken is cheaper than NYC, so my decision is made. Before I leave, we plan to show the film at a local music hall and invite all of our friends and families.

- June 2005: The local screening is just awesome. Over 300 people show up, we make a few bucks to keep our production company alive, and I get a lot of good feedback, positive and negative. And then I move north.

- July 2005: We get bored with our producer's rep. She has shown us absolutely no results. We fire her in favor of another rep (a decision that still haunts me). I am bartending again, and alcohol soothes my pain when I think too much about not having sold the film yet.

- August 2005: Our new rep sets up a screening in Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival. It will be at Atom Egoyan's bar, which has a nice screening room in the back. I think this is cool, so I book a flight.

- September 2005: It turns out that this is not so cool. Nobody (I mean literally NO-ONE) shows up for the screenings arranged by the rep. She has 15 films there, and nobody but about half of the filmmakers are there. I try to make the best of it by enjoying Toronto. It is hard to make the best of it.

- October 2005: The new rep convinces me to cut the film down to 90 minutes. This is the only good thing she does for us.

- January 2006: The film is 93 minutes. But nobody knows or cares. I start to give up hope.

[more below]
 
- The rest of 2006 is a blur. I give up on the film, our rep disappears, never to be heard from again, and I am drinking way too much. I quit bartending and find a job through a temp agency. I need to hit the reset button on my career.
 
- 2007 is much better. I start working with video again, this time on my own. I stop drinking so much. I make a documentary, and I really enjoy it. I take lots of pictures. I meet a girl. Life is good.

But the feature is still not sold. I need to make something happen. I know I have not made my best effort.

So I create Herbalmedia. I know I need a company if I eventually want to be an effective freelancer and producer, and I think I can also use this company to self-distribute the film. I decide to take my time, but I keep my eye on the prize.
 
2008:

- I sell the RAID storage system that we used to edit the feature in order to raise a little capital. This is a five month ordeal, but eventually it works out.

- I remaster the DVD, and upon watching the film for the first time in a long time, I realize that it's not actually that bad. Some people will even like it. A few people will love it! But most of all, I made a #$%ing feature!!!

- I record a commentary track with my best friend (who stars in the film too). We get drunk while recording it. It is ridiculous fun.

- 1000 copies of the DVD arrive to my door. I immediately begin thinking that I have made a mistake. Oh well, too late!

- Last week, I announce to nearly everyone I know that the film is now for sale. I breathe a sigh of relief. I know that I have to keep pushing in order to spread the word, and that it is very unlikely that we'll make the original 100k back, but I know now that I have done what I can.

Obviously I have left out a lot - ask me anything and I'll fill in the blanks. Hopefully this will help somebody, someday.

-Will
 
Any chance we can see a trailer?

Also can you go a little more in depth about the door to door fundraising?

Thanks for posting, this is really interesting.
 
Hey - thanks for reading. The link for the trailer is in the first post, but I'll put it here for you too: http://www.vimeo.com/1215100

The fundraising:

We spent a LOOOOOOONG time putting together our prospectus (although the lawyer told me not to call it that, it is the easiest term - technically it is a memorandum). This was a huge binder that was essentially our business plan. It included a small write-up about our new production company and its goals, our bios and resumes, market research on the viability of independent film including a number of scenarios for return from best to worst cases, the script for the film, and a top-line budget. Even though we were novices, we showed that we had really done our diligence on the market and we were as prepared as could be reasonably expected.

It was a big binder, and we made about 30 of them. Then we talked to every filmmaker we knew for advice on how to present our case, and then we called every wealthy person we knew. Fortunately for us, 2004 was a great time to be in Charlotte - the banking industry was booming, and Bank of America and Wachovia are both headquartered in Charlotte. It was a period of relative prosperity, and we were able to capitalize on that.

We also prepared our pitch pretty carefully. It helped tremendously that we knew almost everyone who invested quite well, and it was a great advantage that we had a lot of confidence going in. Maybe it was naivete, but whatever it was, it worked.

Finally, I believe that a key to our success in fundraising was that we had a well-known NFL player as one of our first investors. My uncle is a small-time NFL agent with one big-time client, and when he signed on it really helped the momentum. We didn't have any star actors in the film, but an investor that everybody knows helps a lot. A whole lot.

I hope that helps - feel free to ask more specific questions if you have them.
 
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