Low-Budget Hiring Bullet Points

March 31, 2015 in Crew

I'm in the midst of crewing up on catch 22 (catch22movie.com) at the moment, for which I yet again have less money than is necessary to pay the people I want to work with the rates their talent and work deserve to be compensated with. The two options I'm faced with every time I start this process are both terribly depressing; keep trying to raise money people are quite adverse to investing in a small and risk-laden film project, or move forward without enough money, begging and haggling at every turn. Both scenarios are light years away from what I'd like to be doing - but not getting my next film made is somehow even further from, so here we go.

Some important low-budget hiring bullet points, in my semi-unimportant opinion:

· You should first offer any position you are looking to hire to the individuals you've worked with in the past - that did well and played nice in their role, of course. There are many reasons for this, but the most important are that you know and can depend on how they work and, if they previously worked on another smaller project for you, you (should have) told them they'd be at the top of your rolodex going forward. It's a small community, the independent film business - keep your word or you'll be S.O.L. sooner than you think.

· Always be 100% transparent and forward with rates, and don't be apologetic about it. Tell it like it is and people will respect that, and have no room for being offended. And you similarly should not be offended if they tell you they can't pay the rent with what you have to offer and choose to pass.

· Do your homework. If you are hiring unknowns for a position, you had better scour their background. Don't take someone's job interview "representative" for face value - that's always going to be their best. Check reels, watch footage from previous productions, keeping an eye on the area of input they had on that footage. Check references, and not the ones they provide. Go through their IMDb and randomly email directors, producers, and their department heads...no one is giving you a reference they threw half the crafty table at during a spat over something not going their way.

· When you do hire someone, no matter how small the job or role, put a deal memo on paper. It protects you and the project, so anything they contribute becomes officially work for hire and property of the project shareholders, and also clearly defines all the variables that could easily lead to a spat at the crafty table - working conditions (meals, breaks, expenses, shooting day length), rates, kit and rental provisions. Don't hammer out those deal points while your precious Costco fruit snacks are whizzing by your head on a shooting day - sort it out in advance and cement it with a deal memo.

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Josh Folan is a producer, writer, director and actor with professional credits dating back to 2005, prior to which he studied finance at The Ohio State University. Filmmaking highlights since founding NYEH Entertainment in 2008 include BODY (2015 Slamdance premier, co-producer), All God’s Creatures (2011 Hoboken Int’l premier, best screenplay and actress nominations, writer/producer), it’s just One line (2012 Film Racing NYC 24 Hour Film Race finalist, writer/director/producer), and What Would Bear Do? (writer/director/producer). Also an author and contributor to the independent filmmaking blog community, he penned the low-budget indie case study Filmmaking, the Hard Way. You can follow him (@joshfolan) and NYEH (@nyehentertains) on twitter and facebook if you’d like to keep up with his coming soons.

Simple Kickstarter Arithmetic

March 22, 2015 in Crowdfunding

Kickstarter is incredible, right? I just put my widget on there with a video of myself and few friends pouring our hearts out about how important said widget is to us, and WHAZAAM - we are rockin' and rollin'. Sure, we have to send them their rewards, but that'll only cost a few bucks. Basically, this money is MINE! It's ALL MINE!!!

Incorrect.

It's going to cost you more money than you think to fulfill the rewards, unless you want to completely discredit yourself in the crowdfunding community, not to mention your own circles, by not fulfilling them earnestly. Some (maybe even many) of your backer's payments will not be able to be processed for one reason (expired credit card on file with the payment processor they never use otherwise, they actually don't have the money, etc.) or another. The Kickstarter and payment processing fees, while clearly stated up front, will still be depressing to watch as they chip away at your funding. And lastly, Kickstarter proceeds are classified as taxable income - so if you can't show expenses matching your take, you'll owe Uncle Sam.

I'd like to offer up a transparent run through a recent campaign I conducted for a narrative feature shooting in NYC in May, catch 22: based on the unwritten story by seanie sugrue, so if you haven't ever experienced it firsthand, you can vicariously live out the aforementioned depression of watching your funding dwindle throughout the process.

· The Take: The little Kickstarter line graph cruised above 100% (all the way to 132%!!!) and we are funded! Yay!!! Poppin' bottle with models, and shit. TOTAL $ LEFT FOR MY MOVIE: $13,247

· The Deadbeats: A week goes by as Amazon Payments (thank whoever your higher power is that Kickstarter ditched Amazon for Stripe on the payment processing front - they were awful) struggles to collect the money from everyone. What's this? Some of them aren't going through?!? Arrrgghhh. TOTAL $ LEFT FOR MY MOVIE: $12,595

· The Skim: Kickstarter takes 5%, Stripe (and formerly Amazon) take 3-5% depending on a number of variables they are probably making up out of thin air. TOTAL $ LEFT FOR MY MOVIE: $11,664

· The Fork-Over: I guess we have to actually procure the rewards we promised. And pay to facilitate all this stuff getting signed by the people it need be signed by. And packaging to ship them in. And pay the postage for them to get to the backer. Son of a bitch, this is way more expensive-er than I thought it would be. TOTAL $ LEFT FOR MY MOVIE: $11,204 (And we still have roughly $750 in costs remaining here)

So $11,204 left, with another $750 or so still needing to be spent. Not as rosy as it seemed at the outset, eh? $2800 is no drop in the bucket for a small film production, upwards of 20% of the funding amount, and if you don't plan accordingly you will be bummin' when these costs come due. The idea here is by no means an attempt to discourage you from crowdfunding. I'm merely trying, as always, to paint a more realistic picture of what the process will be like for those that have yet to take the ride. So budget your campaign responsibly and expect some frustration even if you are fortunate enough to hit your funding goal.

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A Better Way: A Casting Process Alternative (Part One)

March 06, 2015 in Casting, Narrative

If you've ever cast a narrative project before, I'm guessing it went something like this:

· You or your casting director sent out a tersely-worded list of character descriptions to actors/agents.

· A plethora of actor submissions came pouring in, far more than you could realistically sift through and assess the worth of.

· You picked a handful of those submissions based mostly on their resumes/pictures/video and, if you're fortunate enough to have a good casting director, recommendations of actors they are familiar with the work and appropriateness for your needs of. You emailed them small excerpts from your script to prepare in advance, having no context on their place in the story. Or, if you did make the full script available, did not provide nearly enough time for the actor to actually find time in a busy life to read it.

· These actors were scheduled for audition appointments where they were herded through a sterile studio space in five to eight minute increments, during which they were rushed through both introducing themselves as a professional human being and presenting their take on material they know little to nothing about. They either presented that take while "acting" across from an emotionless reader who could care less about giving the actor something to work with, or a casting director that is far more concerned with judging the performance of the actor than being present in the scene with them.

· The actors who best navigated a process that is NOTHING like the one the performance will ultimately be given in were then chosen for callbacks, where they came in and had to do basically the same awkward and detached thing in a room with way more people in it to stare at and critique them while they did so.

· Maybe you sat face-to-face with the top few choices and had a conversation with them, to see whether you want to spend stressful 18-hour days on set for a few weeks with the person...but probably not.

· You made your poorly-informed decisions.

If you were unable to ascertain my dislike for the above process from the negativity dripping off the words outlining it, let me clarify: it sucks. It's an atrocious way to gauge both the person and their ability to perform the role the filmmaker is hoping to cast. I have been into these rooms as an actor hundreds, maybe even into the thousands, of times - I thankfully am not keeping track. I have also sat on the other side of the table in these rooms as a filmmaker many a time, so it's not just the spiteful actor in me that feels this way...though said persona is definitely cheering on these sentiments. The audition room couldn't be less conducive to creating an environment that allows the casting decision-makers to gauge whether the actor could, and would be best suited to, play a given role in a film shoot setting.

So why is this how casting has been, and continues to be done? Because a better idea hasn't been thought of, or at least hasn't caught on, is my only guess. I meet brilliant people in this industry on a daily basis so that shocks me, but the fact remains.

Well, I have an idea. I tested it on my last feature, What Would Bear Do?, and was incredibly pleased with the process and the results. I am doing it again on my upcoming project, catch 22: based on the unwritten story by seanie sugrue, and hopefully you will at least consider putting this antiquated horse out to pasture, and changing the casting culture in our industry, on your next project.

(To be continued...)

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