Indie Film Producing

Admittedly, I flew through the first 100 pages of this book in one sitting. It's easy to read -if you're already in the film industry and worked on a number of indie projects. However, I lose my trust with an author when she doesn't check her work. As I said in the headline, there are misspellings and there's wrong word usage. In one place she refers to an audit, and then I realized she was saying "audition." That's just one example. She will use an acronym for something but wait too long to tell you what that acronym means. I think the book was rushed, and probably edited by a college freshman because they would do it for free. (No judgment, just my best guess.) She starts talking about "options," but never defines what options are. Not only that, there are a lot of assumptions made about the reader. For example, that you have friends whom you can ask for money, that you have friends who would come to a hotel and watch you give a presentation about your film knowing the point was to ask for money. Many of us don't have that and would like to know the proper avenues to finance a film. She also talks about sales agents -about "your sales agent." I'd like to know -what is this? How do I find one? Beyond that, for me as a Production Designer on independent projects, it was stressful waiting and waiting for art department to be brought up at all. I believe it is around page 107 when the Production Designer (written as Production designer -lower case) is even mentioned. The holy trinity of what's put on screen is The Director, The Director of Photography and the Production Designer. I think that every really horrible production I've ever been on probably started with someone reading this book and thinking they understood how it all works. If they've been reading this book, it's no wonder why we're asked to work 20 hours a day using all our own gear (Correction, asked to work for 12, paid for 12, but you know gd well it takes ten more hours to make everything and set up everything by morning), our own set dressing, our own paints and screws and tools and vehicles, all paid for out of our own pocket -because producers like this think so little of art that they don't even put proper money aside for it. What good is an amazing camera package if there's nothing good to shoot? The book suggests things like not paying your actors for table reads. It suggests asking all the rejected actors to come back and be extras for free. It claims they will be thrilled to come back and work for free. I love the indie spirit! But, frankly, it's insulting. Even still, do I recommend it some? I do. It's a good reminder of all the work that goes into making a movie before you even start production, and it really gets you familiar -even if it's not always spelled out for you- with the contracts and the deliverables. I appreciate it for that. Reading this, I see how it may have taken a year to come up with the money, and all the other work that was needed, work to set up an LLC, work with attorneys and so on and it gives me a lot of respect for their hard work and intentions. They may not care about what they put a community through to make their movies, but they really do care about the project. Read the book, but try to do better than she suggests. Pay artists. Think about art department funding before you begin.

Suzanne Lyons' book, Indie Film Producing: The Craft of Low-Budget Filmmaking, is probably the first book anyone new to producing a low-budget film should read. First, the book covers the fundamentals of film production in a very easy to read and understand way. Its surprisingly easy to understand despite any readers lack of knowledge of business or management. Secondly, and one of the parts I particularly like, is that Suzanne has included a chapter (chapter. #2) in which she takes readers through each month of production of her film Seance (together with her film partner, Kate Robbins.) This chapter alone is invaluable in helping readers understand how film production works (or should work.) At the end of the book, she's also included almost 10-pages of resources for indie film producers. For producers of highly-commercial low-budget independent films, I also recommend  Guerrilla Film Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to the Branding, Marketing and Promotion of Independent Films & Filmmakers ... another very helpful resource with dozens of helpful step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate branding, marketing and promotion into each stage of a films production process, create marketing, promotional and distribution campaigns and highly-effective posters, key art, teaser and trailers, IMDb listings, electronic press kits (EPKs) and many other marketing and promotional materials. Both books are highly recommended. AAA+

I heard Suzanne Lyons interviewed, so I bought her book. She is the real thing. She's been in the front lines, financing and producing Hollywood movies. She specializes, it seems, in the low to medium indie budget film. She mentions budgets of $50,000 to $500,000 and into the low millions.Let's face facts: it's more difficult than ever to sell your indie film. In this day and age, if you have a cell phone, you're a filmmaker. Technology is so darned cheap that many people are using less than $5,000 for a complete film rig, including camera, SD cards and a cheap lighting kit. That means your competition is through the roof. It's a jungle out there: a really, really crowded jungle.So raising money to make the next Star Wars or Godfather is increasingly difficult. So many people are clamoring for a finite amount of money, it makes it difficult to differentiate yourself from the rest of the crowd. What to do? Read this book!Lyons discusses how to price your financing package, how to market your film, and more importantly, yourself, who to approach, how to structure your deal and more. It's critically to be able to pass your passion along so others get excited as well; that means you have to have your pitch down COLD.One thing she emphasizes is getting a name. This means a recognizable actor, director, writer or someone that you can use to raise money. I mean if George Clooney is going to be in your film (even as a secondary character) you are going to get people excited...and dollars flowing. If you have Joe Blow, it's going to be very difficult. You might have to go the dreaded crowdfunding route.As she (and others) point out, this is the grunt work of making films. It's a hella of a lot more fun getting a great performance on set, working with all of those talented people, making split-second decisions, and so on, than it is trying to sell your vision to a bunch of skeptical people. I know, I've done it. If you can afford it, hire Ms. Lyons or her caliber of producers. If not, get this book.Highly recommended. BTW, she also teaches this material in LA, I'm sure costing hundreds of dollars (or more). That would be great! But, the book's cheaper.

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Read this book and you could be the next Robert Rodriguez.