Interested in making a movie? Well I’ve come across two Blogs of people involved in doing just that – I’m sure there are many, many more out there so feel free to post the links – one has completed the movie and is trying to get it bought by a distributor, and the other has completed rewrites and has a fascinating story on the side of Production.
The first, Everything in between, this is the Blog of two people, AS and JP who are in a patnership agreement to produce the script that AS has completed and has just nurtured through rewrites.
It certainly is an interesting read, and although it’s by no means in the scale of a major production and some of the posts show more dreams than actual achievables, it’s amazing what they are actually managing to get done. The more and more you read the more you realise the less dreams they have and the more focused they are on getting this film made.
I’m producing. Right now the film is budgeted at 1.5 million. I have only actually line itemed about 500,000 of that to date. Slowly but surely I’m filling in the gaps.
Here’s a post of a list of things to do right back at August the 26th:
1) work toward locking the script
2) read about and begin the paperwork for establishing an LLC (different state to state)
3) begin a “look book”
4) complete a partnership agreement
5) create a detailed budget (requires deciding shooting format and finishing goals)
6) create a business plan (requires determining your mission, market, and financing plan)
7) make a list of every person we believe may be able to help us in some way, any way
8) begin the ideal casting list
9) start thinking about sound: we’re listening to bands on the LA music scene
10) write key production documents: synopsis, bios, log line, character and location breakdowns
You can tell from that list that there’s already a lot of work gone in, and they aren’t playing around at this.
The latest post on Monday 20th of December (that’ll be last year) is entitled Totally and Completely Finished, and that refers to the script, so progress is slow, but they are making it.
The second blog I visited is Selling “No Place” An Indie Feature Film. It’s blurb describes itself as:
Two years ago we started making a British indie feature film called No Place. Now it’s finished. Now for the hard part, getting it sold and making back the money we invested in it. This is the day to day story of how we are doing that.
In a post on Thursday the 11th of November titled Organising the London Screening the talk of the organisation and networking is going well:
With the picture completed and Steve and I agreed about design, we are ready to organise a London screening. At the moment we’ve got at least ten distributors and half a dozen sales agents who are interested in seeing the film.
The interesting news is that we’ve been offered Dave Stewart’s (Eurythmics) new multi-media night club as a venue for the screening. They have a wonderful thirty seater cinema, a high-def projector and it’s right in the heart of Soho. It’s a perfect venue to launch the film.
In separate news, Keith, one of our cast, spent ten minutes having coffee with Quentin Tarantino at the Venice Film Festival and was telling him all about “No Place.” It’s odd how these connections are made. I don’t suppose for a second that he’ll remember the film, but it amuses me that he’s heard of us.
Again a fascinating read, and a real insight into the hard work and dedication that’s put into creating movies and breaking through the doors that are opened so easily to those we so often write about in the higher reaches of the movie business.
I think this is one of the most fascinating uses of blogging, to read about the development of something as it happens. It would be brilliant to read blogs dealing with the production of major pictures, and talking of that I found one. The blog of Grant Curtis, co-producer of Spider-Man 2, unfortunately the movie is done and dusted but the archive is still there.
Have a read of these, and keep your eye out for some more information on the other independent movie we recently wrote about, Call of Cthulu.
If you know of more blogs from movie productions, small or large, then please do post them, and if you’re involved in a movie production why don’t you think about blogging the experience, or even drop us a note to write something for you!
