Archive for October, 2006

As producer and director of this feature film, I estimate that I’ll have to make about a million decisions. And, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration.

It’s amazing how many decisions you need to make. In a sense, you are running a small company for a few months, so you have all of the business decisions you need to make as if running a small company, like finances, marketing, leadership, managers, payroll, insurance, guilds, unions, schedules, milestones, tasks, budgets, personnel, taxes, investors, lawyers, accountants and finances. Did I mention finances?

Oh yeah, and we’re making a movie. So, there are all those decisions, like creative, visuals, scripts, production design, lighting, camera packages, film stock, formats, digitization, workflow, deliveries, post production, effects, CGI, locations, permissions, casting, and finances.

It’s like each area has a thousand decisions, and each one needs to be made as accurately as possible. (Anyone see “The Butterfly Effect”?)

Here’s my problem: I’m a thinker. During my corporate stint, we took these personality evaluations. There were team leaders, creatives, motivators, and workerbees. I was classified as a “monitor/evaluator”. I’m the one in a meeting who doesn’t say much, because I’m monitoring and evaluating to determine the best course of action.

I like to make decisions based on good, solid, reliable information. Then, I evaluate it and make the best possible decision. It doesn’t sound bad, unless you need to make a million decisions. If I’m not careful, the monitor/evaluator in me can extend our production schedule from 4 months to 4 years.

I quickly realized that I can’t be this way on this production as producer and director. I can’t ponder my decisions very long. I have do the best as fast as I can and then live with the consequences. I don’t see this as a bad thing, just different than what I’m used to.

I have more to say on this, but I’m trying to decide…

It’s amazing how a movie production works! It’s literally a small company, and I’m the CEO, CFO, CMO, (all other O’s), and General Manager. And with this small company, I will have to hire, manage and run this business for the length of the production (most likely about two months). We have payroll, taxes, work for hire contracts, hiring, firing, schedules, milestones, and maybe even a cubicle.

Note to self: go rent “Office Space” again.

I’m glad I have 16 years of corporate business experience. I’m familiar with org charts, managerial issues, process definitions, workflow, etc. I’m finding that a movie production is very similar. Here’s the org chart for our production.

As the director, my first three key hires are: Unit Production Manager (UPM), Production Designer (PD) and Director of Photographer (DP). I need to find a UPM who can manage most of the other team members of the production. The PD and DP are more visual and require direct management from the director.

As producer/director, I need a UPM who can manage a lot of the team hiring and management so that I can focus on the key issues like directing and bringing this show to life.

It’s interesting when you look at the differences between a Line Producer and UPM. The Line Producer is an opening credit, and it’s a role that is much more coveted than an UPM role. It’s a producer credit. The UPM credit appears at the end of the movie, but did you know that typically, the first credit you see after the movie ends is the UPM credit? Interesting.

Here’s something I found on the web about what a Line Producer does. Good stuff.

Line Producer
The Line Producer in the film and television industry is involved in the whole process of producing feature films, television and corporate videos. He works closely with the Production Coordinator and Production Manager.

Central Aspects
• Dealing with paperwork such as letters, forms and records
• Organizing or supervising other people
• Planning how work is to be carried out

Secondary Aspects
• Being involved with music, drama or dance performance
• Keeping accurate records or reports
• Making agreements through negotiating and bargaining
• Work involving teamwork and co-operation

Other Aspects
• Working under pressure
• Being away from home regularly
• Working evenings or weekends

Work Activities

The Line Producer, Production Manager and Production Coordinator work on the schedule of a production in terms of the time and days required for each stage of the production (research, rehearsal, shooting, editing, post-production). They work together in organizing/booking the crew, cast, locations, facilities required.

The Line Producer goes out on the set or shoot with the crew and his/her primary function is as a trouble-shooter on the set. The Line Producer ensures that everything required is organized and in place for the Director and the rest of the crew so that production can proceed as scheduled.

The Line Producer would be responsible for the daily expenses of the crew and getting receipts for all expenditure, and would often be responsible for determining overtime requirements. If archive footage is being used in a production, it’s the Line Producers’ job to source it or oversee whatever research is needed to source extra footage; to negotiate the use of same and to ensure that everything is returned to source after use.

The Line Producer also works on post-production and would be responsible for booking personnel required at that stage; voice-overs / narrators for example and any music that’s required, whether it’s looking after copyright regulations or organizing an original score.

The Line Producer generally negotiates legal and statutory contracts. He/she logs and transcribes interviews recorded, necessary for the edit stage and works on post-production with the Director and Editor. The Production Manager and Production Coordinator report back to the Line Producer on progress at all stages.

Of all the filmmakers I meet in this journey, there is one piece of advice that repeats like a broken record: “land a name talent for the lead.”

The only problem is that good name talent is almost always unaffordable. Even with the new Low Budget SAG agreements, good name talent is out of reach. So, you end up with a great story, great production values, even great non-SAG actors, but no distributor will give you the time of day, unless you win the lottery and land your film in Sundance or Cannes, or some big name festival.

So, what do you?

Maybe you can find a well known actor who’s interested in low-budget projects if the story is right. Or, maybe you know someone who knows someone. Or, maybe you find a distributor who likes the project, and will give you some pre-sale agreement that gives you the extra money to land name talent.

Or, you pray.

After development, we were ready to start production. But, you can’t really produce anything without any money. So, our next step was to raise the money.

There are a number of ways to raise money for a movie production.

Private Money
For first-time filmmakers, it’s always best to raise private money from private investors. That’s why you start with a low-budget feature, so you can quickly raise private money and get your film made. As your projects begin to grow in size and budget, then you can move into…

Pre-sale deals
This is where you agree to distribute with a certain company, and they promise to buy certain rights at x dollars.

Studio deals
Another option is to secure an agreement with a studio, who has much bigger channels of distribution. But, when a studio gets ahold of your project, you lose considerable control. And, it typically takes having one or two successful movies under your belt.

We are proud to announce that our project is fully funded. We have a single investor who is funding the project. So, we are a greenlight for production. Our new schedule is to do all of our pre-production in January, and start principal photography in February.

A special thanks to our an investor who is as excited about the project as we are. Thanks!

Now that we had a story, it was time to start developing it.

First, we optioned the script from Nick Turner for one year. That simply means we paid for the “option” to buy it if we found it was a story worthy of production. You pay an amount that legally holds the script for a set amount of time. The owner can’t sell it to someone else. The contract also guarantees that we can purchase it at a future date.

In August, we hired a Line Producer (Nikki Nanos) to help us breakdown the script. That’s where you go through each scene and create a little strip with information about that scene. Then, you arrange them based on shooting schedules. This is tediious and time-consuming, especially since Nick and I (Russ) kept doing rewrites while she was breaking down the script. That’s like trying to hit a moving target. (I think Nikki was about ready to hit me, but I kept moving.)

After the long and tedious process, you have your schedule in the form of a Production Board.

This step of the process was really important, because now we had a number of shooting days, and the entire schedule revolves around these shooting days. Through the production boards, we also have our locations defined and our cast members defined. It’s a very good process.