Why They Will Never Make A Movie (But You Will): 10 Steps...



If you make it past the first few paragraphs, congratulations, you might just have a chance. Already by coming to this article you have self-selected to be a part of something revolutionary. The film industry is a huge, unrelenting undulating mass of confusion; an ever moving target. As Academy Award winning screenwriter William Goldman says “Nobody knows anything”. And it’s really true. Honestly, how can an entire industry grasping for a limited amount of dollars (the annual ticket sales have hovered around 1.25 billion in the US since the nineties http://www.the-numbers.com/market/) be anything but at odds with itself. Every individual and company is competing to steal market share from everyone else and they are all inventing new ways to eek out a few more cents per sale to every filmgoer or fan.

What a bleak outlook, right? Wrong, strike while the iron is hot! There are so many doomsday predictions and nay sayers that the big hollywood studios have become nervous. They are unwilling to take chances with original content and instead push out the same generic material all the time. Yes, it does pretty well, yes it’s screwed up. But every so often there is a break-out star. Every so often a movie comes along that makes you sit up and commands you to take notice. They whisper, “Hey, watch this.” and you can’t look away. Films like Inception, Black Swan, and Paranormal Activity are special cases these days and usually start life as an independent film project before they are sold to a studio or major distributor.

But is it enough to simply wish that you come up with an idea so crazy-cool that you will be “discovered”. Well, sure, it does happen… kind of. But the actual chances of that ever happening are worse than winning the power-ball. Someone wins, but chances are it aint gonna be you. So what can you do to position yourself for success. How will you stand out and make that movie you have always dreamed of? How will you ever grab ahold of that seemingly impossible dream, the dream so foolish you almost dare not say it out loud for fear someone will hear you and laugh. “Director” “Producer” has now been replaced by the neutered “filmmaker” because it provides as avenue of escape when your seriousness and dedication is brought into question.

But don’t fear because it is perfectly rational… we just need to expel the rational and get in over our heads.

• Step 1: Like Eminem said, “Success is my only Mother F**king option, failure is not”. Understand and believe that you, as much as anyone else out there, have the capability to make a movie.

• Step 2: Formulate a plan. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. Know your goals and dreams, write them down, pin them up on the wall. Get them out of your head on physically in view so you can’t forget them.

• Step 3: Why would anyone want to watch your movie? Seriously, think about it and either come up with a viable answer or change your movie.

• Step 4: Is there a market need? Some films have a “built in audience” of people who want to see something particular.

• Step 5: Evaluate the competition. Look up other films in your genre or topic and see how well they are doing. What did they cost to make? How much did they gross?

• Step 6: MAKE THREE ACTS. Seriously, unless you are a genius (and chances are you are not) please, for the love of God, study a three act structure and write three actual acts based on a typical movie layout. (This makes your film salable and viewable.)

• Step 7: What are other movies in your genre/topic doing? No, you don’t want to be a copy cat, but you need to know your audience. They expect certain things and you need to be in tune with what they expect going into a film. You can put your stamp on it but know why you are doing things instead of just being creative.

• Step 8: Be brutal on your own work. Yes, you are your own worst critic, but I’m talking about another sickness that emerges during the filmmaking process, you make the film your baby. You can’t see anything wrong with it and anyone who points something out is just jealous. Yes you want to be careful of who you share your work with, but be open to the fact that you could be blinded by your own closeness with the project.

• Step 9: This is actually step 1 as well. Build your audience early. If you don’t know who your audience is or how to get your film to them, you’ve just wasted a lot of time, money, and possibly your best chance at success.

• Step 10: FINISH that sucker. I’ve done it, we all do. You will languish over that film until every minute detail is perfect. But the problem is, it’s never perfect. Just finish the damn thing.

• STEP 11 (Bonus Step): Make it your F.O.C.U.S. Follow One Course Until Success.

So what now? Where do you go from here? Work on that mindset. Fear is your biggest inhibitor. You may not recognize it, but I’ll bet you are scared. If you really looked at what is holding you back, it’s probably fear of failure, and embarrassment. Well who gives a crap?! Seriously, big whoop if you fail. As a famous unknown author once said (maybe your awesome grandpa) “Show me a man who has never failed, and I’ll show you a man who has never tried.”. Failure is not a defeat if we chose to continue pressing on toward the prize.


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