Put down the Christmas cake! Set that champagne aside! Make movies! There’s no reason to delay your movie. Move from amateur to professional. Stop making excuses. Stop blagging the blag. Get off your couch and start doing something meaningful! You don’t need a film school! You’ve got the New 2024 Toolkit for Filmmakers!
1. Know your plan and make it realistic
There’s no point in telling your friends that you are going to make a film, or to tell everyone you are going to make it your way and reinvent the industry. It just ain’t that simple.Try doing what Shane Meadows did when he was starting out and make a series of short films – one a week – until you get really good. I asked him what the budget was for a short of his that we screened at Raindance Film Festival in 1997. His answer? £1.69. The main actor was mildly diabetic and was having a sugar low, and the cost of the cheese sandwich he needed was £1.69. That movie was “Where’s The Money, Ronnie”
Good business people make business plans.
Why don’t good filmmakers make business plans, too? It doesn’t need to be complicated or extreme. Just attainable. Bite-sized chunks or even chunkettes are far more sensible than signing up to an imaginary project so large and unrealistic that not even your top trust fund baby filmmaker could pull it off.
Maybe your plan is to work as an intern at a film company to learn the ropes until you feel confident enough to apply for a junior role, and then upwards.
Here’s how to get film work without any experience.
Or perhaps you make short one and two minute movies with your friends to learn the ropes as writer/director/producer. And then enter your shorts into film competitions.
I’m not bragging here, but I recently found a business plan I did a few months before the first Raindance Film Festival in 1993. To my surprise, Raindance today is pretty much how I planned it.
Have a peek and see for yourself how my plan worked out.
2. Get a screenplay and make sure it’s great
How often do we say it? “How did they get the money to make that movie?” Here are the three basic ingredients of filmmaking success: Script. Script. Script.
We spend nearly half our teaching focus at Raindance on screenplay. It is that important. Until you get a script, you are a nobody.
How do you know what to write about? Here are 8 Questions Writers Must Ask When Developing Audience Profiles.
3. Get your social media going
In this day and age, there is no excuse for not developing your own social media profile. Your blog, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube accounts are essential ingredients to filmmaking success.
Why?
It’s always been about the people that watch or read your stuff. This is how you get people to watch and read your stuff in the age of social media. Just do it.
– start with the basics
– learn how videos go viral
– lose the new media phobia
See how we do it: Raindance has the 10th largest Twitter profile of any film festival.
Follow Raindance on Twitter! Want our free weekly newsletter?
Another great way to build your lists and your audience is to comment on relevant articles. Have you commented on this article?
4. Get some money
“Only Funded Films Get Funded”
– Jon Gossier, FilmHedge
It constantly amazes me that screenwriters and filmmakers fail to understand the 5 key stages of film finance, and the role the different types of financiers play.
All filmmakers should familiarise themselves with the 5 stages of film finance. Please watch this space for more specifics on this.
- Development and Packaging — working on the script, ideal cast and maybe sending offers to the, setting a production budget
- Pre-Production — talent attachments, setting the production schedule, identifying locations, hiring production crew, setting payroll, sound-stage rental, pre-sale & distributor negotiations, getting insurance, completing the finance plan & ensuring production will be fully funded and much more.
- Production — cameras are rolling, talent is on set, production underway
- Post-Production — editing has began, any special effects, music, or sound effects are added. If any re-shoots, voice-overs, or ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) is necessary, it occurs during this period.
- Distribution — the completed production is released to the public.
“95% of filmmakers get stuck at the development stage. Literally at step one. They never get past that. This is usually because they don’t understand.”
– Jon Gossier, FilmHedge
Now that you have your excellent script and business plan, you need to get some money. But how much money? There are loads of things you can do without much money at all. Consider development money.
There are 10 ways you can finance your film. Each investor you approach will want to know what’s in it for them, and how you can de-risk their investment. The more you can learn about the flow of money and the different ways you can finance your film, the better off you will be.
You can get big tax inducements from British taxpayers who invest in your project. You don’t need to be a British taxpayer to access this money, either. Read up on the Enterprise Investment Scheme. Use the EIS risk assessment tool here.
Maybe you want to crowdfund your film. You can see how we crowdfund here.
5. Get going
Enough is enough. At some point you just need to take a deep breath and do it. You will never have enough money. You will never be totally happy with the cast and crew. You just need to take the plunge and do it. Practise makes perfect! That’s exactly what the New Year Toolkit for Filmmakers is all about!
– your basic low budget kit and crew guide
– don’t ‘cross the line’
– how film directors screw editors
6. Get submitting!
In order to create a public profile for your film, you will need a poster and a trailer.
Once you have this, you can choose to send your film to film festivals. Once you have a buzz going for your film, you can hope for a distributor to come along, or you can self distribute using your social media and internet marketing skills.
The Four Reasons You Attend Film Festivals
World’s Top Film Festivals
The ABCs of Content Marketing: A Glossary of Terms
3 Golden Rules of Salesmanship
Financing Independent Movies with VOD Sales Projections
Is Kickstarter the future for indie film distribution?
Once you’ve finished your film, it’s time to get it seen at a film festival. But what festival to choose? There are thousands around the world. Film festivals fall into 5 types or categories. To help you wade through the myriad of film festivals, here are our recommendations for the top 100 film festivals around the world.
There are 4 reasons to submit to film festivals. The main one is to get a distributor to see it and buy it. But beware of creepy people preying on naive festival newbies. Don’t fall for one of these 5 cons filmmakers fall for.
If you have made a short – here is a short film distributor list – this should save you tons of time. Read out list of the top 100 film festivals for shorts, too.
Raindance Film Festival is open for submissions until Feb 4th, 2024
7. Trouble shooting
Are you making these deadly filmmaking mistakes?
What about your screenplay? Have you forgotten the basic elements of a storytelling?
Fade Out from the New 2024 Toolkit for Filmmakers
What are you reading this for, anyway, when you could be out shooting, writing, or planning?
But wait, before you go, here are 7 things successful filmmakers eat for breakfast.
Did You Know?
- Raindance Film Festival is considered one of the top fifteen film festivals in the world?
- The Higher Education programme at Raindance Film School offers HND, BA and MA in Filmmaking and Screenwriting?
- Raindance members support indie film, and enjoy a range of member benefits
- You can call us on +44 (0) 930 3412
Photo Credit: Bertie Watson
I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out.
I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand. It started as a rebellion: film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global: Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, and Brussels, because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival.
In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education, ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties: Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems
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