What is a fan film?

http://fancinematoday.wordpress.com/

Fan Films are films that work off someone else's created content. I would suggest a true fan film, is one that does not spoof or act as a parody, but rather is a love of the content, and the film is an extension of that. It uses the same world and perhaps the same characters, but it’s not a remake.

They are generally not full length in time or scope as well - as they are not meant to be viewed as a feature, but more of a "side story"; with the goal of being a homage to the creator of the original content. 

A parody is generally something that runs along the same story, but creates a funny take on it. These are expected to be cheesy and pokes fun at the content directly.

Why make a fan film?

There are many reasons to make a fan film. If you are an aspiring filmmaker, but do not have much of a story yourself – it’s a great way to dive into an all ready known world, like Middle Earth, which helps you establish certain rules. It is also very easy to garner a strong fan base for the content, as someone has all ready done that for you. You just need to tap into them. Many times, if they are well done, they will really make the rounds.

The main reason I like this, as indie filmmakers struggle with building a fan base. This allows you to do that.

A big note. You must proceed with caution in developing a fan film. As this is not yours! You might make an original story off of something established, but you are riding on the success of the film (or comic, or book) you love, such as from Tolkien. And in doing this, those people that do have the legal rights to create the content, could, and sometimes do, take issue with you making a fan film. If it’s just a few friends in your back yard, it’s probably not that big of a deal, but the more professional it becomes the more it will get on their RADAR. Regardless – there are legal issues with fan films.

It does not matter if you do not plan on showing this to make money. This does not negate your responsibility to seek permission for what you are doing. Many times, they won’t mind you doing a fan film, but will simply give you a few things you will have to agree to.

What makes a good fan film?

Exactly what makes a great film! The story, the production value, and then how close can you get to the original content. So your props/wardrobe needs to be superb. Then your acting will speak volumes.

Some great Lord of the Rings fan films are: Halifirien, The Peril to the Shire, TheHunt for Gollum, and Born of Hope.

Our film however, “The Fellows Hip: Rise of the Gamers”, is for fans, but not a fan film. It's commercial in nature with the goal being an ROI.

You can find some other great fan films at: http://www.fanfilms.net/

(another good resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_film)

What’s a great one you’ve seen? Post below.

DVDs have arrived!

Want to know what a 1,000 DVDs look like?
DVD Video

Is piracy really a big deal?

http://my.spill.com/photo/movie-piracy

We've had people tell us to offer our movie for free and then ask for people to give (financially) as they see fit... really, that's a business model? It might be, but not one where you could stay in business for long or make more films. It might work once as a stunt, but it’s no way to do business. Part of the thinking was that people will pirate your film anyway, so give them the content so you can have some form of control over it. But is that really control? It’s seems like letting the pirates take over your ship. You’re still captain, but you’re locked in the brig.

I believe piracy is a huge deal and greatly impacts the film industry, especially the indies. I know the numbers are hard to find for an exact amount (financially) of the impact. Piracy isn’t good for anyone, but larger film companies can rebound from piracy and have more recourse and resources to fight piracy than small indie companies fighting to survive.

There are entire countries that do nothing to control entertainment piracy. You can walk the streets and order pirated movies, knowing they are pirated, and no one cares--it’s a way of life--and that’s a problem. Just talk to any deployed vet, or anyone that has visited China, Russia, Korea, Indonesia or heck even New York City. Just ask your friends. I would guess 3 out of 5 of my friends have pirated a movie, or supported pirating in some way, most innocently. They've downloaded a film at some point for "free." Or they've made copies for their friends after they themselves have paid for the film. All of this is “illegal,” really, and not good. 

If people say indies must compete with the studios, but then take away our chance for profit, how can we compete? With such a high risk investment already and a business model that offers your film for free and hopes for donations, as suggested, investors will flee in mass. Investors are hard enough to find in the first place, and almost every one I've spoken with has brought up piracy. So, I'm not concerned about piracy because of being stingy; it’s a concern of being able do business in the right way. My investors trust me and I need to do all I can to see they are protected.  No doubt the landscape is changing, and we have to adjust. But, chalking piracy up to "not that big of a deal" and giving up the ship to the pirates is not the way we should choose.

Now, what can be done? I'm not too sure. I know the studios are the driving force in this effort to combat piracy. I also know that local police departments and federal agencies are not going to do much unless it's so obvious and easy for them to handle. But the bottom line is still that it’s illegal. It may be a more socially acceptable crime, but it is more than civil. I don't think we lock someone up and throw away the key; that would be cruel. But giving them a fine and putting them on probation would be appropriate; and, more importantly, brining down the larger illegal entities that are the real pirates behind piracy. Shutting down the piracy sites. Put pressure on countries politically. It's a global issue with no easy resolution.

Piracy is a big problem, especially the more time goes by without anything being done about it, the more it's going to be acceptable and the more it will hurt us all. I'm in the filmmaking business, not some fashionable hobby. I also believe piracy is criminal and needs to be dealt with. This is not a victimless crime--filmmakers, film investors, and ultimately, film viewers are affected. See an indie film you like; it could be the last film by that indie company because of piracy.

More education on piracy is needed to help those who are innocently participating in it. But, to the ones who are sustaining it, shut them down.

If you enjoy a film, the worse thing you can do is not support it--or ask the filmmakers to put it out for free. I could be the end of the indie filmmaker.

This is just my two cents. What do you think?

  

Looking for some anti-piracy assistance? http://www.muso.com/home/

Copyright: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ40.pdf

Report piracy: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx  and http://www.iprcenter.gov/

Film Distribution - Times are a Changing

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-distribution.htm 

In the film industry, the world of the free internet is causing some challenges for filmmakers. I had someone tell me an option to get our film out there was to post it for
free online and then ask for donations. They shared an example of how one film did this and had over 1 million views and raised $10,000. Now that is a lot of money, unless the film cost you much more than that! How is this success? You spend $100,000 to make a film, but it’s all right to only get a $10,000 return? In any other business, including studio-made films, that would be failure!


As consumers we want what we want, when we want it and how we want it. But, filmmaking is a business first. If filmmakers cannot get a return on their film to go back to their investors, it will be a short-lived career. High-quality films are just too expensive to make and involve the livelihood of too many people to be able to sustain doing them at a loss. If you love a product, the worst thing you can do is get it for free. You should support your favorite film, by supporting it with your purchase of a ticket, DVD or a paid
download. It’s your “vote” of confidence that you’d like to see other films like it or by this filmmaker.

The market is now flooded with free content, and most of it looks free. This muddies the water for people trying to make it as a filmmaker, even an indie one. Indie doesn’t mean free, and we should protect it from that.

I actually had a filmmaker tell me I should be willing to sleep in my car, go to the bathroom in a bag and eat what I can just to get my film out there. I have no issue with hard work and sacrifice—and our team has put in its fair share—but it has to be balanced with sanity. What other industry would encourage that as a true, viable business or career option?

But, things are changing. No longer does the filmmaker have to take a deal where they never see a dime from some unknown “distributor.” We’ve been exploring many options, and here are some of the ones we are considering that actually pass some revenue on to you:

www.ATOM.com
www.BABELGUM.com
www.CREATESPACE.com
www.FILMANNEX.com
www.JOINFILMBABY.com
www.HUNGRYFLIX.com
www.INDIEFLIX.com
www.JAMAN.com
www.NETFLIX.com/SUBMITFILM
www.SNAGFILMS.com

Before you go free, check them out. You owe it to yourself, the people who supported you financially and to the indie film industry.

Let us know what others you are aware of. And, for everyone else, get out there and support indie filmmakers!

Express Your Indie ~

Money for Films: Should I Try Crowd Funding?

Crowd funding is defined as “the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.”

This new funding source has created some businesses to try and help you meet that goal. The two most popular are: 1) IndieGoGo and 2) Kickstarter.

They both will charge a fee for doing this. IndieGoGo will allow you to be funded regardless of whether you hit your goal or not in the allotted time. If you do not make your goal, you simply pay a higher premium. With Kickstarter, it’s an all or nothing deal. If you don’t make your goal, you simply do not get funded.

For the indie filmmaker, many see this as a great way to get started. I have a few thoughts on the issue, having gone through this ourselves recently. We chose to go with IndieGoGo

1. You need to recognize you are simply going to be tapping your own personal resources. There are not thousands of people waiting in the wings to find your project and fund it. You will find a few new people, but the majority of funds will come from your own personal network of family and friends. And if they've all ready been tapped for resources, it’s somewhat hard to ask them to dig deep again.

2. Filmmakers need to STOP asking for the entire budget. I've seen one guy asking for $90,000 on Kickstarter. This is a crazy amount of money to be asking for through crowd funding. I don’t believe you’re likely going to raise these funds this way. Money at that level would have to come from a true angel investment campaign, which is very different. Crowd funders are not investors! They are giving you the money for whatever little incentives you might offer. Generally, true investors who invest significant money will want some agreed upon investment return and time-frame for the risk they are taking. Depending on the level of an “investors” investment, you also may possibly violate some SEC regulations. Now, someone will always have some exception to the rule—I get it. But, you need to stop and set realistic and obtainable expectations. You need to ask yourself, what it might mean if we don’t raise the funds. It’s great when you do, but it broadcast “failure” if you don’t. (FYI, the filmmaker only had $10 donated of the $90,000. I was not inclined to give, as I knew there was no way he was going to meet his goal through crowd funding).

Now, maybe that’s the point: as with Kickstarter, your go/no go is based upon you reaching a hard to obtain goal. But, you need to be ready for what failure might mean.

What crowd funding can be good for is a specific piece of the puzzle, such as seed money or having it go towards a specific budget item. Our crowd funding was for a campaign to help us market our film, www.TheFellowsHipMovie.com, properly. We were successful. We couldn't, and did not, raise the entire budget through crowd funding.

3. Don’t expect help from the service to advertise for you. They have so many projects that they only assist in advertising a select few. And, from our experience, I’m not sure the method to their madness. From time to time, an idea is so good it starts to catch on like a brushfire and gets well over funded. That’s what we all would like, but it’s the exception to the rule, not the norm.

Crowd funding has its place, but keep your goals realistic and achievable—and fair to you and your funders.

Now go and Express your Indie!

Filmmaking Crews are a TEAM sport!

Filmmaking is one of the few industries where the professional knows they need a fleet behind them, but the independents believe they can do it all on their own.

I’m not saying that one person cannot do a lot in the independent filmmaking world, but why would you? You cannot be an expert at everything. It’s true that very technical people can carry a lot of the load, but trying to carry the full load can drag you, and your project, under.

Right where you are, there are tons of people who are waiting for someone to step up and get something going. Just run an ad in CraigsList, and see the response you get.

Here’s my two cents. Get a team behind you. At minimum you are going to need:

1. Writer – If you are technical, usually you are not the best person to come up with the storyline. Don’t take this negatively; think of it as streamlining your craft. It’s better to be great at a few things than good at a lot.

2. Producer – This person has to be great with people. News flash – without the producer, there will be no filmmaking. Many filmmakers try and be it all. A producer can bring in funds, make introductions, recruit a great team, and then help manage that team. This person also needs to keep his eye on marketing, and how you plan on getting your film out there. If you make a great film but no one knows about it, who cares?

3. Technical – I would say this is about 90% of indie filmmakers out there today. They are the crew for production, usually as the Director/DP, and then they take on the entire post-production process as well. Meaning they film the movie, then they edit it, they do the VFX, sound design, etc. While you need others production and post-production, you should consider the following:

o Sound – Get someone to take great production sound, and to assist you with post-production sound design.

o VFX – The better your visuals, the higher the production value.

o Gaffer – Find that right person to make sure your lighting is correct. Outdoors they are not crucial, but indoors they are invaluable.

4. Score – There are way too many great musicians out there, not to be taking full advantage of what value they add to your team.

5. Actors – The world is full of wanna-be actors waiting for their chance. Give it to them!

Filmmaking is a team effort. And there are many people out there who want to say they worked on a film at least once in their lifetime. The more professional you treat your project, the more others will respond in kind.

Best of luck and keep us posted how your filmmaking adventures go! Until then – Express Your Indie!!

Help on a film: the Intern

Oh the infamous intern/free labor…or is it? Most don’t even know that if you are a for profit company, then a true intern must be paid or you are in violation of the Labor Laws. Ouch. Trust me I know. This is not 100% true, but in most cases it is.
I know if you are doing a feature and using the latest RED camera, who wouldn’t want to jump in and help. I mean look at all the new graduates coming in to the workforce with no true skills. Plus, it’s FREE labor to you. But, that is actually not the case, and the Labor Department is starting to crack down, so be forewarned. And if you do want to use unpaid interns, you have to check off these six items: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pdf
Just a few to highlight: the intern must be given adequate training to equal that of a school; the intern can not just take over someone else’s job who would be paid to do it; and you can’t take advantage of them, meaning you truly want to help the young intern get some real experience so he can eventually get paid for this type of work.
So, imagine, you can’t just have an intern as your boom op, because he would have to not be replacing someone who would/could get paid for that role. So you have to have a boom op. If you want the intern to get some experience, then the paid boom op must stand aside-still getting paid himself-and help the intern learn the ropes. You can’t just send the intern for coffee or errands, because that would be a PA job, not getting experience as a boom op. They must be “learning the trade.” It does actually make sense, if you stop and think about it.
Having interns can be a great opportunity for you and them. But, I think, sometimes what we’re truly looking for is a “volunteer.” We had several volunteers on our film.

Another really good article:
http://laborlaw.typepad.com/labor_and_employment_law_/2007/11/unpaid-internsh.html.