As a filmmaker, making a feature takes time. You need a great team, which includes a great production crew. And you also need money. And you also need a little luck!
When I moved to Los Angeles, I had planned on making at least one movie per year. And despite the US economy and some other challenges, I am very happy about the features I have helped to produce. But as a producer, no matter how many movies you make, you always wonder when the next feature will take shape. And that can make anyone a little movie-stir-crazy!
Then one day, the pieces start to come together…
The first plan for my next movie is an idea. So over the weekend, I met with some key members of my film production crew, including my writer friend. Collectively, we have started working a rough idea into a fine-tuned movie, complete with a marketable hook and an established, niche target audience. If you're just tuning into filmmaking stuff, you'll quickly learn that starting with a defined target market in one core strategy I employ to gear us towards an eventual return on investment. (More on this in the distribution and finance articles found at Filmmaking Stuff.)
Anyway, we are getting close to finding our hook. Once we have it, we will then work on characters. Once we have the characters – and their individual objectives, we will then expand the hook into a 3 acts. We will then populate this plot with our characters. And scene by scene, we will work out ways to add something interesting into the action.
I know the system I describe may seem a bit regimented for most writer/filmmaker types. And while I agree that nobody knows nothing, by building our indie films from the marketing hook first, and the the story later (and not the other way around) we at least have the confidence that a niche market for our movie exists. (Remember, a movie marketed to everybody is nobody! So it's niche's that make you riches.)
I've received emails from a few of you asking if I would share more stuff from the trenches. So in the days, weeks and months to come, I will continually provide insight on how we are gonna take this concept from script to screen.
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