Looking for a film director based on my novel idea.

Hi,



My name is Ben and i am the author of several novels. One of my book got an excellent reading book reviews
from a big book review website. I had to pay for that. Looking for a movie director for based on my novel idea. The first goal is to make a movie and entering into festivals late this year. The second goal is to sell the movie to Netflix after Media coverage of the festival. Did you know Netflix buying movies from such festivals.

Movie FX artist : will get paid.

Film Crew : will get paid

The movie director : 0 $ - He gets fame and then a percentage of the film's sales.

A cast members : 0$ - They gets fame and then a percentage of the film's sales.

The author : 0 $ - He gets fame and then a percentage of the film's sales.


 

Attachments

  • Vibration.pdf
    482.4 KB · Views: 201
Hi,



My name is Ben and i am the author of several novels. One of my book got an excellent reading book reviews
from a big book review website. I had to pay for that. Looking for a movie director for based on my novel idea. The first goal is to make a movie and entering into festivals late this year. The second goal is to sell the movie to Netflix after Media coverage of the festival. Did you know Netflix buying movies from such festivals.

Movie FX artist : will get paid.

Film Crew : will get paid

The movie director : 0 $ - He gets fame and then a percentage of the film's sales.

A cast members : 0$ - They gets fame and then a percentage of the film's sales.

The author : 0 $ - He gets fame and then a percentage of the film's sales.
Hmm, that sounds a bit ambitious to expect all those people to work for free and instead basing their pay on end sales revenue. And what about the screenwriter? You seem to have omitted a rather important part of the production.

A novel is not a screenplay and for all of the above to happen, that is the first thing you need. You could write it yourself of course, but just because you know how to write novels, it does not mean you know how to write a good screenplay (I'm guessing here, but the omission of mentioning a script leads me to think you don't have one and/or haven't considered it). Think that needs to be your first port of call with this project.

Your timescales also seem a bit unrealistic. From the stage you are at now, getting a produced movie into festivals for this year is a hard ask. Just my opinion.

Best of luck though, hope you get to realise your dream of seeing your story produced.
 
I have to agree with @Jkds - expecting all of these people to work for free is a huge ask.
And as someone who has written & produced two low budget indie features - both of which I'm very proud of - I assure you that someone getting famous from them is a long shot.

And yes, start with a screenplay. Are you going to write it yourself?
 
aspiring actor is ready always to audition for the first movie role and for free and hope they will find their way to Hollywood. For the screenwriter I will find one. mlesemann do you want to do it with me?
 
I know to keep two main actors ( Sara and James ) for two months without income is insane. 500 $ for both of them is good to keep them focus on the production. Yea I don’t expect them having jobs but unemployed.
 
aspiring actor is ready always to audition for the first movie role and for free and hope they will find their way to Hollywood. For the screenwriter I will find one. mlesemann do you want to do it with me?
People don't work for free based on promises of whether the project is successful or not. Not trying to burst your bubble here, but I think you need to manage your expectations.

If you aren't planning to write the screenplay yourself, that needs to be the first thing you pay out for. People don't write scripts for nothing, regardless of how good your story is.

And what comes after, needs finance BEFORE production. Your plan seems to be lacking on that front. I'm no expert on this, just telling it how I see. @mlesemann, @directorik and @Unknown Screenwriter are the experts here I think.
 
aspiring actor is ready always to audition for the first movie role and for free and hope they will find their way to Hollywood.

Not to be “that guy” (okay... I’m going to be “that guy”), but this kind of statement reads as admitting that you’re willing to take advantage of people’s desperation, real or perceived. This is not a good way to start out and actually comes across is predatory at worst, selfish at best.

And you say the film crew “will get paid”, but how much? Do you have any idea what it costs to keep a film crew running for 2 months? Hint: it isn’t cheap.

You’ve never made a film before. “Fame” is not a promise you have any real hope of fulfilling. And $500 for two months of an actor’s time is insulting. There’s no way to pay the bills on that little amount of pay.

If you want to get something for nothing, good luck. The best you may be able to do is to self-fund a short film, meaning you will still have to have a working budget of some sort. Maybe network with your local indie film crowd and see if you can round up some folks willing to put in a 3-day weekend. If you can pull together a good cast and crew and make a notable short, that can be your proof-of-concept to try and secure funding for the larger project.

Otherwise, you’re going to need to raise a lot of money to be able to pay people (all the people involved) and to pay other costs, properly, to pull off a feature.
 
Last edited:
Movie FX artist, Film Crew, director, A cast members.

You forgot about both the editor and the sound designer.

-----

Please take this is the way that this is intended, but...

This sounds like a 40's Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney film - "Hey kids! Let's put on a show!" and in the barn they put on a Hollywood quality spectacle the next Saturday.


Jkds and mlesemann are correct. You need a properly formatted screenplay for anyone to even give you a glance, much less an opportunity. Blazes, you'll need a script if you want to produce this yourself, even if it's a low/no/mini/micro budget project.

Filmmaking at the technical/financial/quality level is all about production and post production. Sounds obvious, I know. But with most arts it's all about layers, and in filmmaking (and many other interactive "commercial" arts) each layer adds to the budget.

The budget is all about time and money. Time = Money, and conversely Money = Time. Each layer that adds to the quality of the production will increase your budget. At the lowest level a camera is plopped onto a tripod, a cheap mic is mounted on top of the camera, a couple of Home Depot lamps are used for lighting, you use your friends and their friends as your cast, and you shoot in someone's living room. At the other end you have the most high quality video and audio equipment available controlled by experienced professionals, a multi-million dollar cast and dozens from people who design, build, dress and detail the sets plus hundreds of others. There are many layers - budgets - in-between.

If you are a superlative budgeter (time & money) and organizer (producer) with an extremely clear vision for your film and a superlative script you could conceivably create a wonderful movie on a very restricted budget. But the script must be written with-in the confines of your very restricted budget, and the entire project must be exquisitely preproduced to take advantage of every nickel and every second of the budget. So you expand HUGE amounts of time/budget to take full advantage of your meager funds/budget.

An example is the first "Paranormal Activity" film. They preproduced to the last detail a solid concept/script, and chose a shooting style that took full advantage of prosumer-quality equipment applied a genre that could be accepting of the "poor" visual quality. (As a sound guy I have to mention that they put A LOT of effort into the production and post sound as well.) With everything planned like a military campaign combined with a Wall Street IPO they managed to get funding.

Indie filmmakers always trot out "The Blair Witch Project" as what can be done one a sub $50k budget. Most are ignorant of the fact that about $2 million (some say as high as $5 million) was put into audio and visual post to make it palatable to the general film-going audience. "Paranormal" learned those lessons and took advantage of the the new technologies that appeared less than ten years later, so were able to make a quality product on a very small budget.

So start with a script. Polish it until it shines. Do the initial preproduction break-downs - crew, cast, sets & dressing, wardrobe & HM/U, visual & audio post, etc. This will give you a good ball-park budget range. Every layer of detail you add to your visual and sonic story-telling adds to your time/money budget. Then you can take the next step of looking for your financing. If you have done a phenomenal job you could attract quality folks for little or no money. I did lots of freebees when I started, but at this point in my career it had better be damned good and well organized before I will donate any time/money.

I hope that this had helped.


-------

I was just about to hit REPLY when the other posts showed up.

Hi Al! It's been a while.

Maybe network with your local indie film crowd and see if you can round up some folks willing to put in a 3-day weekend. If you can pull together a good cast and crew and make a notable short, that can be your proof-of-concept to try and secure funding for the larger project.

I worked with a producer on quite a few near-freebees and low budget projects. Everyone, from the first-project intern PA to the working professionals, were treated like royalty. Her husband loved to cook and was very good at it, so we ate really well. We all got travel money and OOP expanses. Everyone was involved from the beginning of preproduction at beer, wine, cheese & cracker meetings in the evenings. Detailed schedules, maps to locations, equipment lists, etc. were given to all. We all contributed to the project. On one project I actually caused a script rewrite that eliminated pages of dialog by making a few sound suggestions, which the DP expanded upon, which gave the writer an idea.... We were all intimately involved in the entire production. On another of her short productions she housed a 1st time PA who had driven all the way up from Pennsylvania to Connecticut to work on one of our shorts (notice I said "Our" shorts). At a prepro meeting he said, "Why don't we shoot it all in one room? We could save the time on all of the set changes; just make a few minor location changes to the dialog in the script." "Why didn't we think of that!"

Why did we all work for her? Because we knew without question that our time would not be wasted, we would be treated like the professionals that we are, we would have a lot of fun, and we got to work & network with some amazing people. I picked up a lot of jobs using those shorts as demos. I was recommended to others by the folks with whom I worked. I reaped a lot of benefits working on those shorts. I bumped into that 1st time PA a number of years later when he was working on the set of "I Am Legend." So you can see that it was worth our while to donate a few evenings and a couple of weekends. And for me a few more evenings and a weekend to do the audio post.

THAT is how you attract talent on a micro-budget.






 
My name is Ben and i am the author of several novels. One of my book got an excellent reading book reviews
from a big book review website. I had to pay for that.
Hi Ben,

Would you post a link to the big book review website. I'd love to
read the review.

I'm still interested. Maybe even in adapting the novel. I understand no
budget film making and not paying people up front. Sometimes it just
has to happen that way.

Rather than offering "fame" how about giving us some practical information
that will help interested people make an informed decision:

Where are you thinking of shooting this movie?
Since some people will be paid; what are your plans on getting that money?
You say you want to enter festivals late this year; what is you current goal
on starting filming?
 
Hi Ben,

Blazes, we've really dumped on you in this thread, haven't we?

IndieTalk has been blessed with a number of working professionals from "The Biz" who graciously contribute time from their schedules to help those who want to join them as members of the filmmaking community. We also have quite a few accomplished part-timers as well.

"An amateur learns from his mistakes; a professional learns from the mistakes of others."

Here at IndieTalk we have filmmaking professionals willing to share their experiences, so beginners can learn from the mistakes of those professionals. But first you must learn the basics. You cannot achieve any type of success without them, whether it's a micro-budget indie project or a full blown Hollywood production. So here at IndieTalk we harp on the basics.

IndieTalk is a place to learn those basics from professionals who have been there and done that. From there, however. these professionals won't solve problems for people, they offer alternatives ways of approaching those problems. As a creative you explore those avenues, using what works for you, putting the rest into your knowledge base for future consideration and possible use, or as an example of what doesn't work for you.

So the thread has turned into confusing mash of "Learn the basics," and "Here's a few avenues to explore."

You have a novel you wish to turn into film. In my lengthy post and other posts we have pointed out the difficulties in what you propose. You have a vast ignorance of the process. Ignorance is not stupidity, so this is not an insult. This is just one of the many places that you lack knowledge. This pertains to all of us. A few hundred years ago you threw a few logs into your fireplace or wood-burning stove to heat your house. It did not require a great deal of knowledge. This past Friday, however, we needed someone with the knowledge and tools to fix our heating system. I'm a reasonably intelligent guy, but I'm completely ignorant when it comes to the complexities regarding modern heating systems.

DirectorRik has graciously offered at look at your work. Besides being a founding member of IndieTalk he is also an accomplished professional. You may only get some great advice, or you may end up with a film based upon your screenplay. Jump on it. Rik is someone who can be a guide along your journey.

Sorry for another of my long diatribes.

Good luck.

Peace.

 
I second all the remarks above.
And to be really honest: I checked the Kindle link and the logline is written very poorly, but the premisse sounds interesting.
(A bit remiscent of Ayreon's Universal Migrator: a conceptual double album about the last person on Mars spending time in the dream sequencer going further ad further back in time. Prog and metal fans shold check it out: part 1 is dreamy and part 2 heavy.)

You say you had a great paid review.
That is great, but to promiss anyone fame, you'll need 1000s of fans writing reviews voluntarily before you can claim you have a fanbse to begin with. I see this happen in the corporate world as well: 'Can you make us a great video for free and we will give you exposure.' Usually this is exposure to 5 followers, including mom, dad and the neighbours' dog.
Making a feature is hard work.
You saying youre looking for unemployed actors to pay them shit is quite a red flag.

Sweety asks the right question: how many copies did you sell?
How much money was made?
Dreaming of turning it into a movie is great, but perhaps you need to focus on getting read first, before promissing 'fame'.
 
Thank you guys,
i got an offer from literary agent, but let see how they will rip out my feathers :contract:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top