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Why does "Blade Jones" blame "Social Justice Warriors" for his movies being removed from Amazon? I guess he's one of those "Social Injustice Defenders". And why doesn't he accept their own reason: that his movies weren't making Amazon any money? Poor snowflake!

Yeah, that's about the size of it. What's the old saying? "Crowdfunding is two words: crowd and funding. If you don't already have the crowd, you won't get the funding." How many people do you have on your mailing list, your Facebook fan page, your Twitter account? Those are the people who might...

You pointed out, "people don’t realize how hard it is to do a successful festival run and get distribution." Oh man, is this ever true! People seem to think that just getting accepted into a festival will get them a distribution deal. That's just not how it works. You've got to go to the...

M-Wall: That's a (more or less direct) quotation, but I can't find the source. It might have been someone interviewed by Ted Hope for his old "Hope For Film" website. Sorry; it seems I misunderstood the point of your inquiry. Optimizing a campaign to make it attractive to backers, eh? One...

I hear people suggest this idea from time to time. I see two problems: 1) Most indie movies aren't very good. People don't like to watch bad movies. But everybody likes to be the person to turn on their crowd to the latest good movie. What are you offering an audience? A curated selection of...

The old saw is, "Crowdfunding is two words. If you don't already have the crowd, you ain't gonna get the funding." Strangers are not going to give you money to make your movie. You must build your audience before you get to the crowdfunding stage. (Very helpful, I know.) -- Damian

Jax Rox, you said, "Going to film school sets you up in a better place to find financing for your feature film". How so? You're still an untested commodity on the market.

You'll sometimes hear that Vancouver, BC, Canada is the third-largest movie-production centre in North America, after Los Angeles and New York. But it's only somewhat true. There is no movie-making industry here in Vancouver. What there is, rather, is the American TV industry. There are no...

I don't think there's a perfect solution to the problem of watching a movie whose dialogue is in a language that you don't speak. The Director and DP went to considerable trouble to compose shots so that your eyes take in information in a certain way, and subtitles thwart that. Subtitles force...

I enjoyed Rick Schmidt's books: http://www.amazon.com/Feature-Filmmaking-Used-Car-Prices-Revised/dp/0140291849 and http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-DV-Used-Car-Prices-LessThan/dp/0142004359.

A general thought about university: it was not intended to be, and shouldn't be, job training. Rather, it's mind training. Go to university to study a subject you're passionate about with professors who are experts in that field. I would also advise not going to university right out of high...

Going to film school has three main advantages: you have access to equipment (the school's), you have access to collaborators (your fellow students), and you might (emphasis might) make connections that will serve you well down the road. And the class deadlines force you to work, if you're the...

I too have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of responses I received from actors. At the first-audition stage, what I'm basically looking for is a quick reason not to cast that person -- winnowing out the chaff. I schedule actors roughly 20 minutes apart. I chat with them for five minutes to...

I'll second the thought to approach first non-chain establishments. Locally-owned businesses sometimes pride themselves on being part of the community, and they don't require approval from Corporate Office before they can give permission. On the other hand, I have shot in a Starbucks just by...

Don't cheap out! A while ago, I thought I would save a few bucks (okay, a lot of bucks) by purchasing knock-off items through eBay. Alas, what I wound up with is sub-standard gear. I would caution against going cheap as I did; you'll wind up spending more money replacing stuff. I got a...

What is a "legitimate" amount of money to seek from a crowd-funding campaign? If $3,000 is too small-potatoes, what about $10,000? You can make a feature for $10,000, but most people would have a hard time coming up with a spare ten grand, especially if they have to support themselves on their...

The length of the movie is very important to exhibitors, who need to know how closely they can schedule showings. That suggests that the length should be an outside estimate, eg. from the first image or sound that shows up to the end of the post-credits scene (if any; if not, just the end of the...

Film school offers two advantages: you have access to gear (the school's) and collaborators (your fellow students), and you can (not guaranteed) make contacts that help advance your career. On the other hand, film school is very expensive. The Vancouver Film School (Kevin Smith is the most...

I'm sure others have already thought this, but here we go: yes and no, we're entering a golden age. Yes, it's never been so possible to make a movie. Anyone with a middle-class income can afford the gear to shoot and edit a movie of professional quality. You don't have to raise tens or hundreds...