I'm 17 and just wrapped my first feature

T

theconnorwilliams

Hello Everyone,

I had a fun, nerve wracking 16 days (12-16 hours) and wrapped my first feature. You can see a local story here. http://www.jrn.com/kivitv/news/Local-teen-makes-independent-film-in-Eagle-271625141.html

I was able to get Terry Kiser (Bernie/dead guy/weekend at bernies) in my film.

While it's being edited I'm now introducing myself to Indie people on different sites. This is my first site.

I learned a ton doing this. I cast through AA and got all of my number one choices to believe in me and come from New York, Chicago,Ca and Texas to Idaho. Well I didnttell them I was 17 until 2 video call backs and my fist skyped audition with them.

While I'm smart enough to know this wont win an academy award I have been told there might be a market somewhere because of my age. Someone told me I'm the youngest to ever make a feature. I dont care about that and I never Googled as I'm sure it is inaccurate anyway.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to market this with the age factor? I am sending out my first press release this week.

I did end up casting the number one dj's for bit parts along with the entertainment writer of the largest paper in the state. I feel locally I'm covered with getting the word out.

Thanks if you are still reading. Oh, I'm sorry my first post was asking for advice. :/
 
theconnorwilliams said:
I was able to get Terry Kiser (Bernie/dead guy/weekend at bernies) in my film.
Click to expand...

Interesting, interesting.. :hmm:

When it comes time to sell your movie, I'd definitely talk about that a lot


Another tip; don't mention your age. I also don't think you're the youngest to ever make a feature. It sounds like you'll have a lot of local support, which is great. I'd say contact some distributors and try to get it sold. Maybe someone big will pick it up, like Fox Searchlight
 
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer.

If I thought I was a little confused making the movie I'm really confused now what to do with it. Yes, I will definitely push Terry Kiser. By the way, he was one cool guy!

But, I was told to push my age, I'm sure I'm not the youngest but the adults are saying it doesnt happen very often and I should play that up because when I make the next movie at 18 then I'm an adult and making movies like everyone else?

I'm a little confused on distributors. I have one that sent me a contract that will sell it internationally and in the US. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a good deal. It's a 75 25 split. I get 75. But the first x amount goes to the company for marketing/sales etc. Once they hit the x amount then I start receiving the 75%.

What I have read is sometimes distributors will make up an x amount and you never make a profit. Here I know what it is.

Is there a list where I can find reputable distributors? How do I sell it directly to Fox searchlight?

The more I research the more confused I get.

Oh, should I get a distributor before I send it to film fests?
 
Connor,
First Congrats on wrapping the shoot. It's a big deal. It's a testament to your skills as a director. Organizing a group of people, paid or unpaid (more impressive if unpaid), for a certain amount of time, to bring your vision to fruition is an achievement in itself. So Congrats.

Age: As a viewer/audience member, the fact that you are 17 makes your story interesting to me. Also, I feel less inclined to judge your film harshly, when I know you're still in high school and it's your first feature. So if I were you I'd let everyone know you're 17.

Distribution Deal: There are people on this forum who are either distributors or have gotten distribution deals and they can speak more intelligently about your 75/25 deal. I'll just give you my opinion.
-You took the financial risk and made the movie.
-The distributor is saying: well you will only get paid after we recoup our distribution costs because we're taking all the risk.

This is patently untrue. You've also taken risks. So when they tell you they're taking all the risks, it's a 'myth.'

Go to the link below. Click on the book. Go down to page 31 and read about the types of deals and the "myth."
http://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Feature_Film_Distribution_Deal.html?id=EoeJ7VmwnDIC

If I were you, I'd choose the "modified gross deal." Tell the distributor: You can have the film and the 75/25 or even 50/50, but I need an advance. Make my advance, part of your distribution costs. And then we can split 50/50 after you recoup your costs, or even 25/75.

If you don't do that, then I as a distributor have no incentive to ever recoup the costs. I'll attach every plane ticket to "Connor Williams Film Costs" folder and never recoup my costs, and never have to pay you anything, as I'll never reach the point where I recoup my costs. Might as well make the deal 90/10, I still won't have to pay you anything. Ask for an advance.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I'm no expert. I'm just telling you how I feel about your situation. But if I were 17, I wouldn't give an inch. You've got the rest of your life to give in to overwhelming powers of "the man." You certainly don't have to do it when you're 17. The world is yours.

Distributor: "You know Connor, I think you've got a gem of a film here. And I really like your work and your vision. I think we can do something with it. I think we can build a long term relationship. Because you're so unique and have such an exciting future. You and I can be best friends. We can swap girlfriends."
Connor: "You're right. I like you too, even though I can feel your icy reptilian blood, I think I can grow to like you. But you should do something to show how much you believe in this movie. You should give me an advance as a sign of your faith in me. Then I'll know that you really care about me and our friendship, not to mention my girlfriend, and that you don't want my film just to pad your distribution library on your website."

Good luck Connor. Congrats once again.
Aveek
 
Any trailer you could show?

I mean it's amazing what you've done especially for being so young but if the film is just pure crap the fact that you're 17 wouldn't really change that.
 
Thank you trueindie. I will look into that. I am on here as I snuck away from cleaning the garage. It's back to reality in this household. :/ I thought my age might mean something to someone. I'm in no hurry to rush into a deal. I cant wait to read the article.

No trailer yet Nikola. We just started editing. We will have one after the first rough draft of editing. True if it sucks no one will care.

Because I only had a certain amount of funds I had to think of a way to make this cheaply. Then one night Breakfast Club comes on and I noticed they shot this at one location. I did the same. Movie is similar but different. It has todays teen problems, not 1985. So we have a student with two moms and she is accused of being gay because of her parents, Social bullying, someone talking about their faith, stereotyping, profiling, gangs etc.

This may all become a disaster of a movie. But It's my disaster and I will be proud of it anyway! I already know what I would have done differently.
 
I'd never heard of it, Janet, but it looks promising - do you use it yourself?

Connor,

A truly amazing achievement, congratulations! As those of us out there scrounging for cash know, getting in front of people with the resources and making them believe enough to make an investment is not an easy task, so I'm both incredibly envious and stumped as of how someone so young managed to pull it off (assuming that you didn't make a $100 film on borrowed school equipment... since pro's not getting paid aren't professionals).

Let us know when you have an ad' up on YouTube, and best of luck with it all!
 
Connor.
No. Don't buy the book. That chapter just describes different types of deals. Doesn't answer any real questions. My Chrome allows me to see about 40 or 50 pages of the book. Just google independent filmmaking and distribution, various combinations and read posts from 2013 and 2014. The landscape has changed enough for a lot of prior posts and wisdom to be irrelevant, in my opinion.

Also read this article and what it says about the "Gross Adjusted Deal," and why the idea of an advance is important.
http://www.lavideofilmmaker.com/fil...bution-tips-a-guide-for-indie-filmmakers.html

And Connor, don't worry if your film isn't perfect. You just did something. Your next film will be better. So don't let the imperfections in your current film stop you from negotiating.
 
Janet, thanks for the tip. That seems like an awesome place too.
True.. Thanks..I'll use Chrome. Thanks for the kind words. I feel pretty darn good I pulled it off.

Viva.. My budget was spent on production. Every dollar I have made in acting and making pizzas at Pizza Hut went into making this movie. Not one dime from my parents. In fact my dad said he would pay for craft services if I organized everything and I did some stuff around the house. I didnt do everything around the house so he pulled the plug on craft services. So everything came from my budget.

Once he gave me the "great" news I was in charge of catering I figured it would cost me 3 grand for twenty days. So I went around to restaurants and asked for donations. I wanted each restaurant to feed 15 people for the day. I also made a flyer asking for families (stuffed them in all the mailboxes) to feed the crew and cast in exchange for tickets to the premiere and to hang on set. I got a huge grocery store to donate all the snacks water/soda.

We shot on Sony FS 700. It was a small 3 person crew who busted their butts.

The actors I got from Actors Access. They were all like me. A couple scenes in big budget pictures or leads in indies or have done national commercials. They read for me 5 times. Three by taped auditions two by skype. They were so dialed in with the character and script by that time I asked them if they were willing to fly out on their dime so we could make this movie. I told them I would put them up at a friends house and pay for their food. I then paid the host familys a few hundred dollars to make sure there would always be food for the actor and there mom.
Because I got most of the food donated I still had some money left. I saw that terry kiser was in town shooting another movie. As it turned out my parents valet parked cars at his hollywood hills house 30 years ago when they were in college. So I imdb'd him found his agent and called her. It was the weekend and I left a message that it was vital that I spoke to her over the weekend. I knew he was wrapping the other film and he would be flying out. She got back to me and we negotiated ( i want her as my agent. She's great. ;/) a daily rate. I had to pay for the flight change 230 bucks-Delta. I had to pay for another two nights for him to stay in the hotel-260 bucks and then I paid the day rate we negotiated. Part of the negotiation was that he would take photos with the cast and get him on tape promoting the film. Of course we are pushing him as we are all unknown teen actors.

We rewrote the script and added him in four scenes. He was awesome. The day he shot was the night I was having a cast party with their moms to say thanks for believing in me and flying out here at their expense. I asked him if he wanted to come and to my surprise he said yes. So he hung with us and got to know us on a different level.

I will disagree with pros that arent getting paid arent professionals. If the roles were reversed and I could be the lead of a film and I bought into the project I would fly out at my expense and work for food. I just want to work and stay sharp. I play a skin head in this film with tats. Before that I played the surfer/druggie type with my long hair. I want to try different roles. I made this movie only because I thought I got a part as a series regular and I didnt get it. Ive decided to dictate my own success as much as possible at this point.

Actually Terry Kiser said he had never heard of such a thing the way I did it. I truly believe I hustled everywhere to make this film. Today was the first day of my senior year. I was so incredibly bored. I want to be on set!

I'm going the indigogo route to raise money for not only submitting to film festivals but I want to go to the big shows where companies come to buy movies. I think the next one isin Santa Monica in October.
 
That's good, so far I have never been fed once on the people I have helped out with. But every shoot only took 3-4 hours so I wasn't really getting very hungry while working.

I was wondering how you managed to sell the project to people to get them to invest? Was it a really good, original premise for a movie? I am guessing the reason why it's so difficult is people just do not like a lot of movie ideas to invest in, unless they find it really mindblowing, so was it that mostly?
 
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If by invest you mean give food, I think it's because I'm from a small town in Idaho and I'm younger and doing this. Not so sure stuffing mailboxes asking for food will work in ten years. No because of my budget I decided to have most of the shoot in one location. This is a Breakfast Club like movie.

I was surprised the school let me have free reign for the 3 weeks. But when I was 14 I won a contest (making a commercial) and I won a 1,000 bucks and so did my school. The principal said at the time I would be able to make recommendations on where the money is spent. I emailed the vice principal and told him I wanted the money spent on my movie. So we got the use of the school.
 
Oh possibly.. Every single actor's story is like mine. We have been up for some juicy roles and coming down to the last few choices and not getting the lead in big budget movies. I also think they knew I was putting all my money in to make this happen so they didnt have a problem taking a risk with me. I never did directly ask why?
 
I wish I'd started making films as young as you. :cool:

Definitely play up on the age angle. You're only young once; make it count. Take advantage of special youth-oriented film festivals, or suitable age categories in regular ones.

'Grats on finishing your film! :)
 
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