Made Feature at 17 and now available for rent/purchase

Hi Guys!!!

If you scroll down in these threads you will see my journey making a feature film at 17 years old. I was able to get Terry Kiser (dead guy/Bernie) from Weekend at Bernies in my film.

It has been up for several festival awards winning a few.

Today I just put it up so you can buy or rent my movie Spoilers.

Here is the link. https://gumroad.com/l/FqgnB#

I have set the price for renting at 3.99 and buying at 6.99. This is for this group only. I will raise it a buck tomorrow. I learned a lot here by reading this forum so I really appreciate it.

I will change the pricing tomorrow.

If the link doesnt work just put it in your browser and click.

I hope you enjoy it.
 
Well selling this may be tougher than I thought and it is giving me good info. I believe I have the highest views in a thread on here in 2015. At least top five. Many people private messaged me on how I made a movie at my age. Yes it was my own money..

I thought at the very least curiosity would get some people to buy/rent the film. I do this all the time.

Not one person from this site has purchased.

What does this mean? People don't have an extra four bucks to spend on Indy Films. People dont like how I shared how I did this so they wont support me. People have watched the trailer and think the movie will suck. People really dont care what I or anyone else not in their own particular group do. People are putting there extra four bucks into their own projects.

I will get the link out to others in the morning as promised with higher price.

Perplexed...Which is good,I'm going to think all night on how to market this better.

Renting is great. Not renting mayh help better in the long run!
 
I can only speak for myself. I don't even have a phone, I canceled it like 8 months ago so I can have more money for my film. So I really don't have $4 to spend on watching stuff, I wouldn't even spend $4 for a blockbuster film with will smith in it. Most people can go to red box and rent a real mega $100 million blockbuster for just $1. You're trying to charge 4x that for a low budget film. Why are people going to pay 4x the price to watch your film instead of saving $3 and watching the newest hit?

So finances are one reason that it's hard.

The other reason.. It's damn difficult to get people to watch anything. I have people who I thought were my friends that wouldn't even give me 3 MINUTES to watch the short that I made. No money just 3 minutes of their time and they wouldn't give it to me.. people that I know in real life. Didn't even watch the first 10 seconds and turn it off, they dismissed it entirely without giving it any chance.

One thing that your thread here is missing is a really cool thumbnail pic or a poster. That might help. There is a pic of the cast but I'm pretty sure that's not a part of the movie, it certainly doesn't inspire awe to make me watch the film. It's just a couple people standing there on a white background. I don't see the trailer anywhere either.


And lastly.. one other remark. The rent/buy is really confusing because you can click on the same button over and over but it keeps switching options. I don't know which is rent or buy just by looking at it, except for one is a higher price.


"Made at 17" may also come off as bragging to some. Works for certain types of publicity but probably not for the general audience to spend money on it.
 
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Thanks S Foster and Film-autre...

if it looks boring I couldn't rent it for .25. Price wouldn't matter.

S..Great points!! People are busy, people are low on funds and time. Hopefully, more will chime in so i can make better decisions on how to market it.
Also, the rent and buying is a little confusing to some. Great stuff. I researched like crazy and I thought this company was the best fit.

The best fit because they are letting me sell my eBook (on acting)I wrote too.

Made at 17. Not bragging but using it as marketing. But, some people do have strong opinions on this. They are against it. It's a judgment call and my thinking is this is the only time I will be able to use the age thing..so why not?

Thank you both!!
 
People don't have an extra four bucks to spend on Indy Films.

Generally, no. Many people do have an extra four bucks but they don't usually spend it on Indy films because indy films are usually boring/suck, extremely low budget indy films virtually always suck and the films of first time filmmakers pretty much always suck. Add all this together and it's not worth spending four bucks and an hour and a half of my leisure time on the unprecedented chance that I'll enjoy your film to point of it actually being worth it. I'd rather put that time and money towards a film which has a good chance of entertaining me or towards some other leisure activity/product.

Making films is very difficult! The organisation, dedication and sheer will power required just to complete a feature length film (even one which is poor) is beyond most people and even rarer in a 17 year old. I can therefore appreciate the achievement and your personal potential. However, once you start charging for your film that's a different kettle of fish entirely because now it's a leisure product, you're competing with all the other leisure products out there and your age, achievement and potential are now irrelevant, all that's relevant is the amount of entertainment I get for my time and money.

People dont like how I shared how I did this so they wont support me. [?]

It's not so much about how you shared it IMHO but about your expectations. Except in very specific cases, people generally don't pay to watch films to support filmmakers, they pay to watch films for their own personal enjoyment/entertainment. Even on a site like this, aimed at filmmakers, most still pay to watch a film for their own entertainment but will sometimes pay for a film for study purposes. In this case though it's usually exceptional films made by masters of the craft. Generally, if they want to study amateur films there are countless available examples which are free.

I personally feel you have potential as a filmmaker, that you should definitely be encouraged and I'll support you with advice and info where I can but I won't be buying your products until you actually realise that potential and produce products which favourably compete with other products and therefore personally benefit me (in terms of my entertainment/enjoyment).

Obviously this is all just my personal opinion but I believe it to be fairly representative of many/most members here and of the public in general.

G
 
Post your movie for free. People will watch it. use the movie as a base for making a name for yourself. With a big project like this it will give you some good cred on a gofundme or a kick starter or something. Also, yes, Drop the "look what I did at my age" and where is a trailer? 6 bucks but no trailer? C'mon bruh.
 
Thank you Audiopost and Mrpink..

"... but they don't usually spend it on Indy films because indy films are usually boring/suck, extremely low budget indy films virtually always suck and the films of first time filmmakers pretty much always suck." That is funny/heard loud and clear. :0

But what if other people didn't think it sucked, like these guys...

This guy is amazing. Connor has incredible Passion Drive and Talent.
(Victoria Film Festival)

Connor, I want to say that our programming committee was absolutely amazed by your obvious talent.
(La Costa Film Festival)

You are going to continue to do good things Connor. A feature at 17 is impressive.
(Catalina Film Festival)

I saw your film and loved it! It's become a favorite of our judging committee. Your clever storyline progressed very well and you did a lot of character research to modernize the detention trope.
(Temecula Independent Film Festival)

This is what I'm thinking.. drop the rental price to 1.00 and sale of the film to 2.40 the price of a starbucks cup of coffee.

I think most of us dont mind losing a dollar over a film. We have all rented movies for more at redbox and stopped them.

I wont post my movie for free. One of the reasons is because my actors are on deferred payment and I want to pay them. They worked hard and need to be compensated.
 
A one day only price might work if you actually reach enough people during that period.
Not everyone is on IT all the time.
Or at least I am not.

And what sfoster said: on a price level you are cometing with the big productions.
It is okay to do that, but at least cut a nice 1 minute or 1:20 trailer including all the prices you won with it and where it was selected for filmfestivals to entice people.
Now the marketing part really starts :P

At the moment I don't have time* to watch, but I think I might check it out.
(*11 corporate videos in postproduction now)

BTW, have fun in California!
I've been to California 2 years ago (Huntington Beach, Orange County): I liked it :)
 
I do..I want to change this as I had a couple hours for a deadline contest here. Came in 2nd in the high school division. Picked up 250 bucks but I have wanted to change it and then got a virus and scraped (is that the term) my computer and I havent put all my programs back up yet. But you'll get a feel for it.

https://youtu.be/8HFxo1Rfzcw

The marketing does begin..
 
What does this mean?

You only waited about 10 hours from your original time of posting to come back and comment (complain?) about nobody purchasing the film... marketing requires good exposure, exposure takes time...

Also, most of the people on this site are busy, and no a lot likely don't have money to spare -- precisely why trying to crowdsource funding from this site is largely a waste of time.

You probably already know why I didn't buy/rent it. :)
 
I do!

Yeah maybe a marketing plan needs more than 10 hours. ;)

Maybe crowdfunding after the fact on the back end because now people get the movie in 30 days opposed to a year.
 
You definitely shouldn't take it personally.

I like what Sean, APE, Will, and others said.

So yeah, maybe if you dropped it to 1.00.

But actually I'm still not likely to rent or buy it because I don't know that site you have it on and I'm leery of giving my credit card information to anymore sites, especially ones I don't have a clue about. Get it on Amazon or YouTube (the rental part of it), whom I can trust to a reasonable degree, relatively speaking, and maybe I'll rent it sometime. Sorry, I suppose that might not be possible for you at this time, but that's where I'm at.

I agree that it's awesome you made a feature film at 17. And it might be a good idea to market it that way out there. But maybe in here, on IT, you don't need to keep reminding us of that. Maybe we're running into a little "made the film at 17" fatigue. Not because we don't appreciate your achievement. We do. But you've already successfully disseminated that information on this site. And as Sean, Will, and others pointed out, many actually don't have money to spare, especially at 4 bucks on a first time film...as APE pointed out.

Best of luck!
 
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But what if other people didn't think it sucked, like these guys...

Only one of those "guys" actually said they liked ("loved") your film, the others were complimenting you personally, not your film, IE. The achievement of completing a feature length film at your age and your potential. Also bare in mind that the terms "sucked" and "loved" are relative and therefore need to be taken in context. Although I haven't seen it, I'm assuming that your film doesn't suck and is in fact very good RELATIVE to the other films in the CONTEXT of the various amateur film festivals you entered. Once you release your film on the open market and charge for it, this context has changed (dramatically!) and therefore the subjective quality of your film has changed relative to your competition! You are no longer competing against a group of amateur/hobbyist filmmakers who entered the same film festivals you did, you are now competing against ALL other filmmakers: Not just relatively inexperienced amateur filmmakers similar to yourself but also highly experienced successful commercial/professional filmmakers, as well as everyone in between! Furthermore, much of the content you are competing against is lower risk or essentially risk free ...

This is what I'm thinking.. drop the rental price to 1.00 and sale of the film to 2.40 the price of a starbucks cup of coffee.

I believe you are making an error in logic to compare the cost of your film to the cost of a Starbucks because we are talking about the decision to purchase your product, and the price of the product is only one part of that decision making process. The worst case scenario for the purchaser of any product is to waste their money (and/or time) so at least an equal, if not the major part of the decision making process is the avoidance of this worst case scenario. As there are no absolute guarantees, the product purchase decision making process is effectively all about risk assessment. The decision to buy a Starbucks for 2.40 is a very low risk decision because I know what to expect and there's a very high probability my expectation is going to be met. Even if I decide to take the extra risk of ordering something I haven't tried before, it's still a moderately low risk because I know the general level of quality to expect at Starbucks. I don't know anything about your products though, all I have to go on is your lack of experience and the fact that I've never seen an extremely low budget feature length film which met my entertainment expectations.

Obviously, the lower the price of your film, the less there is for the potential purchaser to loose but: 1. If you halve the price of your film, you need twice as many people to buy it just to make the same amount of money and 2. As long as there is a price, there is always the possibility of the worst case scenario above. 1 buck or 4 bucks is next to nothing but "next to nothing" is NOT actually nothing. I would never want to completely waste 1 or 4 bucks, regardless of how much money I earn because it still represents some amount of my time/effort to earn! Consider what I said earlier about risk free ... I can choose to pay 1.00 to watch your film or choose a professionally made film on TV, essentially risk free. If after 5 mins or so I don't like the film, I can change the channel and I've lost nothing except those 5 mins. Furthermore, it's far more likely that a film made by an experienced professional and/or broadcast on commercial TV will at least meet my production value expectations, which lessens the chances of me wasting even those 5 mins.

I know I've made this whole product purchasing thing sound a lot more complex that it appears but unfortunately that's the underlying reality of most things. We constantly engage in complex tasks which don't appear complex only because we're so habituated to them that we take them for granted. Walking, hearing and talking are good examples but there are countless others.

I wont post my movie for free. One of the reasons is because my actors are on deferred payment and I want to pay them. They worked hard and need to be compensated.

That is a mature and laudable attitude! An attitude which I hope the often cut-throat nature of the film/TV world never causes you to loose. However, anyone with much experience of the film world knows that "deferred payment" pretty much always in reality means no payment. I virtually never accept deferred payment unless deferred payment is just one part of the payment and I'm willing to do the gig for that other part/s!

Lastly and most importantly: DO NOT be discouraged by anything I've said, particularly the first paragraph, for two reasons: Firstly, if all you've ever heard is praise in response to your filmmaking then it's possible you believe your film is good and that you're a good filmmaker relative to other films/filmmakers rather than "good" only relative to your age and other amateur filmmakers. The latter doesn't mean you're a good filmmaker, it just means you have the potential to be a good filmmaker. One of the main factors which will enable you to realise that potential and become a good filmmaker is your ability to be objective/realistic about your films and your filmmaking abilities. So take my rather harsh seeming comments as encouragement to realise that potential rather than as discouragement!! Secondly, don't fall into the opposite but more common discouragement trap: If, as is almost certain, your current film has little or no commercial worth, don't be discouraged and view it as worthless! In addition to the obvious learning experience, your age, the fact you have completed a feature length film and the fact it has attracted favourable comments (albeit from the amateur side of the film world), are all still valuable resources. You are looking to enter an extremely competitive field, a dream job for many. Each of your filmmaking achievements and your age give you an edge over some of the others trying to get their "foot in the door" and in combination they give you a significant edge over the vast majority your competition. This should obviously be a source of encouragement rather than discouragement!

G
 
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Richy-I dont know how to let people know who I am without saying 17. I doubt people have me memorized on here.

APE - That all makes sense. Good analogy's. I'm not discouraged AT ALL. They are great points of views. Basically what it all comes down to is money is our hard earned money and if we are going to spend it we want to spend it wisely. Playing the odds.. Do I have a better shot of spending 1.50 at Redbox and liking a film better at the same price from some newbie filmmaker? The answer is yes most of the time.

But............... I also think there are a lot of people like me that will support other people just like me... I have gone to local premieres at 10 bucks a pop not because I was in love with the topic but to support the artist. I love to see what people can do on limited funding. I also like to watch actors I have never seen before. Some are trainwrecks which is to be expected. Some are surprisingly entertaining.

There are a lot of us that support Indy artists. Even though it may not make financial sense to spend 1.50 on an Indy artist opposed to getting an established movie at Redbox. There are many of us that support the little guy/underdog.. So mathematics and stats go out the window. At least for me and many people I know. I had no business making this film. I definitely didn't have any business calling Terry Kiser (Bernie) from Weekend at Bernies Fame's Manager and negotiate his contract. There are parts I cringe in my acting. There are some parts I like. But overall, I really believe not one person will think they wasted a buck fifty if they rented it.

Now they may say a lot of negatives about it like i have after spending ten bucks for an indy movie. But I always think it's going to a good cause on so many different levels. But I truly believe I dont think they will say they wasted there money.

Yes, Financially a horrible risk. Believe me I put all my hard earned money into a feature film. That wasnt the smartest thing to do. That was a horrible risk. Financially I may never recoup it. But What I gained by doing that is invaluable. I feel like I can accomplish anything. Could I use the money now? Yes! Would I have landed my latest role with Big Mike from The Blindside? No. The director saw me and my movie in a small town in Texas and told me he had a part for me right after watching my movie.

So in a nutshell, people will do what they want anyways. I just have to find a way to let people know I have a movie to be rented. That is the hard part.
 
Well I watched it this morning. More than anything, besides supporting you of course :), I wanted to check out the quality of the stream. I'm planning a gumroad release myself. I think they're the most honest in terms of being upfront about costs. My understanding was that they limited video to 4gigs, but you've got a 6gb upload. How did you manage that?

Also. Good job for a first movie. There are mistakes there that I'm sure you can also see, so I'm not going to point them out here. Apart from a few places, pretty good job on the audio for a first time filmmaker. Overall it had great effort. And it's a feature film. It's a completely different artform from a short. Nice work.
 
Thanks for renting! Oh you dont need to point them out. I know where things bug me. And you might point something new out. ;) I cant remember if i mentioned this in that long initial post after the first roughcut where it was 2 hours and 5 minutes but I didnt leave my room or turn on the light. No one warned me about the first rough cut. I was very miserable.

I did a ton of research on where to put Spoilers the Movie and a couple of days ago I found gumroad. They are transparent on fees. And they take out the extra step when paying with a credit card. But I have emailed them three times and they havent emailed me back which is frustrating. "Overall it had great effort. " haha

What would i have done differently? Not shoot this in 15 days over a 17 day period. It was suppose to be 28 days but i got kicked out early. Not shoot most in a classroom. It had some advantages and you would think it would be easier to shoot but it was way harder because we were moving around cleaning the place.

Oh yeah Ive made a ton of shorts. Here is my first one at 10. I won 50 bucks and a karaoke machine. I was hooked on the prizes.. I remember how hard i thought this was.

Not sure..just uploaded. ;/

Can I us your slogan for getting people fired up about seeing Spoilers??
 
Thanks for renting!

pleasure :)

They are transparent on fees. And they take out the extra step when paying with a credit card. But I have emailed them three times and they havent emailed me back which is frustrating.

Interesting. I know it's a small company. But I like the creators of gumroad. And they do sell a lot of stuff. They're still my first choice at the moment.


Can I us your slogan for getting people fired up about seeing Spoilers??

What slogan? Feel free to use whatever. If it works for you, maybe I'll try it out :)

Best of luck,
Aveek
 
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