Made Feature at 17 and now available for rent/purchase

I'm definitely not ready to move away from this film yet.

This comes back to what I said about being objective. This quote appears to be entirely subjective rather than objective. If you were being objective you would ask yourself what have you got to gain from not moving away/on verses moving on? If say you spent a year to generate sales of $15k then you could just as easily have earned that same amount doing an unskilled task such as stacking shelves in a supermarket and benefited yourself even more by spending that time developing your filmmaking knowledge/skills/experience.

Thanks for responding but I wouldn't stereotype. you might miss something cool from somebody young.

1. Everyone has to stereotype to some degree to stand any chance of making good decisions.

2. I miss cool things all the time, I miss the vast majority of cool things. Again, it comes down to the time I have available and risk management. I don't even have enough hours in the day to trawl through all the stuff created by experienced pros with an established reputation for creating cool stuff, let alone the mountain of stuff created by teenagers who extremely rarely ever create anything which I think is "cool", despite their assertions to the contrary! In other words, the risk of missing something cool is no big deal and easily worth the hours of trawling through utter dross it would cost to find.

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.

1. Why are you the little guy/underdog? There are tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of young amateur filmmakers out there who are not significantly different to you.

2. People tend to support the little guy/underdog in sports and similar competitive fields. This is not generally the case when buying products though!

3. The "many people I know" are essentially your family, friends and acquaintances. Of those, at least your family and friends are of course extremely likely to be supportive of your endeavours to be a filmmaker and, more likely to be supportive of others like you by association. Extrapolating from the "many people I know" to the vastly more people you don't will not only cause the "mathematics and stats" to go out the window but off to a completely different planet! The fact is that only a tiny fraction of the general public will even watch a nano budget narrative indie feature, let alone pay for the privilege and of those who will, only a tiny fraction will do it for the purpose of supporting the filmmakers rather than for their own personal entertainment.

Again, this is essentially a question about being objective. Maybe you'll develop more objectivity with more experience, as is often the case and hopefully in the meantime your apparent lack of it won't cost you too much more than some wasted time.

G
 
I hope all had a fun vacation and awesome food. I appreciate all the feedback.

Sweetie... How are ya? Glad to see they let you back on the boards. Hows your bestie Russo? "I've told you once, I'll tell you again, pushing the 17yro angle is killing you." Not so fast my friend! I am now recognized as the youngest producer in the USA for a feature film. But sure I'll say what youre thinking. What does that really mean? Actually, not much. But hey it was cool for a minute. But it turned into a great scholarship for college. In fact, I didnt even want to go to college. I wanted to make/act in films. But it was to hard to pass that up. So Im in college now. So, the majority was correct to push my age. I have also spoken at festivals which was ok. At first I was scared to death to talk to an audience but now it doesnt faze me so I guess that was something great that came out of it.

Audiopost: I now live in No. Hollywood. Moving from a small town in Idaho, this has been a huge adjustment. The rent is out of this world. I sleep on a couch in a one bedroom and the rent is higher than my parents 5/3. Doesnt make sense but I'm trying to figure it all out. It feels great to audition for bigger projects regularly. "Why are you the little guy/underdog? There are tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of young amateur filmmakers out there who are not significantly different to you." I cant speak for the other underdogs but Im the underdog because making a feature in High School with my own money..is hard. Pizza Hut only paid me so much. *I love the Hut. They gave me time off to audition. When Im older I'll have a job and I'll make money and wont be spending my entire savings. At that point I wont be the underdog.

So spoilersthemovie.com is still up for rent or buy. But I stopped submitting to festivals months ago. I'm waiting on a couple to see if i get in an then I'm ready to put this movie to bed. I can only see flaws now when I watch it. It drives me crazy. Next feature I wont shoot in 15 days over a 17 day period. I will take a little more time. Guessing 25 days would be perfect.

First day in Hollywood was unbelievable. I picked up a dream Manager and auditioned for a smaller role in a feature. I was driving back to my place. Well, my parents were as they didnt trust me to drive the week they moved me in. They called and asked if I could turn around and read for another part. Cold reading is not my strong suit but I gave it my best effort. They called me for a callback and a couple weeks later i got the part. It was a fun ten days and great shoot. It was my first horror movie too.

I auditioned for a James Franco movie and waiting to hear back. Its just awesome to be in LA and grinding.

But the reason I'm posting is I won red cameras (rentals) and a bunch of other stuff as long as I shoot my next feature in Texas. I am totally down with stepping aside and letting someone else direct if it's a great script and having me as one of the leads. I would love to read some teen scripts. If you want to be a part of a feature in any capacity I would love to hear from you. Just ask, that you are chill with no drama.

If you are still reading by this point, have a good one!
 
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That's awesome connor. I wish you continued success.
I've followed your posts on indietalk, maybe I spend too much time on the forum haha.

I'm working on my "masterpiece" short film but it's still a year and a half away from completion. I don't expect any recognition for a long time.
 
sfoster: Thats great. Keep plugging away. It seems so hard doesn't it? Wish it was easier. :/ I now work on my films at least 5 minutes a day everyday no exceptions. Seems silly but I give five minutes of time but it usually ends up being more like an hour or several. But sometimes the five minutes seems like an hour and I call it a day. I just tried to form good habits. But believe me there have been several five minute days.

Woud love to read what you have written or seen what you have shot so far.
 
Congrats on everything! I'm sure N Hollywood is a huge change in many ways, but I think it's really great that you're jumping right in there. Wish I had a teen-centered script to share :(
 
sfoster: Thats great. Keep plugging away. It seems so hard doesn't it? Wish it was easier. :/ I now work on my films at least 5 minutes a day everyday no exceptions. Seems silly but I give five minutes of time but it usually ends up being more like an hour or several. But sometimes the five minutes seems like an hour and I call it a day. I just tried to form good habits. But believe me there have been several five minute days.

Woud love to read what you have written or seen what you have shot so far.

Well right now I'm stretching a couple hours every day. I want to be able to to do kung fu like keanu reaves.

The project has started shooting but there's not much to show right now. Here is a 10 second clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0mQZ-UC0Tg
 
Connor. I do believe we've always gotten along. I believe we're similar.

We took to callings early and we tried to make it a bigger deal than it actually was.

When I was in high school, first at barely the age of 16, I had published a card game. Then another, this one a best seller, then a third, and lastly a fourth which indeed was my second best seller. I was then 17 with four published card games, two of which were best sellers.

So throughout that time I had the same angle as you. However it was pushed upon me. My first convention I attended I was still 16 and every time someone came by my table they thought I was the child of the vendor. "You're so young" Yatta Yatta. At 17 it became a big thing. I accepted it and marketed towards it. 17 year old high schooler doing panels telling people in their 30s how to successful design and get published in tabletop gaming.

18 it still worked pretty well. 19 however I went to conventions and people asked about the games I'd tell them I made it when I was 16 or 17 and they'd just look at me like "Cool, so what do you do now?" They are completely uninterested and somehow put off by the fact I made the games when I was a teenager.

I think the only audience that marketing still works on is high schoolers, perhaps because it gives them the thought they could do the same?

I can CERTAINLY tell you the other game designers don't give a shit. Like they couldn't care less. When they met me, it impressed them. Now I'm just another of thousands. I no longer get any benefit from the age factor.

--------------------

I gave up mentioning what age I made the games, and honestly Connor, it was the best decision I made. My games went from "Great Game made by a kid" to "Great Game" and believe me "Great Game" sounds a lot better than having a handicap on it.

I realize I'm talking games right now... not movies... but I really believe this applies just the same.

------------

I'll note that I'm just now reading this thread as well. (I read all four pages in fact, just now). Obviously I don't come to IT everyday anymore. So I would have completely missed your 10 hour sale by months haha.

As a friend I'll try to comment on a few things mentioned to you previously?

- I know this film, not much, but a bit. I know the jist for sure. I've even seen some footage from you when you were looking for a colorist. From what I know, I wouldn't have watched this. It's nothing against you or supporting indies, I just don't find interest in these types of films. I'm a comedy feel-good kind of person.

- Do I give money to support indies? Is that a good marketing tactic? No, not really. I think the most indies I watch are the ones who post youtube links here.

Does that mean I've watched Surviving Families? Nope. I've seen the threads... they don't interest me either, no offense to him.

Perhaps I just don't like spending money on films I have no prior feelings towards? I haven't even watched films I've worked on... haha

- Do the mini-series idea. I'd watch that. You'd get ad revenue. I watch that harry potter related mini-series that someone on the site does. They are short, I like the theme, I can relate, and I get extended content over a longer period of time FOR FREE! :D I Love Free!

- Ah so you did decide to take the scholarship? Wonderful! I've loved collage and am very close to graduation. (I can attribute that you partake in other people's threads, you've shown up in my short lived collage experience thread. XD ) I hope your school is fun as hell and that you make tons of connections!

(I could comment on more... but I'm feeling long winded... last bullet!)

- You're looking for a teen script to use your red rentals on and you'd like to have a role in?

Hmmm... I'll sound like a dick when I say this, but I do most likely have the best teen project on the site.... But know that's not confidence in myself at all. It's confidence in the writer who has published almost 20 novels and is a popular YA writer.

The novel I'm adapting has almost 3 million fans begging the writer for more. If someone on IT has a project with that most exposure in teen fiction, please feel free to correct me.

I'll let you know the information if you want Connor, but I'll note that I have no intentions to shoot this until at least 2018, we most likely wouldn't even use the Red Rentals, but Texas is cool. The problem is I'm looking for a decent budget, I know producers though. Not worried. Just waiting~
 
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