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Show Business
Adopt an Approach that Gets You to the Next Project
by Leonard Guercio
Feature filmmaking is a communal effort which, when successful,
negotiates the delicate balance between art and commerce. Since
the birth of motion pictures, a veritable army was needed to bring
a movie to life. We all know the scenario. A writer dreams up
a movie script, a producer finds the writer�s story, then finds
the money to produce the story, hires the director and they, in
turn, choose the actors as well as the entire production and post-production
crew. However, now with the advent of HD cinema, a moviemaker
needs fewer people to realize his or her dreams in stunning images
once possible only by shooting on film. A unique idea, its careful
execution and a clever marketing strategy are the primary keys
needed to open doors through which, in the past, only a select
few could enter.
Framing up an exterior shot for the Caffe` Scene in TIRAMISU.
Last year, a filmmaker friend finished his fourth feature production.
It was also the first feature he produced entirely in the digital
domain, shot with the Panasonic AJ-HDC27 Varicam 24p camera and
edited on Final Cut Pro. His three previous films were all shot
in 35mm and cost one to three million dollars to produce. For
this movie, he had employed a crew of 40 and had a $400,000 budget.
Able to do more camera set-ups per day, he finished his movie
ahead of schedule and $15,000 under budget. With successful distribution,
he made a respectable profit for his investors and a small sum
for himself. From that digital production experience, he learned
that he could further streamline his next feature production by
working with a $200,000 budget and an 8-person crew. With successful
distribution, he hopes to at least double his returns and promote
a business model that will be attractive to investors. His primary
goals are to continue making movies and to build a body of work
from which he will enjoy future profits.
As moviemakers, most of us are primarily interested in
crafting good stories. Yet earning a profit from our work is as
important a consideration as creativity and technique. The
trick is to create a balanced business model, one that
satisfies our artistic and technical standards as well as the
financial concerns of our investors. Since at least half of show business is business, adopting this balanced approach
to making movies may very well get us to the next project �
and that's a good thing.
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Check out this article in the April 2006
print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, pages
16 & 17. Click here to get a copy of the April 2006
Edition, so you can read and enjoy all of the excellent articles
inside.
About the Author:
Leonard Guercio is an independent filmmaker and an
adjunct film professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.
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