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Click here to get a copy of the January 2007 Edition, so you can read and enjoy all of the excellent articles inside. Check out this article in the January 2007 print edition of StudentFilmmakers magazine, page 30.

An Experienced AdWoman Takes On the Film Business
Director Amy Nicholson Finds Parallels in Advertising & Film in Documentary, "Muskrat Lovely"

Interview by Jody Michelle Solis

Director Amy Nicholson works in New York City as a director and art director for advertising. "Muskrat Lovely," shot in two and a half weeks on Super 16 and edited in nine months, is a documentary following the events leading to the 50th crowning of "Miss Outdoors." It's a look into the annual event of a close-knit community in a remote area of Chesapeake Bay, where two important contests � a beauty pageant and muskrat skinning competition � share the same stage. Her crew of three included herself as director and producer, Jerry Risius (Project Jay, The Cut, Air Force One, Unzipped, The American Experience), and Felix Andrew (Last Days, Elephant, Gerry, My Generation, Unzipped).

After showing on the festival circuit, �Muskrat Lovely� airs on PBS� Independent Lens, and the filmmaker talks about her approach to marketing and self-financing her first feature-length documentary.

Did you start making documentaries or commercials first?

Commercials. I made commercials for years; but I have to delineate because I�ve now started to shoot commercials. Before I was the creative. When I worked in an agency, I would come up with the idea, and we would hire a director. Then my [writing] partner and I would work with the director. That�s how agency life works. Now I still work in advertising as a day job, but I�m also represented by a company, and they try to get me commercial directing jobs.

Before making a movie or approaching a script, some new filmmakers don�t take into consideration marketing. What are your thoughts about that coming from an advertising background?

I have two sides actually � because I did think about [marketing] mostly because I took a lot of classes at small clubs. Mostly I had the goal to get it on TV. Everybody told me when I took general film classes to have a goal for the film that you�re making. So I picked a goal, and that�s sort of where I stopped. �And I figured that making your films stand out [in film festivals], thinking about your poster, thinking about your postcards � the things that you have to send out � and materials � I knew that was important but had no idea how much work it would be to market an hour long feature. It�s just a long slow grind,� and I work in the [advertising] business!

For people who haven�t done it, the world has changed, and everything is An Experienced AdWoman Takes On the Film Business Director Amy Nicholson Finds Parallels in Advertising & Film in Documentary, Muskrat Lovely Interview by Jody Michelle Solisonline, so you have to think about [the entire presentation]. You have to think about the name of your film: is it easy to remember? Is it catchy? Can you write a little tagline for it? Can you sum up the film in one sentence if someone asks you to? If somebody asks you what the film is about, can you sum it up, and give it a little bit of an angle at the same time? They call it a logline. � You need a nice website that�s easy to navigate, that looks cool, and that�s really clear.

The things I didn�t think about enough were press and getting press for myself. There were things I thought about such as graphics and promotional materials, but there was a whole other side that I had no idea how much work it was and how long it would take. My film was pretty simple to shoot, but it took a lot more time to market and to get it out there than to actually make it.

The other side for me is that� it�s funny, because there are so many parallels to working in advertising, which I still do as a freelancer� In advertising, you work on an assignment for a couple of weeks, and it really doesn�t take that long to come up with a really funny, great idea, but you might spend six months trying to sell it. And there�s this kind of weird parallel with film. When selling the film takes up more time than actually making the film, I start to resent it a little bit because I really love the creative outlet of filmmaking.

Did you have a distribution model for your documentary, �Muskrat Lovely�?

No, and I should have, and I’ve learned many lessons. Since I got my film out, things have changed quite a bit. Now, you can distribute a film over the internet should you want to. If you decide to take that route, you can sign on to a place that allows people to download your film… You can sign up with a service that will fulfill your online orders, if you have a little store like I do, or if you’re lucky enough to get a Netflix contract… You can sign on for services that will make CD’s for you one at a time. And some of these things didn’t exist two years ago. A number of targeted self distribution models have popped up. There are people who specialize in telling you how to self distribute especially if you have a film that’s really pointed at a certain audience, and I’m talking from the documentary world. I went to a panel where there was a great example about a film that was about motorcycle racing. They went through how they marketed it to people who were really interested in motorcycle racing, and they sold ten’s of thousands of DVD’s to people who were just into motorcycle racing, and it didn’t have anything to do with the general public. I think the landscape of marketing and distributing films is changing a lot. I would say do a lot of research on that, look into all the online resources, try to find great places to master DVD’s and get all your music rights cleared – all that stuff … Because it makes it easier on the backend. Then you can concentrate on getting the film out there, and you don’t have to worry about whether you got everybody to sign a release form, …which can really screw you up in the end. For example, you spend years making a film, and suddenly for some technicality, you can’t sell it to anybody…

What was your budget for �Muskrat Lovely�?

My shooting budget started out as $50,000. That was just to get in the car and go down to Maryland, with two guys that I was paying, with equipment that I was renting, with my insurance � and get it down on film. That got me 12 hours of footage that was well shot and well lit with great sound. Developing film is not that expensive. Transferring film is very expensive, and because I didn�t have that much film, I just transferred all of it. I would work over the summer, take a couple of freelance jobs and pay for the transfer. And I transferred at night, so it was cheaper, and unsupervised. Once I had all the film transferred, I worked with [Editor John Young], and every now and then, gave him a hunk of money. Added all up, it was close to $200,000.

There are people who could edit themselves. I don�t trust myself to edit my own footage � but there are people who say once you have it shot and transferred, you can take it into Final Cut, and do it yourself. There�s equipment that is much easier and cheaper to work with now, and RAM is cheaper, storage is cheaper�

When you finished making �Muskrat Lovely,� how did you approach festivals, and how did you approach marketing to film festivals?

I read some really great articles written by people in the business that do sales. A lot of people will get a sales rep. Unfortunately, my film was only an hour; and a lot of people like sales reps, or people who could try to sell your film for you, want an hour and a half. Also, this was the first feature I ever made, so getting a sales person was almost impossible, but I had some help. And they all said, �Try to get into the biggest film festival you could get into�. I entered film festivals I thought were prestigious. My approach was to be very thorough about entering the biggest ones first, waiting to see if I got in, and then, going down the list one-by-one because it�s very important where your premiere is.

How did you get �Muskrat Lovely� to air on PBS� Independent Lens?

I sent it in to an open call. I never in a million years thought they�d pick it. Once you�ve written all the synopses, made all the dubs, made all the DVDs � you�ve got your press kit together, you�ve done your premiere, and you�ve done all that stuff � you get to the point where you�ve finished your film and say, well, I have nothing to lose, I might as well talk to HBO, send it to PBS, send it to these people. The worst that could happen is they�d say, no. So I sent it to everybody who would receive a package � everybody that I could find from my research, or who I had heard from somebody who does acquisitions.

Have any activist groups contacted you?

No groups, but there have been some emails that are just frightening. I think there are people out there who actually think the animals are alive when they�re skinned. That is not true. No one is that cruel. That would be crazy. Yes, there are people who have written, and I respect their opinions. There are people who say that making a movie about muskrat skinning � which, the movie is really about the pageant � but they�re saying when you put it on the big screen you legitimize that as a choice. I can�t say that�s not true, but that�s not why I made the movie. So I think that making a documentary means that you are going to approach a subject matter that may not make people comfortable, it may not be your lifestyle, it may not be your choices, and that�s why documentaries are made � to bring those things to light.

You served as director and producer for �Muskrat Lovely�. What kinds of things did you do to prepare, being that it was your first feature length documentary shot in only two-and-a-half weeks?

I did everything; drove the car, made sandwiches, I�m not kidding. I did a lot of research and a lot of scouting on my own. I really knew what I wanted to get before I got there. I tried to find out as much as possible about the pageant not having seen it before and not having seen their process. I tried to meet everybody before we filmed them. I tried to get permission, insurance, rented vehicles � I did the things I knew needed to be done as a producer. And then as a director, I did a lot of research that way too; made an outline �a very tight outline for myself because I wanted to shoot on film. When I set out, I thought the film was going to be fifteen minutes or twenty minutes long. I didn�t think it would be an hour long. I had an amazing editor. And I got lucky with my film � none of the film got ruined; it didn�t rain while we were there; it wasn�t 4 below. The weather held out � it was about 40 degrees most days, so we could still go out and shoot everyday without having camera problems and things that happen when you�re shooting in February. Nobody bailed on me. It was a little tricky getting all the moms to sit on the couch because they all had different schedules. But nobody said, no, so I also was very lucky in all the aspects of all the things that have to go right in order for you to lay something down on film. I prepared very well, but was also very lucky.

With the advent of reality TV, the phenomenon of reality TV � and participants in reality television shows who participate not for documentary purposes but for stardom � do you think this affects your subjects when you�re making documentaries?

Yes, I do, in a negative way, because I think reality television started out all innocent and everything, and I think the jig is up. I think those shows are scripted, and the editing is really manipulated. I�m not saying all of them, but for the most part there�s sensationalism, and that�s not what documentary is about. It�s completely two different worlds. [Because of all the sensationalism and exploitation] it makes it very difficult for a legitimate filmmaker to go out and film people. �People are now very guarded, saying, well, wait a minute, you�re not going to portray me badly, or you�re not going to show this, you�re not going to show that. People are so savvy, when you come in with a film crew they know what�s going on. There�s no innocence about the nature of filming anymore because reality TV has sort of broken down that wall.

If you could give advice to new filmmakers, what would it be?

I would pass on the advice that someone told me. Pick a subject matter that you absolutely love because the process is so grueling. Pick something that you have so much heart for because when the going gets tough � and it�s late at night, you�re the only person working on your film, you�re humped over a computer, you�ve run out of money, you�re too tired for it, or somebody doesn�t like your film � the thing that will keep you going is the love you have for the project.

Jody Michelle Solis can be reached at: jsolis [ at ] studentfilmmakers [ dot ] com

This article may not be reprinted in print or internet publications without express permission of StudentFilmmakers.com.

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