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Show Business: Adopt an Approach that Gets You to the Next Project
By Staff
posted Feb 15, 2010, 14:25
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.
Check out this article in the print edition of StudentFilmmakers
Magazine, April
2006. More photos in the print version.
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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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