How to get a film made

Welcome, I believe you just made the first step toward finding a filmmaker etc.

What kind of budget are you looking at for this project?

goals for your project

I suppose your question can be best answered by knowing what the goals for this project would be.

If you are merely looking to document this as an interesting film for you and your friends to enjoy, I would suggest finding a very skilled event videographer/editor to help you out.

However, if you are looking to post this film on the web and possibly get some type of serious distribution out of it, I would put some ads in nearby newspapers and possibly even try to find people interested via the internet.

As far as the qualifications of the filmmaker, you would probably want to get someone who either does this type of thing for a living or someone who has some good film/video samples to show you. If they have previously done documentary work, and not just narrative stuff, that would be good as well.

Someone who is interested in music and specifically your type of music would also obviously be a plus. The reason I say that is because I am also a musician but have also agreed to put some film projects on hold because a friend of mine is wanting me to shoot some music videos for him. Because I love music and am looking to get some serious works added to my credit, I will be doing this for him free of charge.

Perhaps you know someone like this?

sorry spudman

When I first replied earlier, I had missed where you said that you wanted the film marketed. So I suppose the first part of my post probably sounded dumb. Sorry about that.

I hope you are able to find someone. This seems to be a great place in helping with that.

Spudman said:

Hi
How would I go about finding a film maker that would be interested in making a film of it, producing it and marketing it?

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This is a good place to start. I might be interested as will other filmmakers
who read and post here.

Are you going to be paying for the film or are you looking for a filmmaker who will cover all the costs?
When would you like to start shooting?
Is this a documentary or do you want a script written for a more narrative kind of movie?

Thanks for all your replies.

What I have in mind is probably not how one normally goes about this, but since I'm completely ignorant of the process I hope I won't embarrass myself too much.

The financial incentive for the maker of the film is in their hands. Judging from the lack of writing currently due to the writers strike I would imagine some networks might be looking for material. What I envision is that the film maker will have rights to distribution etc and will get their investment back that way. They come, capture the event, produce it and then market it to whomever wants it.

I'm thinking of a reality show format or documentary. Film the rehearsals the week before the event, film the concerts 2 nights and do individual interviews or pair interviews with the members to get historical information and personal information. If a network or other investor is interested then maybe more money would become available to go to where each member lives and capture a bit of their day to day lives to add to it.

With that in mind...the place where rehearsals and two concerts will take place is a relatively inexpensive place so overhead would be low.

Does this make any sense so far?

Spudman said:

The financial incentive for the maker of the film is in their hands. Judging from the lack of writing currently due to the writers strike I would imagine some networks might be looking for material.

Click to expand...

...well, that depends....
You can certainly do a documentary with narraration, which is why you might need some writing. However, for the documentary shorts that I have done, I never use a narrator. I figure, why have someone else talking when the people who are watching would be more interested in your voice giving the history, influences and story of your band? To my mind, narration for the kind of documentary you seem to be attempting to pull together, you should give all the time possible to the subjects in your band.

If your narrator is talking, that means you are not talking. So if this is your story, why wouldn't you tell it...

-- spinner

Sounds like a good deal, if you are the Rolling Stones. If nobody has ever heard of you, it could be a hard sell, from a business venture perspective. Somewhere in between the Stones and obscure, some market research would be required. If there is no proven market, then I would say to you the same thing I say to my customers who come to me with a great, vertical-market software idea; if you believe in yourself (or your product), and it's marketability, then put your money where your mouth is, and we'll write a contract that says you get all of the proceeds until you have recapped your investment, then we'll split the profits as set forth in our contract.

That's my business opinion. If I thought I'd have a lot of fun making your movie and I didn't need the money, I may take a different approach. Please understand that there are lots of people out there who have "great ideas", in markets with which they have intimate experience. Many of those people have no marketing/business savvy, and I am not confident that I can make money on their idea. It only seems fair that if they believe the idea is marketable, then they should put down some of their hard earned cash, up front, to give me confidence in their judgment. If they tell me that they have no money, that fact, in itself, gives me some idea of their previous experience in business.

Having said all that, let me add that my perspective is much different than a film maker who is trying to get his name out there and may leap at a chance to work with a group of talented, motivated people on a project that could look really good on his resume'. I write commercial software and produce commercial video projects, so I am not aspiring to make a big name for myself in the movie industry. I'm just giving you my perspective on your project (with what little I know about it).

I'm with oakstreetvideo on the business side of the equation.

But, rather than rehash that, I'd like to point out some issues you may need to consider:

1) Any film maker going in is going to need to see evidence you hold the rights to the songs you're performing. The fact that you wrote and performed them, isn't going to mean anything, if you negotiated those rights away to a publishing company or record label 30 years ago.

Before you even think about creating a video for resale or broadcast, you'll need to be sure you have the legal right to do so.

Trust me, I have seen so many bands land up in court, by not understanding the true legal status of what they thought was their material.

2) If you really think there is a market for a film about your band, then why not check out the video section of your local record store and see who produced the best docos about bands from your era. A company which already has a back catalogue of product related to your area is more likely to know how to get some kind of return.
What will help them do this is they can see some kind of evidence of a following for your band... numbers of hits on fan-sites is a good indication.

3) If you had a recording contract, who holds your back catalogue?... Maybe they'd be interested in supporting the video production.

Spudman, don't worry about embarrassing yourself. We're all pretty
cool here. Though some might point and giggle behind your back.

Your assumption that due to the strike networks are looking for
material. If this were done as a series and available right now
it might fly, but your band is getting back together for gigs
this summer. By the time it's shot and cut and ready to deliver,
in all likelihood the strike will be long over.

I love the idea of doing this kind of project, but even in a
relatively inexpensive place a small crew shooting rehearsals for
a week, 2 concerts and interviews can get expensive.

oakstreet has one business opinion - I'll offer another one:

If you believe this project has the potential to get the
investment back, then you cover the costs of the production and
you keep the money made from distribution.

Marketing a documentary about an unknown band isn't easy. There
isn't much of an audience for movies about unknown bands. It
seems you would be the target audience for this kind of movie.
How many to you remember paying to see?

Thanks for all the input everyone. This is exactly the information I was looking for. Prior to coming here I was tabla rasa. Now I have some ideas to work with. Please keep them coming.

If you are putting up the money for it then MAKE DAMN SURE in the contract (that you enter into with the production company) that you own the copyrights - not the production company, and that the copyrights to the people that the production company hires automatically transfer to you. If this is more than just a small time thing then you really need a lawyer to look over the contract and advise you. It should be considered a "work for hire". Those are the buzz words that "jive" with copyright law.