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An amateur wants to shoot my feature...

G

gorillaonabike

I wrote a feature a little while back. To be precise, I wrote an unpublished novel that my ex-wife thought was excellent (and she hated me) and she passed it to a production house. The production house told me the story was good, original and I spent a year re-writing it in different ways for them until they finally decided to go in a different direction with one of the world's most successful thriller writers. They sent me an incredibly expensive bottle of whiskey for my pains which I drank in an evening.

However, a couple of people saw my feature including a couple of amateurs and one of them wants to shoot it. I have no idea how he wants to shoot it but at this stage, I am considering it because he is a young, semi-pro film maker, has shot some professional footage for a variety of 'name' productions (e.g. MTV) and has a degree of directorial experience. I did a little stuff with him a year or so ago.

What are your thoughts? If it was your feature, would you let a semi-pro shoot the story?
 
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Absolutely. But do things the right way. Do not let their
enthusiasm affect your business judgment.

Make them option the script - for money. It doesn’t have to be
much and the option should be for a very short period of time.
If they cannot afford, say, £250 a month for 6 months they
most likely cannot put together the financing. Cut that in half
if it makes you more comfortable, but make sure you get an
option agreement in writing from them. Frankly asking £500
a month for 6 months isn't too high or unreasonable. Taking
any less than £125/150 per month (£750/£900 total) is foolish.
 
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You will find that if you have a project, EVERYBODY wants to be involved, but nobody wants to put the money on the table to do it. You will find a director who wants to direct it, a cameraman who wants to shoot it, a special effects guy who wants to work on it...because it all means a paycheck for them. They are all suddenly your best friends. But the big question is, who will put up the money to make it happen?...

What "directorik" says is good advice. Have the guy "option" your script for 6 months to a
year...don't go for any more than a year because someone else may come along who actually has some money to spend.
 
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