Who here is a success story?

8salacious9

8salacious9

By this I mean who has actually made money from their films or your film has gotten you bigger work? Has your film gotten a network to notice you or a film company etc..

Or is everyone still on a lower scale of recognition?
 
This is kind of a vague question. There are a number of contributors here who earn their living in the motion picture industry and related fields - such as Alcove, Zensteve, Kholi, Directorik, Sonnyboo, AudioPostExpert, just to name a few. Whether or not they meet your criteria for "success" or not is a bit unclear.

A short I made got me a job working for an Academy Award nominated writer/director. That, I suppose, is a measure of success, but I didn't actually make any money from my film.

My screenplays have gotten me meetings with executives at Lightstorm, Dreamworks, Toby Maguire's company, Robert Lawrence Productions, Out of the Blue, and several others, but I have yet to actually option one, so I don't know if that counts as success or not.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wygJDUvFDzw

One can only dream of reaching such heights, but gosh darn it, I keep trying... like Icarus into the heavens...
 
picked up my first camera a few years ago, discovered IT right after, within two years I had sold a commercial spot for $10,000.

Yeah, Id call that a success... other than than that.. nothin.. still have an awesome day job\career that I don't plan on leaving..
 
escher said:
I know Scoopicman made a little bit of money from his films, but I don't' know exactly how much.
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Not enough to quit my day job, but it's very cool to see a studio release your work. I've lost money on two films, another broke even at around 52K. Two other projects profited. Right now, I get quarterly checks for VOD and cable. Some small, some decent.

I'm really overdue for getting a new feature out, but it will come. If you can crank a few out, you have a catalogue. You never know which one will generate the business, so it's good to have a few and keep plugging.

There are a lot of other guys, like Sonnyboo, Nick Soares, etc. that have done some stuff. Hopefully, they will chime in.
 
Depends what you classify as a 'success story'. I make a comfortable living working in camera department, but as I'm not a Director, I haven't made any of my own films, let alone had them distributed, though I've certainly worked on high profile and high budget shows.
 
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This is a crazy subjective question, especially as people on this site fill all sorts of different roles. As jax says, he doesn't want to be a director but that doesn't preclude him from success, and the guy's a whizz in the camera department and is bound to do well. Alcove and APE do sound work, so, again, that's a different form of success. I make a little bit of money doing freelance journalism, yet another form of 'success'.

Personally, I'm not at the point where I'm looking to be working professionally in film. When I first came to Indietalk I hadn't made anything. Then I made a few shorts and got distracted by going to university (a very good university, does that make me a success? ;) ) and it was another year before I started work on The Flight of the Flamingo. Now we're almost finished with that, so I'll let you all decide then whether that makes me a success...
 
NickClapper said:
This is a crazy subjective question, especially as people on this site fill all sorts of different roles. As jax says, he doesn't want to be a director but that doesn't preclude him from success, and the guy's a whizz in the camera department and is bound to do well. Alcove and APE do sound work, so, again, that's a different form of success. I make a little bit of money doing freelance journalism, yet another form of 'success'.

Personally, I'm not at the point where I'm looking to be working professionally in film. When I first came to Indietalk I hadn't made anything. Then I made a few shorts and got distracted by going to university (a very good university, does that make me a success? ;) ) and it was another year before I started work on The Flight of the Flamingo. Now we're almost finished with that, so I'll let you all decide then whether that makes me a success...
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I am on the set of TREME as I type this. The martini is up so I'll be done soon. I have a TV series of my own in development and have been approached to shoot a documentary. The show developer that I'm working with thinks that she can get me an introduction to Kevin Smith which could get my feature green lit. I would consider myself a success in progress.
 
Lucky Hardwood said:
I would consider myself a success in progress.
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This.

Though my answer may depend on the day that you asked me the question. Yesterday I very much felt like a "failure in progress" as I watched through clip after clip of dailies from my most recent shoot. So many technical errors, rookie mistakes, and constantly catching the boom, sound blankets, or even the sound guy himself in shots - many in places that I noticed on the day, and many that I did not notice until after the fact.

There are many users on this sit (Alcove, Jax, Directorik, Scoopic, UraniumCity, and many more that I have forgotten) who have successful careers in various parts of our industry. As for me, I'm trying to claw my way up the camera ladder as best I can. As of 11/2012 I reached the 4 year mark on my freelancing career (first as a camera assistant, and with the onset of 2012 primarily as an operator, with a few instances of true, paid, director of photography days in the later part of the year) and I still would not call my income "a comfortable living."

I'm not certain I will ever consider myself a "success story" because the path of my life has been anything but straight or narrow. One day I may reach my lofty goals and be able to make a comfortable living as a director of photography for modest feature films with my real income being from commercial and corporate work. I may have succeeded on that day, but I'm not sure that will count as a "success story."
 
8salacious9 said:
By this I mean who has actually made money from their films or your film has gotten you bigger work? Has your film gotten a network to notice you or a film company etc..

Or is everyone still on a lower scale of recognition?
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I have a feature film with international distribution and averages a ** star out of 10. I have another feature film I did on Amazon that sells moderately. From that I am now producing a TV series on PBS (regionally) on filmmakers called FRAMELINES. I make anywhere from $24-$200 a month from hits on YouTube from my short films and videos. I get booked as a guest speaker in several states on indie filmmaking and distribution. My movies have played on 5 continents, I've had short films play in the "Pre-Show Entertainment" on the big screen all over the country including in front of Star Wars Episode III at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. I've had movies play in over 200 film festivals and I've won over 20 awards, big and small. I contributed articles I've written for VIDEOMAKER MAGAZINE and MOVIEMAKER MAGAZINE in print. I've been interviewed by TV stations, websites, and magazines for film a lot.

All of that is worth about a warm bucket of rat semen, but some would call it "success" and others an abysmal failure. Half a dozen to some, six to others.

"Success" as defined by each person varies quite a bit. I'm not happy with my achievements yet. So I keep plugging away. I don't know if any of this is what you meant or if I qualify for your definition of successful.
 
sonnyboo said:
All of that is worth about a warm bucket of rat semen, but some would call it "success" and others an abysmal failure. Half a dozen to some, six to others.
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Never, never, never underestimate the worth of rat semen. :yes: You have a whole bucket, you say?


escher said:
When you do, let me know. I would love to swing a part, even a small cameo. Caveat: I can't really act.
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It would be cool to have you work on it, Bradley!



Flicker Pictures said:
I'll be rootin' for you, Mike! If you were able to pull a production together, do you think you'd stick with sci-fi/action or try another genre? Do you have a script in mind? Just curious. :D
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It's horror. The furry kind. Clue here.
 
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Dude, I think I've stuck it rich! I'll have to price it on Ebay...

RatSperm.jpg
 
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