Daily Production Diary

Why Screenwriting in Boston is the best decision.

Most people would consider the best locations for screenwriters to be New York or Boston. While those might be the best places to make deals, the best place for a screenwriter to live is Boston. Sure the weather is unique and the hipsters abundant, but hear me out. Boston is the best place for screenwriters to live due to its unique cultural mixture, access to people and other reasons.

 Boston, has a cultural mix beyond most American cities. Sure it may be caricatured as a bunch of pale Irish Catholics, but the reality is much more complex. Partly due to its ostentatious collection of top flight universities Boston attracts a metric ton of foreign students. Many settle here and contribute to our culture. This means you can sample many other cultures by simply traveling around Boston. In an increasingly international connected world where foreign sales are increasingly important it is vital that your scripts understand their place in the world. What better way to help this than to be exposed to other cultures.

 Boston's varying cultures do not simply mean foreign cultures. There are also the socioeconomic cultures to consider. Boston has a fantastic blend of working class, various professionals (bankers, tech heads), educators and artists. Nearly any character you mightconsider exists in some part in Boston. The fantastic thing is their accessibility. Boston is such a compact city that it is amazingly easy to sample these various voices. A simple ride on the "T" or hanging out on a park bench in the park will expose you to an array of voices to inspire your writing. Ride the Red Line from Alewife to Ashmont or Braintree and walk away with a treasure chest of characters and dialogue. Ignore what people say about New Englanders being standoffish. Approach people, give them a chance and they will open up. More than New Yorkers or LAers.

 Boston is also located in an ideal location geographically. A quick drive or plane to Manhattan. Multiple flights to LA, from a convenient and less delayed airport. It's all the locational convenience of New York, without the price tag or quite as many scraggly beards and summer scarves.

 So you say you want to be on the cutting edge of something new? Why not establish yourself as a premier writer for new media? The MIT Media Lab and other area institutions are on the cutting edge of new storytelling technology. The sooner you can establish yourself in these new transmedia forms the better. Then you can laugh and laugh as your screenwriter friends in other locations struggle to comprehend the massive changes in the entertainment industry.  Who's laughing now? That's right - you are! Just don't laugh too long, it will make you look silly.

 Finally, Boston celebrates the unique. In LA, where a pre-schooler has his first script written in crayon, you are just another writer. In Boston you are something to be celebrated. Someone who has broken the old rules and become determined to succeed in your own way. You are your own entrepreneur and Boston loves nothing more than an entrepreneur. Our vibrant arts community is not simply about being "artsy", in many ways it is because the city supports each artist and an entrepreneur and rule breaker. After all what other city has a museum that celebrates bad art?

 Have I convinced you? Probably not. Have I at least made you think? Hopefully. Much of what I have mentioned above not only applies to screenwriting in Boston, but can also apply to filmmaking in Boston, especially independent filmmaking in Boston. So what haveI missed? What great things do you guys think exist in Boston that I forgot?

3 surprising tips for low budget independent filmmaker (based on experience)

So in thinking how I might make the movie I want to create I wanted to think about two films I worked on while I was in Miami.

While neither was a raging success one, Smoking Stogies, got a DVD release, while the other Pure (The True Site of Eden), is not available on Amazon and has only played in a few select venues, essentially a non-release. I believe three quick lessons for independent filmmakers or digital filmmaking can be learned. I am sure there are more, but these are a good start and
they are probably useful tips for independent film.

1. A crew runs on its stomach - feed them, even if you need to beg! The irony here is that the Pure, which did not get an actual release, actually did a better job of this. I know because I spent countless hours on the phone, calling every single restaurant in Miami, begging for crew meals. In the end we had free crew meals from places such as Planet Hollywood and small cafes for the entire 15 day shoot. Essentially this came from begging. I literally started on the first page of restaurants in the yellow pages and finished on the last (with two to spare). All that was offered was credit in the film. If you are the producer or part of the above the line team you might not want to do this yourself. It can be hard if you think you have a great project to beg, its also very time consuming. However, if you have a great Production Coordinator or PA ask them to do it. It is a little less painful to take the rejection if you did not create the project. Due to this the crew was more willing to work under less than ideal circumstances. While Stogies did get a release the crew nearly mutinied over the food. The same horrible mini sausages every day for breakfast, etc. Even if you have to skimp on a few other things make sure you feed the crew well, you may think it will not appear on screen so it can me cut - wrong! Someway, somehow, through the quality of the crew's work it will show up on screen.

2. Pay your crew! It doesn't have to be much, but at least a small amount, show some respect. True professionals will most often not work for free but they will work for deeply deeply discounted rates. Even if you can only pay them $25 a day, it is something and demonstrated you value them. If something is free it is often perceived as having no value. Think about it, you are telling your crew they have no value! How do you think they will perform for you? This is doubly true if you expect them to provide their own equipment. Smokin' Stogies did not exactly pay us standard rates but they did pay us. This made the production feel much more like a team and attracted much more qualified team members. Sure we had a few interesting cases such as a Cinematographer that spoke only Spanish and a Camera Op that spoke only English, but they were both great at their job! If you pay people it will also make them far less likely to go crazy with lawsuits should your film get distribution. Pure DID NOT pay its crew. Not only was the quality of work less but lawsuits did occur within 2 years of completion - and it never even got distribution. If you would like to see the anger "free" gigs generates check out Craigslist and look for people's responses to free work.

3. Maybe you shouldn't direct. Yes, it is tempting. Yes, you may be a great artist or have piles of money. No, that does not mean you should direct. Directing a film takes a fine balance of the skills that make you a great artist and a great business person. If you only have half the equation, maybe you should reconsider. Being a producer is also a great thing! Pure had an award winning playwrite and theater director directing the film, based on her own script. In those worlds she was brilliant. In the film world it simply created a very artsy, very strange film, hence no distribution. Additionally it created some problems on set. A theater director is used to having much more time to rehearse and block. The light and weather is not a concern. usually there are not a ton of crew members hanging around waiting for a decision. That is not to say theater directing is easy, it isn't, but it is different in important ways. If you are a great painter, do not assume that means you can automatically capture great images on film. In the case of Stogies the director had a good chunk of change and some experience on the technical side of things, he was also a very nice guy. The fact is Stogies did not come together until later when a professional was brought in to work on recrafting parts of the film. Only then did it get distribution. You no doubt have some great skills, focus on where
they will do the most good.

Bonus: Hire a great Assistant Director. This is worth an entry unto itself (and will get one). For now just know it is very important and can save your butt.

Automatically engage social media with your low budget film production

A short one today. Still no response from BU or anyone else I have emailed. Would Craigslist be cheating the experiment? Does it count as social media? If only CPSI (Creative Problem Solving Insitute)  had a social media network I could appeal to it for help! After all it was my experiences there that convinced me to embark upon this.

So today I was thinking briefly - in what ways can we have a film set generate social media content automatically? If someone can create a Twitter feed that tweets passing gas then what might we do on a film set? A camera that tweets every start and stop? i.e. just shot 12 minutes or just shot 1200 feet of film? Or tweets its location? If it is a social community backed film would GPS be a great way of engaging with fans (as long as they stay out of the way while shooting)? What about a live ustream feed from the set? Or software that frame grabs two images a day from the editing bay and uploads them to Flickr? Independent low budget films may not have the time or money so generate a ton of high quality social media,but what about going for a quantity, not quality approach? Does that make sense or is it a betrayal or your fans?

 

Where art thou Plymouth Rock Studios?

I read today that Shutter Island saved 25% of its budget by filming in Massachusetts. Primarily in tax credits. Ultimately that means they spent a ton of money in the state. Yet our short minded legislature is planning on putting a cap on the amount of film tax credits film productions can get in the state. Sure it might be easy to view this as a boon to independent film. One could think - "that will keep the blockbusters out and support indie film in the state." Sadly, that will not be the case. We need the large productions for a number of reasons.

1) They help crew members make a good amount of money so they can work for a much lower wage on indie films.

2) They help TRAIN new crew members. Without the experience crew gain on major films they would not be as effective.

3) They encourage the building of production facilities, that can be offered to indie producers during slow seasons.

Number 3 leads me to the fate of Plymouth Rock Studios. I know many people think the whole thing was a scam. Having met with th executive team I can tell you that I never got that feeling. From what I can tell they were VERY much into making this studio happen. The fact is they made one huge monumental mistake - not vetting their loan company. The sad thing is how many people rooted for them to fail. Had they been supported by the community they may have recovered from that mistake. However everyone, especially the Boston Globe, was cheering their failure. Does anyone understand the jobs that were lost? Or potential jobs that could have been created. The media industry is birthing a new type of media and Mass has the change to be on the cutting edge of that. However, it seems they are too busy worrying about outsiders to actually embrace that.

The sound of silence from Boston film production

Well ladies and gentleman I have not heard back from the email I sent to Boston University's film production department. While I plan to branch out to other options such as Boston College I wonder if this apparent failure can be used to create a better message in the next email.

So what tips do you guys have to make me not sound insane when I email the schools about helping to make a film in Boston? 

First film production research email sent to Boston University

So I sent the first email to the Boston University film production department. I attempted to demonstrate that I was not a total loon by pointing out my MBA and production background as well as contacts in distribution.

It is challenging to differntiate my project from all the other "I am going to make" a movie projects out there. So many people have a little bit of money, but no actual background or experience. They make vague promises and post ads to CraigsList getting people to work for "experience" and ruin it for everyone else. The fact is that usually doesn't work. I am not saying there are not exceptions. Kevin Smith being a huge example. The fact is, however, he is an outlier. Most independent productions happen because people find a decent chunk of money and have the right experience and connections. I may have the experience and some of the connections, but I need more connections and certainly more funding. 

My hope is that this independent film production will grow as I use social media to lower the cost of production. The few non fully funded films that succeed do so because of a persons network. If we take that to the Nth degree we may be able to lower the cost further. 

So if someone is able to use connections to make a $10,000 film look like a $100,000 film perhaps we can use the internet and social media in filmmaking to make a $250,000 film look like $2.5 million.

As always please spread the word. I cannot do this myself. I want to build a real team who are all passionate about film. You don't even need to be a Boston based film or television crew member - anyone anywhere you would like to help is welcome to contribute.  

First steps

So I have determined my first step.

Living in Boston I have a great arts community and much local indie film production combined wtih outstanding educational facilities.

I think it is time to start calling film schools in the area and ask who there best writer and directors are.

What do you guys think? Sounds like crowdsourcing locating talent!  

This may be a short experiment

Hrm...this may be a short experiment in film  production and social media.

Thus far I have attracted 26 people to this blog, 3 of which have subscribed via RSS. As near as I can tell I have not had any tweets or inbound links created to me.

I have posted to reddit (2 votes), Digg (none other than mine), Technorati, Delicious and Tweeted. It is challenging to create a groundswell when no one is listening. So to you dear 26 who has visited me, and perhaps will come back, I ask of you, please spread the mission. You are my founding team, the original ones who at least cared enough to click on a URL. If you want to see what insanity happens if this experiment continues please mention me, link to me or pass me on in some way.

I continue to guarantee complete transparency of the process. In all liklihood as we move forward and gain momentum this will turn into a trainwreck. But who doesn't want to watch a trainwreck! Come on, you know you want to.

Super low budget or normal budget?

So I think one of the things I (we) are debating is how low budget do we want to go when we say - lets make a movie? Theoretically I could use my prosumer digital HD camera, friends and my house as a set and "make a movie". I don't think thats where we want to go. At the very least it would be nice to shoot with a RED camera, in multiple locations, with paid actors and crew - even if its scale. I just wonder where is the correct balance? What should we reach for without making it out of reach?

What do you guys think? Let me know below.

 

CPSI

For those who are wondering this entire idea was hatched at the CPSI (Creative Problem Solving Institute) Conference in Boston last year. While in training we were solving practice problems and mine was "how do I get my movie made"? Building a following and engaging others in social media was the suggestion. It may be almost a year later but as CPSI 2010 is approaching I hope to be able to find those who were on my training team last year and update them - so please help me give them a great update!

Also check out CPSI while you are at it -it is a fantastic personal and business experience. I can't recommend it highly enough.