HT #9: The Necessary Steps To Getting Your Movie Made
And To Make It A Better Movie (2023 Edition)
How To #9 (How To Get Your Movie Made): In 2011 I wrote my initial version (http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/2011/09/the-99-recommended-steps-for-making-good-movies.html) of this list. The world has changed. I’ve changed with it. I did an update in 2022. And I’ve just revised it again. It’s shorter than it used to be. Shorter is always better (unless you are Bela Tarr).
I like annual reviews of processes. We can always keep improving things. That in turn shows that we can make a difference. Whatever we do, let’s leave things better than we found them. It’s worth obsessing about, but unless you want to annoy your loved ones, I encourage you to just keep your improvements to yourself and relish them privately.
Welcome to today’s version. This recommended process begins when you believe you are ready to take on a new project, regardless of the stage it is in. The initial 14 steps should be part of a creative individual’s overall practice; I launched this newsletter with them and believe they are the most crucial part of what we all do. Nonetheless I encourage you to build your own. Having a list like this helps you have something to rebel against; we need such tools too. I continue to revise and update this, as much for myself as others. And I will be working here to define those steps more fully for you as we continue on.
The 57 subsequent steps are focused essentially on a a single project, and most likely you’ll find they will often need to be repeated on that single project over and maybe over again, kind of like a board game where a simple roll of the dice requires you to go back to the beginning. There will be setbacks and we have to roll with them. That’s how the game is played.
Consequently, you also need to re-evaluate what you do consistently, and it is why I have 9 more follow through items on the list. I hope this all helps. It truly helps me to write these down. And it feels good to share. I wish someone had given me some sort of list like this when I started out, or hit a tough patch, or really just yesterday.
Altogether, that’s 80 Steps. What are you waiting for? We are all always beginning again, so no worries if you’ve been a bit delayed. Now is the time. Don’t stop.
A Filmmaker’s Creative Practice.
1. Participate in your creative community.
2. Interrogate the world & examine reality.
3. Interrogate & examine your industry.
4. Interrogate & examine yourself.
5. Build your Roadmap To Utopia (personal, professional, politically, locally, globally).
6. Expand & maintain wonder & love for the world & most/some of the people — by learning to spot the qualities you love quickly & making sure you take the time to appreciate that they are there.
7. Recognize the barriers & be empowered by YOUR desire for change.
8. Maintain love & respect for both film art & the film industry (celebrate good work & those that help support it).
9. Develop processes to lift the good into the great. This is one of your ever-present goals.
10. Develop processes to show you can, will, & do change things for the better.
11. Structure for the long haul: develop endurance & demonstrate persistence; maintain a thick skin, & learn how to maintain financial security/independence.
12. Don’t focus on just one film. You need to be able to pivot when the bad things happen (and they will). Build a diversified slate.
13. Keep yourself fit: physically, mentally, emotionally, creatively. Live a full life.
14. Build momentum, but don’t rush. Stay focused and keep it going.
A Process To Get Your Movie Made & Make It Better
1. Recognize and accept that development & financing takes time and focus; it benefits from patience.
2. Find an inspiring idea & the correct collaborator(s) for it.
3. Develop as a script until you believe it is ready (or just can’t take it anymore).
4. Get feedback from non-industry readers.
5. Revise accordingly.
6. Depending on writer/director’s experience, consider/apply to script labs & contests.
7. Determine & secure the right team needed to reasonably expect that the film will get made.
8. Define & maintain thematic list.
9. Define & maintain list of possible audience segments.
10. Commence script Interrogation/page turn/writers room to unlock cinematic opportunity.
11. Revise script.
12. One of your goals is to make the project feel authentically inevitable. Always move things towards this goal.
13. Ruthless spell check of script; tolerate no errors.
14. Maintain project “To Do” notebook.
15. Do semi-annual check-ins with leading financiers to evaluate present mandates; alternatively check in with agents or fellow producers.
16. Draft & maintain list of other movie comps. What will you have to overcome?
17. What are references & inspirations (movies, books, music, ideas,etc)? Collect them.
18. Can you start to put together marketing strategy? Do you know any marketing people who might consult?
19. Update bios for key collaborators.
20. Update social media for key collaborators.
21. Prepare & regularly update contact lists of key collaborators & their teams.
22. Meet the most likely potential financiers on “general” meetings.
23. Draft character lists. Use one line descriptions.
24. Draft location lists. Use one line descriptions.
25. Draft log line. Shorter is best, but no more than three lines.
26. Draft 3 synopsis: 1 paragraph, 1/2 page, & 1 page.
27. Create look book.
28. Create sizzle reel or other additional positioning tools.
29. Consider storyboards, particularly for action sequences. If possible, generate them.
30. Draft & maintain casting hit list w age & agency reps listed.
31. Consider casting strategy. What roles will need to be cast to help financing.
32. Casting director: do you need one & if so secure one.
33. Evaluate prior submission list (if any) & how the project may need to be best reinvented.
34. Draft & maintain financier hit list strategy. I like waves of 3-5 so adjustments can be made if need be.
35. Consider whether financing via something other than an all-in global streamer makes sense.
36. Draft & maintain key collaborator HoD inspiration list.
37. Consider all possible base of operations & research viability (tax credits, location suitability, crew base, etc.).
38. Preliminary budget & schedule: dream, market reality, & minimum viable product. Multiple location options.
39. Initiate project relationship with bond company.
40. Scout production attorneys.
41. Evaluate project’s legal chain of title & what needs to be in place and when (if project was pre-existing, this must be done far earlier).
42. Determine what preferred legal & business structure will be for project if/when financed.
43. Determine best appropriate way to introduce project to industry.
44. Do you have covering agents? Submit & get feedback. Adjust accordingly.
45. Develop presentation/pitch to introduce the project to industry, if appropriate.
46. Update script title page with a recent date, and include producers’ contact info.
47. Start submissions.
48. Maintain outgoing submission list.
49. Check in without being annoying.
50. Scout potential entities to fund tax credits. Get references from others.
51. Get feedback & adjust plan accordingly when necessary.
52. Will you need interim “Ramp” funding? Determine.
53. Build ramp budget.
54. Determine Ramp funding terms if needed.
55. Draft ramp funding deal.
56. Determine potential Ramp funders & strategy. Secure if necessary.
57. Kick into gear & display momentum.
Project Follow Through And Creative Practice Addendum
1. Post Mortem Evaluation: successes, challenges, barriers, & inflection points.
2. What did we learn?
3. Try again.
4. Fail better.
5. Appreciate the collaboration and support.
6. Recognize the good luck.
7. Why would be expect that something so complex would ever be easy?
8. Good work is worth the struggle. It will live long beyond us.
9. Stay humble.
Let me know what I missed! Thanks
“Shake The Hippie” by THE 39 CLOCKS from their Pain It Dark LP, released in 1981 on the Independent No Fun Records label out of Germany.
The 39 Clocks are one of the most magnificent bands ever to have emerged from Germany; Diedrich Diederichsen, German pop boffin, considers them to be the nation's best band of the 1980s. The legendary duo from Hanover broke every rule in the music business, without exception. And -- above all -- with attitude. They are elusive, incapable of being categorized, unless the category is a little bit weird. Their real names have been eradicated ("never had one" -- Clocks), replaced by cryptic initials (CH-39, JG-39), less than randomly reminiscent of molecular chains like LSD-25. The weirdness is reflected in their music: sizzling irradiated, repetitive. The outrageous rumors surrounding the duo are the stuff of legend: strung-out live performances with vacuum cleaners instead of guitars, frequently facing a throng of concertgoers with a tendency to boo, flee the venue or threaten them with physical violence. The Clocks project really began to take shape in 1979 when they turned away from punk and created "psycho beat", positioning themselves as the antithesis of the emerging NDW/German New Wave movement. Their music is a futuristic, definitively urban, evolution of American garage punk from the 1960s. Their stylistic modus operandi: expressionless voice, English lyrics with an intentionally heavy German accent, dirty sound, cool monochrome image. Those lacking in imagination might identify touches of the Velvet Underground and stop right there, but many other influences were also at work: from Salvador Dali via the Troggs, Suicide, Peter Handke's Offending The Audience (1966), Antoine to Tiny Tim, Kurt Schwitters, Can, and NEU! The Clocks themselves spoke of "at least 123" sources of inspiration. In early 1980s Germany, the 39 Clocks were, at one and the same time, a panoply of discernible influences and a singular phenomenon with a clear, inimitable sonic identity. Time and again, the 39 Clocks succeeded in pushing back the borders of experimentation a little further: barely tolerable, protracted live improvisations, atonal passages, background noises, extreme lo-fi and a tinny beatbox test the listener's receptivity to the limit. And their sonic experiments popped up in various film soundtracks and on television series, like Halt and Catch Fire in the US. The Next Dimension Transfer box set, authorized by the band, provides the ultimate overview of the Clocks' output -- a phantom of the German music underground, enshrouded in myth.
https://youtu.be/-KouIva357M?si=ll840ufQNtWxSrkC
This a great reminder of what it takes to make a movie and the miracle we experience when creativity, hard work and the stars all align to make it a reality :)