Here we are in week 3 of development for "Music Therapy." As promised, I'm updating you on all the ups and downs of development.
We started the week with a few budget meetings. Nothing too crazy. Just some departmental examinations and discussion of what we could do with, and without. Fairly typical. And then...
While on a commercial shoot yesterday (still have to make a living), we received a series of texts from a well-known indie director who had read my script and wants to discuss their potential involvement. This didn't exactly come out of nowhere. As a company, we have been making films for a long time in this indie space, and over that time, we have made a lot of contacts. So, while working on the schedule and numbers, we did send the script to a well-known director in the off chance that they would find the project interesting enough to come on board. The effort may have paid off.
That said, nothing is in stone. We're still at the prelim discussion stage and working with that director to nail down their requirements for getting involved. Will they want to take a go at the script? Most definitely. Will they want writing credit? That could poke a hole in my desire for a single card writing credit but because of the association, it might be worth the trade. Will the director suggest cast that is out of our proposed budget range? If so, this director big enough to bring additional money but what does that mean for everyone down the line?
There are so, so many topics to discuss and questions to answer but even if this direction is never fully realized, the fact that a well-respected indie director has read the script and has responded in such a positive way is a real boost to the level of energy in the office.
Smiles all around. See you next week.
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Congratulations to you and your team on the well-known director wanting to discuss their potential involvement, Michael Fitzer! Hope they come on board! How often do you think filmmakers should have budget meetings?
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This is such a nice professional lesson, The questions that was asked are so crucial to have answers for, these are important conversations to have. JOB WELL DONE
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Hey Maurice Vaughan, thanks! To the point of budget meetings, it's important to have everyone talking the same numbers for the first pass. After that, it should be handed off to one person who checks in occasionally until they have a finished first draft. After I lock the budget and move into pre-pro and production, I like to meet briefly with our producing team for a quick check-in every three or four days. More often if the line producer brings issues to the table or sees trouble spots.
Some producers like daily briefs while others prefer something less frequent. Just depends on the team and the complexity of the project.
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You're welcome, Michael Fitzer. Thanks for the answer. That's a great strategy!
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Michael Fitzer No indie director will really give you that much oomph to a project unless he's a true team player and is more concerned about getting the project filmed than his own ego and/or paycheck. Just make sure he's there for the project. Ultimately, his name may mean something to people "in the industry." but to the general public, his name doesn't mean squat so don't get buffaloed by hype when in the long run, it all boils down to can he entertain a wide variety of movie goers and make a film that will warrant multiple views from audience members.
As far as talent goes, that's more hype than anything else. There are a lot of actors and actresses out there that haven't had a job in years that still hold some love with an audience. You know SAG scale is for movies with a budget of $2M and above. A-list, Premium Talent and bankable talent is like saying New And Improved Taste on dog food labels. How do they know? Dogs lick their own asses so that's no indicator. SAG is the same way. You have to play Moneyball with talent and find the undervalued performers. That way you'll put less stress on your budget and on your revenue performance goals.
Distribution is another shell game. Don't wait for them to market the film. Turnaround time is 18 months average from your first shot to a release date. That's roughly 540 days to tell the world about your film. Don't give it all away, but make the public feel like they're on the journey with you. Sales Agents and marketing experts don't want the public to know about the film so they can cram and rush advertising at the last minute to overcharge for their services. Does Superman really need 9 different posters? By the time you are close to your final edit, the entire world should know about your movie and not 2 weeks before the release date.
These things shave off a couple thousand dollars (possibly tens of thousands) here and there. With a balanced release of material of you talking about your film, you could pre-sell $3.5M tickets domestically and all distribution will have to do is get it into the right number of theaters. At an average of $10.78/ticket, that's a domestic gross of a little over $37M. Look at the numbers. Even at 10 bucks a ticket, if distribution can't get 3 million to watch your movie which is less than 1.5% of the population of the United States, they have failed in every possible way especially if they're charging you $16/person to get them to buy a $10 ticket. No one would stay in business with numbers like that unless someone is getting cheated and you know it ain't them.
Film is an art form but it's also a numbers game that the old school has used to bilk and cheat investors and back end deals since it's beginning. If you can control your budget and your publicity, you can have better control over the whole game and lower the risk of being swindled.
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Michael Fitzer, It’s amazing to see how a long-standing network and smart outreach can open doors. Even if this particular collaboration doesn’t go forward, the momentum and validation from that kind of interest can fuel a project’s energy like nothing else. Looking forward to hearing where it leads, and what trade-offs, if any, you decide are worth it in service of the bigger picture.