“The most important task is to make great movies,” said Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam at the start of Thursday’s Artist Services Workshop at IFP’s Filmmaker Conference. “All this talk about audiences is meaningless unless you have something in your heart you want to get out there.” However, Putnam’s comments were not to construe that filmmakers shouldn’t think about the rapidly changing world of distribution, marketing and audience building. As Putnam went on to say, it is “easier, less expensive to make a movie, but no easier to find an audience. There is a volume of movies and a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 22, 2014With our friends at Indiegogo Filmmaker has just launched a new partner page on the crowdfunding site. Featuring our curated selection of film (and possibly other) projects you should be taking a look at, the page will be updated frequently with new picks. If you have an Indiegogo project you’d like us to consider, you can email me at scott AT filmmakermagazine.com, and please put the words “Indiegogo Project” in the subject line. Currently up on the site are three projects we’ve supported, one of which just launched. That film is Jake Mahaffy’s Free in Deed, currently in post. Published […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 16, 2014The following is a guest post from 25 New Face filmmaker Jake Mahaffy on his new project, Free in Deed, currently fundraising post-production at Indiegogo. Check out the film’s campaign here, and also see Filmmaker‘s new partner page of curated Indiegogo projects. “How could a man crush a child for over two hours, the entire time believing that he was helping him?” That was a question that formed in my mind as I read mainstream news stories back in 2003 of a failed faith healing. But as time went on, I did more research. I met with the actual man and […]
by Jake Mahaffy on Sep 16, 2014Actor and director Boyd Holbrook has been raising funds on Indiegogo to complete his short film Peacock Killer, which is based on a short story by Sam Shepard. He’s just released a new teaser trailer, which suggests an epic sweep. Check it out and, if it intrigues you, consider donating to Holbrook’s campaign. (Oh, and read our profile of Holbrook when we selected him for last year’s 25 New Faces list.)
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 11, 2014The following is a guest post from director, writer and actress Bethany Orr, whose untitled Iceland-set, psychosexual drama is currently raising funds on Indiegogo in a campaign titled “Iceland or Bust.” Click here at the link to learn more and to support the project. Okay, so you’re not Zach Braff. The market is saturated with projects competing for attention and the hard-earned dollars of YOUR potential supporters. So why crowdfund in 2014? Hasn’t that train left the station? I mean, it’s a huge risk, what if you embarrass yourself? Crowdfunding is, after all, the quickest new way to get unfollowed […]
by Bethany Orr on Jul 29, 2014Dubbed “a novelist from the day after tomorrow” in Sunday’s New York Times, Vincent Zandri profits, quite well, by living in the Amazon universe. His mystery novels are edited, published, marketed and sold by Amazon. Perhaps most importantly, the mechanism through which new readers will discover his work, the latticework of likes, referrals and recommendations, are increasingly controlled by Amazon and its related properties, like Goodreads. For Zandri, who achieved modest success through traditional publishers before signing with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint, the internet giant’s model is the new way. Reduced to “returning bottles and cans for grocery money,” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 15, 2014The Dallas Project is a film by Poppy de Villeneuve and Chloe Hall. It explores the vast and consuming strip club world of Dallas, Texas and the paradoxical lives of the people that make it turn. Below is a guest blog by female director Poppy de Villeneuve on making a film about women in an underrepresented and highly gendered industry. The Dallas Project is raising production and finishing funds for their film through Indiegogo. I am in a moment in my life where I question what it means to be a woman at work. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone […]
by Poppy de Villeneuve on Jun 26, 2014Crowdfunding your film can be fraught with many potential dangers, but one of the most common issues overlooked by first-time crowdfunders is the cost of running a crowdfunding campaign. These costs are varied but can include: the production of promotional assets like campaign videos; the cost of your time for marketing the campaign and supporting your backers; the cost of fulfilling your campaign rewards; and finally the costs of using your crowdfunding platform of choice, Kickstarter, IndieGogo etc. The price of using crowdfunding platforms can be broken down into two key costs: credit card processing fees (normally something between 2-4% of […]
by Kieran Masterton on May 27, 2014You know the films — Harold and Maude, Coming Home, Shampoo, The Last Detail, and Being There – but little about the man behind them. A quarter century after his death, director Hal Ashby remains one of the more mysterious figures to emerge from the New Hollywood movement. His rise as a director coincided with the brief but glorious period in American cinema when difficult, complex films were actually supported and encouraged by studios. That era came to an end with populist hits like Jaws and Star Wars, shifting the zeitgeist towards blockbusters and making it tough for uncompromising directors […]
by Sara Kaye Larson on May 26, 2014Nick Dawson, former Managing Editor at Filmmaker, is serving as an advisor to what will be the first ever Hal Ashby documentary. With the blessing of the Ashby estate, Amy Scott will render a definitive portrait of the revered yet unsung director behind Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, and Being There, to be titled Once I Was: The Hal Ashby Story. The Indiegogo video alone features appearances from John C. Reilly and Jane Fonda, with additional interviews with Robert Downey, Rudy Wurlitzer and Jerome Hellman still to come. Prizes include a plethora of prints from the Hashby estate, criterions, memberships to Cinefamily and Film Forum and […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 21, 2014