Indie Film Class SBIFF Panel

A panel of four filmmakers that have feature films in SBIFF visited my Independent Film Class yesterday. It was a very intriguing and entertaining conversation because of how personal and down to earth they all were and was also really cool because I had met one of them at the press breakfast a few days before.

These were the films represented:
Disfigured
Summerhood
Frayed
Remarkable Power

I am actually going to have to miss the director's panel on Saturday because of our last re-shoots of Chimes, so I'm really happy that I got to see these directors instead. Below is a summary of the conversation; the quotes range from advice about financing a film to just plain silly exclamations that arouse.

"Get the money to make the choices"
"You should be making an indie film with no expectation of making the money back"
"Do not use credit cards"
on first film seen: "I saw God too when I was 31/2 and he was a vengeful bitch"
"Learn about money and distribution for film before you start"
"Enough people just give money because they want their name in a movie"
on viewers:"the less you care about it, the more you a reopen about liking it"
"it's all about strategy"
ask for money from "people who are sympathetic about your ideas"
"everyone has a story...the ability to translate that is what makes you a filmmaker"
"You're not being desperate when asking for money, you're providing a service"
"What a bunch of bullshit, but they took it"
"important to think about other things besides money...that's not what film making is"
"you can make genre films in an independent way"
"the thing that is going to make a good film, is making five other films"
"DVD's are your film school"
"we sold fitness gear..made infomercials, which in itself was practice making short films."
"It doesn't matter how you make it or where it shows...if it's good it will be seen"
"I don't care about distribution...I can do it myself"
"Pick a date to start and end and do it"
"If you can get over the vanity of a theatrical release, you'll never look back"
"you must figure out goals with your team"
"you must manage and figure choices in terms of how final product will sell"
"you have to be resourceful."
"you should be willing but not mandated to make moral decisions, even if it has to increase budget"
"writing is free"
"are you interests in a western...you never know"
"if you're gonna write a feature make sure it is 100 pages or less"
"Day 1 of shooting: 8,000 dollars in the bank. By the time I crawled out of bed, the money was gone and spent on phone calls"

It was refreshing how the panel was so engaged in the discussion and the moderator position was so fluid that they were able to ask each other and at one point ask the students some questions. This brought new optimism to me about the passion to make films.