E Hula Mau on Pacific Networks

In September I shot a three part video about E Hula Mau (A chant and hula competition) in Long Beach California. Now it is up on www.pacificnetwork.tv. Click here to see. The site doesn't have fixed links for each video so you have to look for E Hula Mau pt. 1, 2, and 3. Just click on it and there you go.

Let me know what you think.

The Four Budget Catagories

The Four Catagories of film budets are.

No Budget / Student
Low Budget Indie
Mid Budget or Mini-Major Indie
Sudio

I am going to break down how to identify these budgets and give a few examples. This may seem like pretty obvious stuff, but it will be expanded on in the next articles in the series.

No Budget / Student ($0 - $60k)



Often films that work best in this category are short films, documentary, and comedy. Directors and Producers often make short films because they hope to raise money to create a feature version of their idea. Peluca is the short film that Napoleon Dynamite is based on. It is a good example of a good comedic student short (see it here) Period pieces and action movies are generally a bad idea to take on at this budget level.

Low Budget Indie ($50k – 5 mil)



The variety of films produced within this budget category is amazingly diverse. These producers and directors are largely operating outside of the studio system. Most of them are first and second time filmmakers who are extremely passionate and committed to getting their film completed with the help of a group of other committed individuals.

This budget range is also where many documentaries intended for PBS broadcast and educational markets live. Although the budget range for this type of project is generally quite narrow usually between $250,000 and $400,000.

Medicine for Melancholy is a great example of a low budget narrative ($50k):
See a trailer here

Bigger, Faster, Stronger is a great example of a low budget documentary (?)
Trailer here

Mid Budget or “Mini-Major” Indie (5 mil – 60 mil)



Films in this budget range tend to have known actors in them, since “name talent” helps lend credibility to a film. Most of these films are also being produced by what is known as a “mini-major” production company. These production companies are technically independent, but often have very close relationships with studios or other large distribution networks. It is often easier for films in this group to cast celebrity actors in roles. Check out a list of mini-majors and also a grid of the major studios and their production subsidiaries here on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studio#The_.22mini-majors.22

The Soloist is an example of a mini-major production. Produced by Dreamworks SKG with Participant Media.
Trailer Here

Studio (Sky’s the Limit!)



The number of film production studios in the U.S. is very small. Here is a Wikipedia page that Everyone knows about these movies the are the block buster action movies like Transformers, the romantic comedies starring people like Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon, screwball comedies like The 40 year old virgin, and the ever popular talking animal movie.

Surrogates is an example of a Touchstone/Walt Disney Picture
Trailer here

If you have any questions you can comment below, or ask a question to @paradocsfilm

List of Articles

I was able to attend the Film Independent’s Filmmaker Forum in Los Angeles, California October 10th and 11th. This was an incredibly educational experience for me. I think and speculate a great deal about the general state of independent filmmaking. A great challenge for me and all independent filmmakers, not only Pacific Islander filmmakers, is the fact that we are like little points of light thrown across a gigantic galaxy. It is really hard to get a sense of the bigger picture of what is currently happening in independent production because of this. As a result of this it is difficult for first time filmmakers to find their starting position in the film and media making arena let alone be able to empower themselves to guide their projects successfully from concept to distribution.

In addition the difficulties of being spread out independent filmmakers are also infinitely varied in size, approach, and goal. However, we are all unified by the goal of making movies. By being able to conference with other filmmakers of all types I was able to learn new techniques and strategies fit the goals, scope, and market of my own projects.

Attending the forum this weekend I was able gain a choice outlook on the landscape. I have decided to create a report in the form of three blog articles with the intention to expand it to 10 articles total over the next three months. Which I hope will be used to help other filmmakers especially those representing the Pacific Islands begin to make their way in the larger world of production. These articles are mostly made up of the new things I learned from other filmmakers. Information I found innovative, inspiring or informative, and a few of my own insights that solidified over the course of the weekend.

Here are the titles of the articles I plan to write:

The Four Budget Categories
The Budget and Genre Grid: Where does your film fit?
How does film business work?
Knowing your voice, the low-budget producer’s best weapon.
Lawyers, Publicists, and Music Rights: All the junk nobody wants to think about.
What’s up Doc? Methods of fundraising, and increasing your chances of success.
Fundraising – the indie world’s answer to “development hell”
Film Festivals: How to prepare and what to expect.
Traditional Distribution Routes: Pros and Cons
Online Audience Building: The indie film savior
New distribution models: What the heck is day and date?
Selling your movie at $300 per DVD. (The Educational Market Demystified)
Passion versus Ambition: An Encouraging Reality Check

10 part indie filmmaker article series coming up.

I absorbed an immense amount of new ideas and information this weekend. I will be writing a series of short articles on what I took away from the Film Independent Forum this weekend.

For now here is a little tidbit. I just joined this start-up network called Open Indie. Learn more at www.openindie.com

Publicist and Random Samoan Movie

I am researching the different people who are going to be at the Film Independent Networking Lunch at this weekend's filmmaker forum. I got to this publicist Marina Bailey, who helped promote awesome films like Black Sheep. Which lead me to this movie called Samoan Wedding. What do you think?
See the trailer here

Film Independent's Filmmaker Forum

I am very excited that I will be attending this Film Independent's Filmmaker Forum this year.

Here is the section of the keynotes speech from last year.



I will share what I learn here on the blog.