Movie Blog: Hey, Film-makers! It's About The Script, Stupid. #lgm

This week I want to do a little bit of plain speaking. Mainly because I'm tired of holding my tongue on this issue.

I've spent more than a decade watching the indie film community consistently talk about the wrong things. For decades indie film makers have talked about the following: cameras, editing software, raising production finance and distribution... oh, and their own movie. That's it. I've heard very few conversations that fall outside of those topics.

Basically, indie movie-makers have always been convinced, that if they had the right camera, the right production finance and a way to distribute, they could take on the industry and beat them at their own game. However, in the last decade, I've never, ever seen it happen. I've never seen it happen, because as I said at the top of this piece, film-makers always focus on the wrong things.

So this week. I want to try and move the focus onto the problem areas.... here is how you make a successful movie. It is frighteningly simple:

Make something astounding, with the right script, using the right tools for the job and with people who have the skills to do it well.

There you go. I hope you enjoyed this week's piece and that it helped.

But isn't that what everyone is doing, already? Surely everyone is trying to make something astounding? Come on Clive, play fair.

Trust me, I am not being glib about this. I am being very, very serious. I'm serious because whilst people are getting their knickers in a twist about sales and distribution, they're failing to take care of basic quality control issues. Quality control and project development, are the core principles of movie marketing and hardly anyone takes them seriously.

Here are five things that independent movie makers often don't do... that they easily could do, if they wanted to make better movies:

1) Test pitch your concept

Everyone thinks their idea for a movie is awesome. Over the years I have heard a lot of pitches... and trust me, they usually aren't that good. As movies sell largely on word of mouth recommendations, it makes sense to have a simple pitch, a pitch that makes people want to see the movie. Ideas are actually pretty easy to test. Develop four or five ideas you think are brilliant. Pitch those ideas to friends and watch their faces. If an idea is awesome, you can see it in people's faces. If an idea is rubbish, people will be polite, but their faces don't light up. If you pitch your idea to twenty people and fifteen faces light up, then you've got an idea that's worth developing. Actually, before even starting to write a script I believe it's a good idea to mock up a poster. That way you know if your movie's central concept will translate into a poster and the poster will inspire you to write a movie good enough to be represented by that poster.

(I believe, if independent movie makers actually tested their pitches, before writing their screenplays, 92% of the currently produced movies, would never have been written, let alone made).

2) Use a bloody script editor!

If you are going to ask people to invest either time or money in making your movie, at least have the professional courtesy to check whether your script is worth making, before you shoot it. In my early days as an independent, I didn't do this and it showed, both in the quality of the films and how they performed as products. My early feature films all have serious script flaws in them, flaws a good script editor would have spotted. It's always cheaper to rewrite, than to reshoot. I really didn't learn how to write movies until I stopped taking script notes from idiot producers and started working with professional script editors.

Oh, and whilst we're on the subject, stop calling yourself a "no-budget film maker." If people are investing their time into helping you make your movie, they are your investors. Take them serious and show a little respect. "Micro-budget" that's respectful. "No budget" implies that your cast and crew's time is worthless. It isn't.

3) Read other people's spec scripts, before you green-light your own script.

Before green-lighting your own script, tell the screenwriting community what your brief is, the kind of movie you want to make. Take script submissions. Read other people's scripts. I can guarantee that there are unknown screenwriters out there whose scripts are better than yours. At least give your ego a check, by finding out if your script really is the best one to put into production. One of the main reasons the independent cinema community fails to create great movies, is because people are only interested in making their own scripts.

4) Never green-light a script that you haven't had option offers on

If my screenplay is worth making, then it will probably be attractive to other production companies. About half of the scripts I write are spec scripts designed to be pitched. The other half I write to self-produce. My rule is that ALL the scripts have to go out to pitch and I'll only self-produce a script if someone else has shown an interest in the script. I am always going to believe that my scripts are better than other people's. It's not until you put scripts out there and get interest from professional producers that you can be even marginally certain that your script is worth the effort.

The important point here is that you need a yes from your script editor and a producer who has produced movies or TV at a professional level. It's not enough for you alone to believe your script is awesome... unless this is a hobby project, and in that case make sure your cast and crew know that.

5) Even if you own a camera and can shoot with it, audition some local DOP's

I own a DSLR camera. I know how to use it. There are some projects that I just want to shoot myself, That's why I created Lone Gun Manifesto as a way of working. However, I also talk to professional DOP's all the time. There are some incredibly talented folk out there. 85% of working DOP's will shoot my screenplay better than I can. I should at least see their showreels and take some meetings.

For me, the biggest problem with the independent movie making community isn't distribution, it's a quality control issues. There isn't a marketing strategy anywhere which will sell a movie: developed from a bad idea, produced from a bad script, shoot on equipment not designed to professional production, by someone without the skills to overcome the cameras limitations.

The key questions for any movie makers are:

Is this the right idea? (Have I tested it?)

Is this the right script? (Have I considered other people's scripts, to see if mine really deserves to be green-lit?)

Has this script gone through a professional development process? (Have I taken notes from professional script editors and rewritten to those notes?)

Does this script have commercial potential? (Have I put the script out to pitch, to see if other producers agree it's worth making)

Am I the right person to operate the camera? (Have I spoken to professional DOP's about this project, before I decide to shoot it myself?)

It seems to me that these are the bare minimum checks and balances a film maker should be prepared to undertake before asking for either money or help on a project.

The other thing people could do, is to start to do some actual research into the sales side of the industry... and, just to get you started here's a very interesting article on the future of picture research in the UK post UKFC, from Big Picture Research

viva la revolution

Oh, and no the phone call still hasn't come in. And yes, that is frustrating.

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog