1. Become a juggler. “People think about producing like it’s sequential,” said Kaufman. For example, you develop a script, attach actors, and then go out for financing. “But it’s really about keeping all the plates in the air at once,” he said. “The people I see who are getting projects up and going are the ones thinking about them in a fluid way.”

2. Think about the ticket-buyer. “[Make] smart genre, what I call ‘elevated popcorn,’” said Dion. “That’s what I tell independent filmmakers. I like relationship dramas and small road-trip movies too, but try to make movies people will pay to go and see. Think of [your movie] as a campfire story where [the audience] always asks, ‘What’s going to happen next?’ and with a vision that elevates it above the rest.”

3. Find out what filmmakers and actors want to make. “We find out what filmmakers want to do,” said McNeil. “We talk to actors too, and sometimes [landing a project] is just about telling people we have development funds. We can pay to option a book and pay a writer.” For Electric City, McNeill says, this type of filmmaker-driven development is preferred to the ‘material-first’ method practiced by other companies. “It’s a different way of putting things together, but it’s the smartest way for us — not spending a lot of money in development and then not being able to find a director.”

4. Find people who other people want to work with. “If you’re trying to compete with a Pirates movie costing hundreds of millions, you want an actor or director [attached] other people want to work with,” said Dion. “Your filmmaker and your material is your only strength as an independent producer.”

5. Beware of adult movies about kids. “There are a lot of projects about kids between 12 and 18, and they are hard to get financed,” said McNeill. “We have a couple of those projects, and they have been a challenge. You have play up [the roles] of the older characters in the stories [in order to attract name cast].” There is, of course, an exception, noted McNeill: “Maybe if you can attach Justin Bieber… I would love to work with the Beebs!”

6. Mix and match for foreign sales. The lagging tastes of foreign sales agents mean that the international market is always, said Kaufman, “five years behind.” Names like Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Jean-Claude Van Damme are highly meaningful for foreign sales agents while younger, newer actors who may be more exciting Stateside are not. “[As a producer] you’re always looking for an actor who is about to break,” said Dion, “but the foreign sales people come back and say, ‘Come back when they’re already a star.’ My dream cast means nothing to the foreign sales agents.” Indeed, Kaufman joked, “There has been a law that Jason Statham has to be in every film, but that laziness has not produced great films.” What’s the answer? Blend name actors with new talent. “If you have someone strong on one side you can have someone [new] on the other,” said Dion. Sometimes, that person on the other side is not even the actor. “Even Drive was not an easy sell,” he said, “because Ryan Gosling has never done a Marvel movie. But in this case, the director, Nicholas Winding Refn” — who was seen as a rising star internationally — “balanced things out [for the foreign sales agents].” At the same time, however, the panelists stressed that when faced with approved actor lists from foreign sales agents, to go with your passions, even if it means knocking the budget down. “Make the movie in your gut,” said Dion. “Don’t just go for a name.” Concurred McNeill, “[Casting] Felicity Jones in Like Crazy was much better than casting a [better known] actress who wouldn’t have given such a good performance.”

7. Beware the $3 million black hole. Said Kaufman, “A $2 to $3 million budget movie is in a black hole. It’s too small to play wide,” and it costs too much to make its money back in a smaller release. If you can’t develop it for a larger budget with a larger cast, “a smaller budget makes more sense.” This argument works for larger budget films too, though. Dion related that “Drive started as a $35 – $40 million studio movie. At one point it was a Hugh Jackman movie. But we wound up making it for $15 million.”

8. Go out with your best draft. Said McNeill, “If you give someone at a production company your script, make sure you are ready and it’s the [draft] you’re most happy with. If they read something once it’s hard to get them to read it again.”

9. Don’t rely on cameos. Shoehorning a name actor into a cameo role may sound like a way to add “names” to your picture, but the panel warned against it. Usually, they said, the part winds up being too small to effectively market. Instead, said Kaufman, “figure out how to “make the actor more than a cameo.” He cites as an example Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, for which they only had Robert DeNiro for five days but were still able to make his part a major one.

10. Work on every project every day. McNeill says that in the Electric City office she stares at a board listing all of the company’s projects. “I look at the board and think, ‘What can I do for each one of our 17 projects today? Just one thing.”

Check out the full article here if you have time.

Teaser Trailer

Actor Headshot	Actor’s Name/Character Name	Contact Info
	Christopher Marrone as “Travis Wolf” (lead)	twitter.com/crmarrone cgrund43@gmail.com
	Bill Pacer (Barefoot Bill) as “The Stranger”	Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barefootbill Vimeo links: www.vimeo.com/barefootbill
	April Hollingsworth as “Attractive Female”	http://www.modelmayhem.com/1926520
	Brittney Middlebrook as “Attractive Female”	brittneymiddlebrook@aol.com
	Maria Davis as “Witness”	http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1527960550&sk=info
	Paul McComiskey as “The Priest”	Direct Contact (770-605-7536) Facebook http://www.facebook.com/paulmccomiskey e-mail pxmccomiskey@yahoo.com
	Courtney Lane Maki as “Attractive Female”	Twitter: @MakiLaneFacebook:  http://www.facebook.com/courtneylanemaki Website: http://www.courtneylanemaki.com
	Saundra Coller as “Attractive Female”	Facebook.com/Saundra.Coller twitter.com/SaundraColler Facebook.com/Saundra.Coller1
	Victoria Spencer Smith as “The Homeless Woman”	(404) 688-9700 (J. Pervis Talent)
	Lauren Stoffels as “Pretty Woman walking down street”	TBA
	Adrienne Sutton as “Witness”	twitter: @sun_rei fb: http://facebook.com/reina.sutton1
	Jasper Cain as “Witness”	facebook/jaspercain and twitter/jaspercain
	Jessica Hall as “Witness”	http://www.modelmayhem.com/2420865 http://www.onesourcetalent.com/  talent id 64936
	Zach Toth Photographer (crew)	724.331.8575 cell 404.829.4208 office http://ZacharyToth.tumblr.com Twitter @ TothZachary Facebook @ Zachary Toth
	Moses Hardie III as “Business Man”	http://www.mosesmuzek.com/
	Christopher Dombeck (crew – Production Assistant)	http://chrijodo.posterous.com/pages/work
	Joe Swift as “Witness”	Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000828471296 IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4736516/ Phone:  704.777.1431 swiftstreetnc@gmail.com
	Jonathan Laura (crew – 1st A.D.)	http://www.facebook.com/jonathanlaura Cell – 770.639.2616 themrmercury@gmail.com http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3111056/ Twitter: @jonathanlaura

A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus (Worthington) --the demigod son of Zeus (Neeson)--is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades (Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston). The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father long ago, leaving him to rot in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, along with Zeus' godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramirez), switch loyalties and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans' strength grows stronger as Zeus' remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon's demigod son, Argenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind. – Apple Trailers, http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/wrathofthetitans/

And most importantly….here’s the trailer:

Basically they used Jesse’s face on the cover of the DVD and he’s only got a 5 minute cameo. Who knows whether it was Lionsgate’s decision or not, but the point of this post was because lots of indie directors/producers think this way and it’s an old trick in a new game. It’s like when you were a kid and you might’ve rented some kick-ass action flick with your favorite actor on the cover (Bruce Lee, Van Damme, Jet Li, etc) only to watch it and miss the part where they came in because you had to run out for a few minutes and take a leak.

No color correction was done since I was testing how clean I could get raw footage.

All footage was shot using a Nikon 50mm/1.4 and a Bower 85mm/1.4 lens.

ISO was set at 200 – 2000 depending on lighting conditions.

Make sure you click on the “full screen” icon to see all the details in the video.

Below are some still frames taken from the actual video footage.

Overstuffed studio stables mostly perished in the WGA-strike housecleaning. Now, surviving producers fight for stingier deals and fewer film slots in an environment of belt-tightening and cold creative calculation.

Here’s a look at which studios have cut back on their deals with producers:

DISNEY
Active producer deals 2011: 18
Active producer deals 2003: 24

DREAMWORKS
Active producer deals 2011: 5
Active producer deals 2003: 22

20TH CENTURY FOX
Active producer deals 2011: 20
Active producer deals 2003: 26

PARAMOUNT
Active producer deals 2011: 12
Active producer deals 2003: 22

SONY PICTURES
Active producer deals 2011: 27
Active producer deals 2003: 32

UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Active producer deals 2011: 27
Active producer deals 2003: 27

WARNER BROS.
Active producer deals 2011: 31
Active producer deals 2003: 32

Check out the full details on the THR website.

“The Wolf” is currently what’s in development right now. It’s essentially going to be a silent film under 10 minutes made for the web. The goal for this project is to just make something visually engaging while telling a story without the use of dialogue. It’s aimed primarily for the web and any online competitions/festivals. It focuses on a conflicted young man (Travis Wolf) who struggles for his freedom after witnessing his girlfriend overdose on drugs she found in his jacket. We see this character make one bad decision after another until he’s forced to survive on the streets as a fugitive and ultimately it doesn’t fare well for him in the end. There’s also going to be a supernatural element to this story so we’ll see where this journey takes us. This is also going to be the first project using the new Panasonic Af100. I need a small project to chew on before moving on to the next big thing since I have a few new toys I haven’t tested out in the field yet.

Characters Available

Travis Wolf (lead) – role filled
Father John  – a priest in his late 30′s to late 50′s. Clean cut. Experienced in life meaning he has seen a lot, helped all types of people in his past and witnessed people at their worse moments. Race is preferably Caucasian.
Attractive Girl #1 – role filled
Attractive Girl #2 – early 20′s. Modelesque type. Very pretty smile. African American, Hispanic or Asian. No height requirements.
Homeless person – can be man or woman, preferably older but late 30’s and up. Race is open.
Creepy Old Man – need someone who can portray weird very well.
Rich Man – wealthy man with luxury car.
Attractive Woman shopping downtown – role filled.
Witnesses – need 3-5 adult witnesses to a murder scene. These are extras who will have close up shots of their reactions.
Business Man – need a business man eating lunch in a suit or shirt and tie who will be robbed.

You Interested?

Sorry, but at this time all character roles are filled.

UPDATE: Here’s a few screengrabs from the footage we have done so far though:

More info coming soon.

Panasonic AF100

It only looks like this because the lenses are separate. The handle also comes off, so the cam can be tricked out to however you want it to look.

For now I’ve only purchased three Nikon lenses – 50mm/f1.4, 24mm/f2.8 and 85mm/f1.4. I have some other lenses on my wishlist, but for now I need to get a handle on what I have and get used to the camera – which shouldn’t take too long since every camera I’ve owned has been Panasonic.

Test footage coming soon and I’ll probably shoot a quick series of shots that make a quick story…nothing major, just something I can knock out in a day or so with a few actors.

I will say this – Keri is cool as a fan. I’ve done some work with a few popular music artists before – more popular than Keri – and (without naming names) you’d think they were the first to ever do what they do. Not Keri…completely down to earth, humble and very approachable. So here’s a quick video from that night. The reality show is not based around Keri Hilson, but she’s in it as far as I know — well at least that’s what the producers are planning on at this time. There’s a handful of other popular artists we filmed as well…but for now check it out.