Just to give you some idea
of the process and bring you up to date:
After weeks of writing the screenplay adaptation, I broke it down into
scenes and numbered each scene and each line of dialog. Each scene was then printed and grouped
into its own individual stack of papers and paper-clipped. I then separated each scene stack by
location. I then went through each
scene stack and devised a shot list - establishing shots, wide, medium, tights,
cutaways - everything I needed to cover the scene, and within each shot, I also
noted what lines of dialog would be covered. I then went through and (based on my experience, and this is
where it gets tricky) tried to estimate how long it would take to shoot each
scene. I then grouped scene stacks
together based on my estimate for one 10-hour day of shooting. I ended up with 35 scene stacks, which
translates to 35 days of shooting.
That whole process took several weeks. (There's probably software that helps expedite the whole
process, but I've always performed this task on legal pads and with word
processors, and it's just the way I do it.) From there I started working on the budget - the official
AICP spreadsheet. It has
preproduction expenses, location scouting expenses, crew, equipment, talent,
post production expenses - everything is categorized and itemized - all you
have to do is fill in the blanks.
I was hoping to contain the budget within $200,000, but it quickly
blossomed to over $400,000. O.K.
so be it. The show must go
on! The next step was to obtain an
entertainment attorney to help me with the legal stuff. A friend of mine gave me a reference, I
met with the lawyer, and I was very impressed with his expertise and
enthusiasm. Game on. Then I went to an old friend of mine
who works for an Ad Agency. He
agreed to design the website and the title and all the branding, and he did a
fantastic job. I continued with my
research into crowdfunding sites and picked up a few tips from people who've
already been through it. I began
to expand my network. I joined
Twitter and started Tweeting, and I expanded my LinkedIn connections. All along I'm adjusting the AICP
numbers - trying to be realistic.
I bring my Producer friend Dan on board and he starts making phone calls
for me - gathering all the pertinent information - plugging numbers into the
AICP. The next thing to consider
was name talent. Do I want to try
to get a "name?" How
much would that cost? Who might be
interested in a little independent film like this? That consideration prompted me to determine a shooting
schedule. When can I shoot
this? This year? Next year? The story occurs during warm months. If I want to shoot this year, I better
hurry. I need some preproduction
time, some rehearsal time, and we need to be done shooting before the
fall. If the leaves start to
change, I'm screwed. (It's a
continuity thing. Of course you
realize you don't shoot films in sequential order. That means if I shoot some exterior scenes in August, and
then for some reason we encounter some delays, and I have to shoot into the
fall, and the leaves start to change - then the scenes I shot earlier in the
year won't match!) So much to
plan! So many contingencies! The budget keeps growing! I move on to the crowdfunding rewards,
and this is where it gets very tricky.
I check out some other Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns to get some
idea of how to proceed. I start
the list and begin the pricing.
What kind of rewards? At
what donation level? How much will
it cost to produce and ship? I
spent hours on this process because it's so very obviously crucial to the
campaign. And all this is going on
in between day jobs here and there and all of my other responsibilities as a
husband, father, homeowner, dog owner - yardwork, dogwalking, cooking meals,
cleaning the house. O.K. so it's
not brain surgery, rocket science, military service in a war zone, or any other
life and death scenario you want to mention, but for me in my own little world
it was stressful. Still is! (I keep chanting - where there's a
will, there's a way!) Then my
research brought me to another critical point. I had to shoot a promo video! I sat down and came up with a simple concept - me talking
about the project with the murderer lurking in the background. I wrote the script and figured out a
couple of simple shots. I called
my friend Alex (who is booked to shoot the feature) to shoot it on his 5D - a
good test for the real deal. I
didn't have time to memorize my own script, so I got another good old friend of
mine (Rose) to run teleprompter. I
also needed a knife-wielding murderer for the background, but I came up
short. Finally my younger son
agreed to do it in the eleventh hour, and we managed to shoot the promo on a
very chilly April evening. I was
ready to start building my campaign page.
As aforementioned, I decided to go with Indiegogo, and I've been working
on that ever since.
Mike Bizzarri
http://shelovesmefilm.com
