Ask a Studio Head How To Get Into the Movie Business

Larry Meistrich started making movies with next to no money. He's the founder and chairman of NEHST Studios, "a diversified film production, financing and distribution company" that opened its doors in May, 2007. As the above links show, Larry is a serious expert on the inner workings of the movie and TV production business, with a long string of production successes on his resume. Ask him whatever you like. Usual interview rules apply. And who knows? Maybe NEHST will finance your next movie.

Comments

IANAMM

[TrueJim]

Whenever I've read biographies of folks who have gone on to become movie makers, the basic answer always seems to be the same: the way to get into the movie business is to start making movies.

Grab your friends, find a camcorder, write a script, download some software, make a movie.

Then make another.

And another.

Keep doing it until you get good at it. It take an incredible amount of time and determination. You spend a lot of money.

Somewhere along the way you become part of the "movie making community." Profit!

Re:IANAMM

[Anonymous Coward]

Grab your friends, find a camcorder, write a script, download some software, make a movie.

That's how you become a director or writer. It's not how you become a producer, crew member, agent or any of the other positions in the entertainment industry. You get those by bringing coffee to the people who already do those things.

Re:IANAMM

[zappepcs]

I don't mean to break this to you in a rude kind of way, but that is how you get 'into' anything. Granted, if you want to fly 757s across the ocean, you'll have to aim a bit lower, but same applies, grab a book, read, do flight sims, save for flight lessons, get a job at the airport... blah blah blah...

Re:IANAMM

[oodaloop]

Yeah, that's how I got into intelligence analysis. I just started handling classified documents, and pretty soon I got some recognition.

Re:IANAMM

[Anonymous Coward]

"grab a book, read, do flight sims, save for flight lessons, get a job at the airport... blah blah blah..."

I call this slightly hopeful, but everything is possible!

Start out by washing the loo in the 747, a few years down the line you're piloting it!

Re:IANAMM

[genner]

Yeah, that's how I got into intelligence analysis. I just started handling classified documents, and pretty soon I got some recognition. That works if you can cut a deal with the prosecution.

Re:IANAMM

[elrous0]

I myself moved into the glorious world of film promotion after advancing through the ranks. My first job was as a hooker cleaner for John Landis. Oh, how I miss those simpler times.

Re:IANAMM

[Xiaran]

I once recall a story(not sure how true) about Robert Heinlein being tired of being asked "how do I become a writer?". His answer was always along the lines of Write something. Finish it. Sent it to a publisher and see if they will publish it. Repeat.

Re:IANAMM

[Jason1729]

Granted, if you want to fly 757s across the ocean, you'll have to aim a bit lower, but same applies

Actually, for this goal, the start is pretty much "join the air force". Most commercial jet pilots were air force pilots.

Re:IANAMM

[Anonymous Coward]

I've also heard that it's easy to become a pilot by moving up in the ranks at Bartons or Seagrams...

Re:IANAMM

[CowboyNealOption]

So he doesn't like filthy hookers? What a horrible job! Or would the answer to the ./ question be (at least in my case), "First, learn the common terminology of the industry"?

Re:IANAMM

[JWSmythe]

Actually, you're off.

To fly commercial aircraft such as that, you need a commercial rating, and thousands of hours of pilot in command time on multiengine heavy jet aircraft. For average joe, that's not going to happen.

That was a goal of mine when I was a kid. I wanted to fly. I've flown small aircraft. I went to college at one of the best universities studying aeronautical science. When I wasn't in class, I was talking to people around town. I'd mention that I was going to school there, and they'd say "Oh, I got my bachelors in aeronautical science two/three/four years ago". They'd be working in restaurants, or small shops. Nothing like what they had just spent 4 years and a fortune trying to reach.

Before I went to the university, I started learning to fly at a small airport. My instructor had graduated from there too. He was a flight instructor to build up his hours, so when he had thousands of hours he could hopefully get a job with some crappy airline. Until then, he was teaching people how to fly.

As time went on, I found out the sad truth. If you want to be an airline pilot, you need to have been a military pilot with thousands of hours in multiengine jet aircraft, preferably heavy aircraft. You also have to have an excellent safety record. If you had serious incidents that were unclassified, they won't touch you. Even then, there's plenty of competition, and the pay isn't all that great. It's worthwhile to the airline to hire someone who already has their military pension, who's looking for a bit of supplemental income.

I can't go into the military. I had surgery on one of my eyes, which categorically precludes me from joining the military at all. Even if I joined, because I don't have a bachelors degree, I can't obtain an officer rank, and therefore cannot be a pilot. I could be ground crew, but that's about it.

Now, on to the on topic part. :)

I lived in LA for a while. I knew quite a few "aspiring" actors, as well as extras and other somewhat connected people. My wife worked as an extra for years. They're treated as the cattle that fills in the gaps in a scene. To make it from nobody to being an actor/actress/producer/director takes a lot of knowing the right people, and an awful more dumb luck. Being in the right place, at the right time, with the right look, and the right attitude, is what it takes. Oh, and lets not forget the unions/guilds. If I remember the SAG rules correctly, it takes 3 vouchers to be considered, and those vouchers come from the studio or a few other people. If you don't have a SAG card, you can't get a speaking role. Occasionally (very occasionally) they need someone to say something, and that person didn't show, or whatever. They may like you, because you're personable, or because you got hinky with the right person in his/her trailer right before the shoot. (getting hinky doesn't qualify you for anything other than a STD, but it can help).

Say they're shooting a commercial, and they need one more person to say "Ummm, that's good.", and you get picked out of the dozens of other extras they have standing around, then you may get a voucher, and may (oh my gosh) be on your way to advanced extradom, where you can get crappy walk-on parts and say your one line.

I don't have much of an interest in standing in front of a camera. A few extra parts came up on the extra lines (you call in and see what they're looking for), where they needed a car, a dog, or whatever. My wife and our dog showed up on CSI New York once. :) Stupid dog never barked, but they edited it in, but it was only about 2 seconds of video, and all you could see is the back of my wife's head in one shot, and her leg in another.

I was looking at something more interesting to me. Consulting for IT stuff on movies and/or tv

Re:IANAMM

[elrous0]

No, they were clean when they went in. I had to clean them AFTERWARDS.

Re:IANAMM

[Jarik_Tentsu]

As an amateur director and special effects editor, my work tends to be high in special effects and fancy stuff - muzzle flashes, lightsabers, explosions etc - all computer rendered. All look cool, but all of them look amateur. There's no way you can make something fancy like that look professionally done.

So my question is, if you want to make work to impress people in the industry, do they prefer simple things, done professionally, or things that have potential in being extravagant, but still have that 'amateur' feel?

My other question is how much are screenwriters/director's controlled by their sponsors/studios? How much freedom do they get in their movies?

~Jarik

Re:IANAMM

[bsDaemon]

I'm sorry that you got screwed over. Yes, a lot of airline pilots were military pilots, but many where not. My father wasn't a military pilot and he flew for USAir for 23 years. He'd done other things before then -- charter, air shows, etc.

the difference between "commercial" and "private" is pretty much how often you have to take your medical exam. Airlines are hiring kids these days with only a couple hundred hours of time, then running them through type-rating and then sticking them on the line.

I took lessons from when I was 12 to when I was 17 (I didn't get to solo because of Sept 11, then av fuel prices shot up, so i had to give it up); my dad has pretty much made a living as a pilot since he was 18; my grand father was a navy pilot from 1936-1942 (medical discharge), and my great uncle was a PanAm pilot for 30 years, so I can vouch with a certain degree of "insider" info that its not that hard to get into it, really.

It just sucks a whole lot once you're there and you'd have hated flying after a while. All commercial pilots say this, and I suppose its like the programmer who after he gets home, the last thing he wants to do is write more code.

As to lasik surgery, you only have to wait 6 months. If you joined the Army instead of the Air Force, you can become a Warrant Officer and fly aircraft -- they mostly have choppers, but a few fixed-wing as well. You only need 15 college credits for that.

Re:IANAMM

[hansamurai]

Interesting read, have you ever seen the BBC show Extras? Seems similar to your situation.

Re:IANAMM

[androse]

Thanks for the interesting read. Quite unusual for Slashdot :)

Re:IANAMM

[Anonymous Coward]

As an amateur director and special effects editor, my work tends to be high in special effects and fancy stuff - muzzle flashes, lightsabers, explosions etc - all computer rendered. All look cool, but all of them look amateur. There's no way you can make something fancy like that look professionally done.

So my question is, if you want to make work to impress people in the industry, do they prefer simple things, done professionally, or things that have potential in being extravagant, but still have that 'amateur' feel?

My other question is how much are screenwriters/director's controlled by their sponsors/studios? How much freedom do they get in their movies?

~Jarik Most professional screen writers work on teams now and can contribute their creativity but have little say in the final product. I've knew someone who was fired and kicked off the set of the movie they wrote because they tried demanding that they not shoot pages they had removed from the script because they made one of the female characters look bad.

If you are lucky enough to become one of the well known ones you worry about getting censored by the MPAA instead of your employer. See This Film Is Not Yet Rated if you'd like to know how that happens.

My family has three generations in the film industry and I find most people who want to become writers are pretty unrealistic. It's like the difference between a commercial artist and a starving artist. They are different callings.

Go independent if you want creative control and work with the budget constraints.

Re:IANAMM

[Wandering Wombat]

Sadly, Barry from EastEnders just can't seem to get enough time on that show... maybe he should try for a cameo on When The Whistle Blows?

Re:IANAMM

[blhack]

That was a goal of mine when I was a kid. I wanted to fly. I've flown small aircraft. I went to college at one of the best universities studying aeronautical science. When I wasn't in class, I was talking to people around town. I'd mention that I was going to school there, and they'd say "Oh, I got my bachelors in aeronautical science two/three/four years ago". They'd be working in restaurants, or small shops. Nothing like what they had just spent 4 years and a fortune trying to reach. Hey Sioux Sioux!!

If you don't know what that means, then you did NOT go to the best aeronautical science school.

UND FTW!

Re:IANAMM

[R2.0]

I dunno, I think the word "Head" in the summary title just about says it all.

Re:IANAMM

[JWSmythe]

    Not to skip the rest, but.... :)

    The surgery wasn't lasik. I actually had a congenital cataract in one eye. It started getting worse about the time I was 18. I joined the military when I was 19, and they kicked me out when my vision couldn't be corrected to 20/20 with glasses. Right after I got out, I went and had it surgically removed. That was right around 1992 or 1993. I've had no bad effects from the surgery, but it removes me from the possibility of serving in the military. I tried to get waivers several times, but each time it was a nice firm "no." For the last ... ummm ... several years, I haven't tried again, because I don't believe in the actions we're doing. Nothing against the soldiers, all the blame lays on the administration.

    The surgery has left me a little odd. The natural lens in your eye absorbs UV light. The replacement lens doesn't. I can clearly see colors that other people can't. For example, "black" lights look like a dull purple in my normal eye. In my adjusted eye, it's a very bright blue. It's just outside of the spectrum that we can normally see. :) For a while, it gave me real bad headaches when I saw black lights,and I'd have to walk around with one eye closed. That didn't last for long. Now, I can still see the colors, but it doesn't hurt any more. I have a hard time explaining it to people. How do you describe a color that no one else can see?

    I intend to start flying again. It's been a matter of money more than anything. Sometime soon I will start though.

Re:IANAMM

[hansamurai]

Are you having a laugh?

Re:IANAMM

[skuzzlebutt]

Worked for Mitnick...

Re:IANAMM

[Wandering Wombat]

'e's 'avin' a laff!

Re:IANAMM

[oodaloop]

And I can't tell you how excited I was when the FBI called and said they wanted to interview me right away.

Re:IANAMM

[Vastad]

Wish you all the best then good sir. It's posts like yours that make /. a daily joy for me.

On topic: I think some earlier posters are right on the money regarding skipping the whole process of expecting someone else to make you a star.

Buy a domain name. Get a good hosting deal with generous download allowances. Build that website, call your friends, write a script, get a digital video camera, play with Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere.

My own IRL example: A girl from my high school got featured in the Alumni newlestter 6 months ago that featured her break into TV through the DIY route. She'd done lots of jobs here and there including being a teacher at our high school. After a while she started putting together a documentary on an old man she met in China on her own time. She had only the support of friends, her own energy, time and money but she got it together, entered it in some industry competition of some sort. It got noticed and Discovery Channel Asia picked her up and now she does documentaries for their Asia office for a living.

Re:IANAMM

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to be a "stunt" driver to move a vehicle in a scene. If you see a car pull up to the curb, it's a paid professional doing it.

Not true. There are union rules about when a stunt driver is needed. Simple driving is not one of them. How many times have you seen a regular actor get into a car and drive (in one continuous shot)? If a stunt driver was required, no regular actor could drive a car.

It's been a while since I've seen the fine print in the union rules, but it was something along the lines of driving a regular vehicle for which you need a regular driver's license and all four wheels remain on a solid road surface does not require a stunt driver.

Re:IANAMM

[Anonymous Coward]

To fly commercial aircraft such as that, you need a commercial rating, and thousands of hours of pilot in command time on multiengine heavy jet aircraft. For average joe, that's not going to happen.


Rules only affect those who play by them.

Re:IANAMM

[Reziac]

That's interesting... and why can't replacement lenses be made with UV protection in 'em??

I have my "original" unaltered lenses, and I see black lights as glaring purplish-blue, painfully bright. I've always taken this to mean that I see further into UV than normal. (Always figured it's cuz I also have the freak gene that lets you distinguish colours other people can't.)

I may see further into IR than normal, too -- I could always tell the state of the fire by how "black" my woodstove looked.

Like anything else

[morgan_greywolf]

Like anything else, it's not as much 'what' you know as 'who' you know.

The question I would have is this: How do you get your demo in front of the right people? Persistence? Dumb luck? A little of both perhaps?

Re:Like anything else

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, - I used to beleive the same thing, but afther seeing people making it "big", I now beleive its only a mather of persistency, inteligence and doing the right things. Sure good connection helps, but don't make that an excuse for not doing anything.

Re:Like anything else

[cayenne8]

"You know, - I used to beleive the same thing, but afther seeing people making it "big", I now beleive its only a mather of persistency, inteligence and doing the right things. Sure good connection helps, but don't make that an excuse for not doing anything."

Well, many people fail to realize that finding and cultivating those "connections" is a job in itself. If you have people skills, and are good with them, often that will get you further than just pure talent and skill.

Doing lots of drugs with movie people work?

[multi-flavor-geek]

I have tried that, seemed to get them to remember me pretty well. Although the next day sucked once my brain returned to its former position in my skull I had a whole list of new contacts in my phone and was actually on the "will answer your call" list.

Liability for composing the soundtrack?

[tepples]

With respect to your film's score, how do you handle an allegation that the composer plagiarized part of the score from something he had heard a decade ago on the radio? Or how do you prevent such cases from occurring?

Re:Liability for composing the soundtrack?

[gEvil (beta)]

I know someone who does temp music for films. He puts pre-existing music and songs to the rough cuts of the movies to help pad them out for screenings and whatnot. This is to ensure that the correct tension and feeling are created during key scenes. According to him, some of the less-than-honest composer types will simply lift the music that he's chosen for the temp cuts, and then change a few intervals here and there to get around any plagiarism issues.

Re:Liability for composing the soundtrack?

[TubeSteak]

how do you handle an allegation that the composer plagiarized part of the score from something he had heard a decade ago on the radio? Or how do you prevent such cases from occurring? You'd think they have insurance for that kind of thing.
A big part of getting a movie made is putting together an insurance package that makes the guys with money happy.

Re:Liability for composing the soundtrack?

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

I know I'm hella-late to this discussion, but you're exactly right. It's called "E&O" or "errors and omissions." Admittedly, this sort of coverage is more designed to cover things like accidental use of a real person's name or corporate claims of trademark infringement (e.g. - bar logos, someone holding a recognizable soft drink bottle in a shot), but it's still under that umbrella. Out-and-out plagiarization is a different claim, but they're all part of the same sliding scale.

http://www.google.com/search?q=errors+and+omissions

I'm already in the movie business...

[Anonymous Coward]

As a distributor. ;D

Hello

[Anonymous Coward]

How many people have a say in what you choose to finance, and what do they look for other than a good idea for a film?

What do I do with my immortal soul?

[MightyYar]

What about my immortal soul? Do I need to contact the devil directly, or will the studios arrange the transaction for me?

Hi Larry ;-)

[circletimessquare]

Thanks for taking some questions.

The Internet has a number of plays out there for self-distribution and self-promotion. A lot of these avenues are relatively fresh, so it is hard to tell, but by your judgment, are there any self-promotion or self-distribution avenues that are absolutely must-have for an indie movie maker? I'm thinking perhaps of things like the Withoutabox system, or Massify.

Is it prudent to publish on YouTube before making any other distribution deals to get the word out? Or does this put you in an unattractive bargaining position with potential distributors, online or off, such that your content is already out there, even though in lo-res quality?

As for "And who knows? Maybe NEHST will finance your next movie." see my site. ;-)

And thanks again.

Re:Hi Larry ;-)

[Loninkwoner]

Nice work

Re:Hi Larry ;-)

[mpapet]

elf-promotion or self-distribution avenues that are absolutely must-have for an indie movie maker?

The ability to take 1000 rejections before 1001 throws you a bone. It's not the first movie that makes you famous or rich or whatever. It's the fourth or fifth successful one.

Most of those promotion systems aren't going to work out. They are working on the 10,000 monkey notion that a classic will eventually be made. What works is, "Sell! Sell! Sell!" As in you being a pest about it absolutely everywhere. It's up to you to move it. If you don't have that, then either hire someone or develop it. You would be better off developing it though. Remember it's business, not art.

Is it prudent to publish on YouTube before making any other distribution deals

No. That's not only does it raise red flags in Legal, the people that actually write the checks have a very dim view of that kind of thing. Their mindset is very much along the lines of the RIAA. They want every opportunity to monetize their property.

Re:Hi Larry ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Awesometown was published on YouTube and later made it to Fox.

Re:Hi Larry ;-)

[earache]

I'm the CTO for massify.com.

Drop me a note offline, I'm curious what kind of promotional tools you are looking for and how we can fill that void.

Is it possible to make a profit with union labor?

[Anonymous Coward]

The movie industry is notorious for being a heavily unionized, "closed shop" industry, with all the overhead and deatherbedding that implies. Is it possible for an independent studio to make a profit while obeying Hollywood's labyrinth, payroll-padding union rules?

I've got an idea for a movie!

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

It's about a killer robot driving instructor, who travels back in time for some reason.

Did I mention his best friend's a talking pie?

Re:I've got an idea for a movie!

[oodaloop]

I thought Ron Howard already did that movie.

Re:I've got an idea for a movie!

[Quiet_Desperation]

I would totally watch that movie.

Learning from mistakes

[halcyon1234]

How quick to react / adapt is a movie studio to making a horrible, horrible movie? Do they learn from the process and apply the lessons to the next pic, or is every movie created in isolation of the other?

Re:Learning from mistakes

[gstoddart]

How quick to react / adapt is a movie studio to making a horrible, horrible movie?

Why, they've adapted very well to making horrible movies. They do it all of the time -- hiring Uwe Boll, for instance.

Cheers

define "successful"

[SuperBanana]

with a long string of production successes on his resume.

I'm sorry, but someone who has ONE major hit in his entire career is not someone you look to for advice on 'breaking into the movie business.' He was executive producer on Sling Blade- more than ten years ago. The rest is made-for-TV stuff and 15 minute shorts. Another shining star on his resume: a 2009 remake of The Saint. Yeah, that movie with Val Kilmer. That would make it the second remake of the 1962 film...

Re:define "successful"

[Otter]

I had the same mentality until I lived in Los Angeles. The people you see being stalked by paparazzi are the tiny tip of the iceberg -- there are tens of thousands of people making careers in the entertainment industry whom you've never heard of. When you flip channels through 30 different shows before deciding that "nothing is on", that's the work of 30 directors, 90 producers and hundreds of actors and crew who are earning a good living but whom you don't consider "successful".

Re:define "successful"

[elrous0]

And the only credit he deserves on "Sling Blade" is "recognizing the feature film potential of something that had already been done as a play and short film years earlier." It was nice that he was able to help Thornton secure some money from Miramax for it, but "Sling Blade" belongs ENTIRELY to Thornton and always did.

Re:define "successful"

[gstoddart]

That would make it the second remake of the 1962 film...

Well, we're looking at our second Incredible Hulk movie in 5 years or so.

The second sequel to The Highlander basically pretended the insane first sequel didn't even happen.

It's not like multiple remakes of the same film have never happened -- sometimes to try to work around the fact that someone did a really atrocious job of making the previous one. :-P

Cheers

Selling a Script

[oskard]

How do you sell a script? I don't mean monetarily, but how does one pitch an idea for a script without getting it shot down?

I have lots of ideas for screenplays, and I realize that the chance of anyone important ever reading them is about a million to one. But even my best scripts sound like crap in an 'elevator pitch.' How does one work around this?

Re:Selling a Script

[EricR86]

Easy answer - just add female nudity.

Re:Selling a Script

[schlick]

There are many screen writing work groups online. You can join and have peers evaluate at the same time reading other aspiring screen writes work. Then you enter contests. Lots of screen writing contests.

One thing I've learned is that a new writer trying to sell a spec script is pretty much like a beach bum trying to sell ice cubes to Eskimos.

Re:Selling a Script

[UncleWilly]

I think you need to finish the script first, otherwise you aren't pitching a script, you're just pitching.

I did this a number of years ago, here's what I did. Went to the library and copied the Los Angeles Yellow Pages for Motion Picture Production companies/Producers. Then I came up with a great (short) query letter (in essence "the pitch"). I probably got 5% positive response (yes, forward me your script). Unfortunately, it was not worth making, but there was some good scenes and I did get a lot of good feedback from over a dozen people in the industry.

Now I'm working on a fact based novel.

Re:Selling a Script

[Reziac]

Get an agent. There are a number of sites that can tell you how to go about this a lot better than I can. No one will speak to you until you have an agent anyway.

Re:Selling a Script

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes yes a thousand times yes!

Profits, or lack thereof

[TubeSteak]

A) What's up with Hollywood accounting?

B) And how can I apply it to my tax returns?

I'd love to be able to show that I've never made a profit even after taking in millions.

Re:Profits, or lack thereof

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Basically, Hollywood accounting is paying your film-making subsidiary pay your other subsidiaries huge amounts of money for their work, so that the film does not make money, but your subsidiaries do. Therefore, anyone expecting a percentage of the profits from the movie (or presumably, legal liabilities resulting from the movie, although IANAL), have no recourse, as the money is not associated with the company that made the movie.

As for why you cannot do it with your tax returns, well, the government gets paid taxes by the otehr subsidiaries. If no one paid the taxes that is evasion, and the government cares. Otherwise, A or B, the government still gets paid.

The Answer

[Scholasticus]

I already know the answer: suck Satan's dick.

Same way as always

[Huntr]

Sleep with the director/producer/studio honcho.

Spanked!

[Anonymous Coward]

He also has a "special thanks" credit for "Spank The Monkey" ('94).

Re:The Answer

[Hankapobe]

I already know the answer: suck Satan's dick.

You forgot the other half. You know, no-KY (it's Hell after all)...

I just have one question

[Opportunist]

How does Uwe Boll keep finding people to pump money into his trash?

I mean, let's be honest here. That guy didn't make a single movie worth the time it takes to watch it, let's not talk about money. His movies are invariably in every "worst. movies. ever." list there is. And even trash movie fans won't touch his junk with a ten foot pole.

Can anyone explain the miracle of where he gets his funding? I mean, if you can solve that mystery, it should be trivial to get money just the same way. I mean, people who are willing to pump money into a movie that you know will bomb might actually finance a movie that has a slim chance to be gold.

Re:I just have one question

[tick_and_bash]

Tax write off, maybe?

Re:I just have one question

[eclectic4]

Please help keep him to his word, by signing this petition asking him to stop making movies. As he stated, if 1 million people sign it he will stop... not likely, but it would be nice.

Re:I just have one question

[Anonymous Coward]

Go back and re-read the premise of "The Producers" - that may answer your question.

- Lurker Extraordinare

Re:I just have one question

[circletimessquare]

german tax shelter

that's how he does it: you can't lose money backing a money losing film made by uwe boll. he basically has exploited a financial loop hole that the german goverment instituted in a well-meaning way to get german movies made, but instead their law got raped by a troll called boll making bad non-german movies based on video games

the good news: the germans repealed the law awhile back

so how and why is he still making movies?

because of comments like yours. no, really: the first rule of public relations is that there is no such thing as bad public relations. he gets his name out there. he is now riding on his notoreity. hated and vilified, but his name still gets out there. that gets him interest. really

want to never hear of another uwe boll movie again? stop mentioning him. i'm serious

and that online petition? guaranteed to wind up creating this, from two weeks ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/movies/18schw.html

which feeds the monste rof loathing him more, which gets more ocmments on slashdot, which means the undead troll boll lives forever

Re:I just have one question

[Anonymous Coward]

to quote Uwe Boll:
"Maybe you know it but it's not so easy to finance movies in total. And the reason I am able to do these kind of movies is I have a tax shelter fund in Germany, and if you invest in a movie in Germany you get basically fifty percent back from the Government."

Creating a film based from a game

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to develop an MMORPG (or cooperate with one) to make a series of films based on the battles in the game. We will tell players that we are e.g. having a battle between the Crypt Fiends and the Defenders of Light, and etch the film master as the battle happens.

My question to you is, what price do you think we could charge of each network per film? Also, what age rating do you think is appropriate? This is cartoon violence so I was thinking PG.

How not to sell the rights?

[gnujoshua]

It seems that with independent film making, the common path is: 1) get small to medium budget, 2) produce movie, 3) show movie at film festival, 4) sell rights to big producer. Is there way to get your movie to "go big" without doing this fourth step and not starting with a big budget?

Re:How not to sell the rights?

[Lumpy]

Is there way to get your movie to "go big" without doing this fourth step and not starting with a big budget?

yes.
0 - find and get 16mm film camera and lenses. 35mm is better. shoot on this video will NOT get you in the big festivals.

1 - have a GOOD and INNOVATIVE script. (most important)
2 - get good actors for free.
2.5 - get a good DP for free.
3 - get a good editor for free.
4 - show movie to dentists and other rich people that wish to do the things that rich people do and get them to front you the cash to get the film printed and copied

5- get accepted and played at big festivals.

that is how you do that.

El Marachi and Blair witch are your examples of how the above was done.

Re:How not to sell the rights?

[gnujoshua]

After the film festival, Blair Witch was sold to Artisan Entertainment, which is now owned by Lions Gate. My question was not how to get into a film festival. It was how to go big after the film festival without selling your movie to a big producer/distributor.

Re:How not to sell the rights?

[TheSync]

shoot on this video will NOT get you in the big festivals.

This may be changing...using a RED One 4K Camera, Joshua Weigel took Best Film for "Stained" at the 168 Film Festival.

Also now Joe Carnahan is shooting "Killing Pablo" on a RED as well.

These aren't cheap DV or HDV cameras, but video nonetheless.

Re:How not to sell the rights?

[mark_wilkins]

0 - find and get 16mm film camera and lenses. 35mm is better. shoot on this video will NOT get you in the big festivals. ... El Marachi and Blair witch are your examples of how the above was done. Blair Witch Project was shot on video.

Re:suck dick

[Anonymous Coward]

How do I get head from a movie studio?

Necessity for a publisher?

[rustcycle]

In some regards, digital distribution sites and indie advertising channels allow musicians to circumvent record labels and get their music to the consumer. Is there a good site for musicians to use in place of a publisher to facilitate placement of music in TV/film - or is a publisher's "pitching" still critical?

Hollywood Moving to Detroit ? 40% Cash Credit

[FromTheAir]

Two new studio complexes are being built http://www.motorcityfilmstudios.com/ in Detroit, could it become the new Hollywood? Entire Skyscrapers can be bought for a few million.

The state of Michigan is giving a 40% cash credit on all money spent for film and video production, including salaries and wages. This is an irresistable incentive and companies are cancelling production elswhere to move there.

More info http://www.motorcityfilm.com/

They also have tons of freshwater, not in the extreme weather zones, or prone to fire and earthquakes.

Spec Scripts

[Eviaded]

Spec scripts are supposed to be the bread and butter for TV writers looking for work but how does one actually get your spec script read? If the writer's guild mandates a certain number of freelance writers per season (depending on # of ordered episodes) how does an aspiring writer get in the running?

Re:Spec Scripts

[mpapet]

1. Contact production company for info on who to send spec scripts.
2. Write and submit spec scripts.

This is where it gets sketchy. If they are reputable, they'll figure out some way to throw you a bone. You might not get paid, but you might get a credit. If they are not reputable, they'll steal your ideas outright. It's a coin toss.

Wrong Title

[Massacrifice]

How about simplifying the article title to something everybody already knows?

_GIVE_ head to get into the movie business.

There, I fixed it for you.

the War on Piracy

[bzipitidoo]

I can say that I've never pirated one of your films. Never even heard of you until this article. I have no idea whether I'd want to see one, and probably am not going to trouble finding out.

As one who is in the same business as the MAFIAA, what have you to say about piracy and copyright, and the lawsuits by your fellow entertainment providers?

Niche job in the industry

[Ag3ntSm1th]

I'm interested in making opening/ending credit sequences for film or tv. Are there companies that focus just on this, or do you hire a generic production company that handles all special effects?

Cheap production technology affect your business?

[Afronautica]

Historically, it seems the greatest single barrier to entry for independent film producers was the cost of production; new technology is beginning to significiantly reduce some of the fixed costs associated with production.

How do you forsee the further reduction of production costs affecting the film business?

More specifically, do you believe the studio's roles will significantly change over the next 10 years? If so,how?

practice throwing your resume at the ceiling

[petes_PoV]

when it sticks every time, you know you have the kind of luck that's needed to make it in the film industry. Really - one guy with no money makes some successful movies. (Though not so successful that I've heard of him, or his studio.) Let's hear it for the tens of thousands who don't.

It's simply a numbers game. Having talent helps a little, Knowing people helps a little. Having a huge amount of money helps a lot. Without the money a tiny minority will make it but it's purely down to chance. As an expert, he follows in the standard I.T. definition as "someone who's right twice in a row".

Why would you want to?

[Animats]

Having done some work on the fringes of the film business, I don't want much to do with it. Projects in development have no money (it took one outfit three tries to send me a credit card number that didn't bounce) and projects in production have no time (they want new features yesterday). People get into film for ego, not money; there are far easier ways to make a few million dollars.

You get to go to good parties and meet actress/model/waitress types, though.

Ask Donald Trump How to Install Drywall

[pezpunk]

how very useful his insights must be!

Re:Is it possible to make a profit with union labo

[bizarreRide]

Best bet is to start your studio in a right-to-work state where Union rules don't apply. Texas and Oregon are both places that have fostered feature film studios outside of the Hollywood system. And it's not as hard to get people there as you might think - a lot of people in the industry are looking for any opportunity they can to get the hell out of LA. ;)

Balancing Art & Business

[FurtiveGlancer]

Thanks for agreeing to this unorthodox interview.

How does one successfully balance the art of moviemaking with the business of moviemaking?

The largest grossing movies have consistently been G, PG or PG-13, probably due to the larger available audience and the fact that people may attend good movies more than once. It is more difficult to find viable scripts that will can be kept in that rating range, than R or higher ratings?

In your opinion, how much of script selection is luck versus skill versus whatever else impacts it?

Best wishes in making and selling good movies.

Wait a Minute.... (Long)

[mpapet]

First of all, he's a "studio head" that has two movies, and a "studio" that's been around for about 1 year. http://www.nehst.com/index.php?page=news

Let's get down to the brass tacks... ... We are funding pictures in the 2 to 50 million dollar range. We are also pursuing co-production opportunities, distributing completed projects, gap financing, and finishing projects in need of completion.....

Which means someone is providing production seed money and he's the face in front of the money.

Here's a the how-to for you sysadmins that want to become Directors.

1. Have a great premise. Remake one of shakespere's plays. (again) Keep the story happening in one or two places you can film in for 8-10 hours at a time without interruption or legal overhead.
2. Have a great script. You've got to turn your re-hashed Classic into a _great_ script.

---Pause to Decide----

You know you are doing a good job if it has been hard work getting this far. This is where you decide if you want to make it yourself or try to shop the script taking the very real risk that a good script from a nobody will probably get knocked off with no financial recourse available.

---I want the Whole Enchilada---

3. Shop your script to every dentist, lawyer, bigwig in town. You need ~$50-100,000 to get a decent-looking production. They get some control, so when they want a cameo or their granddaughter to have a role, the answer is "yes." Believe me, this is how it's done everywhere.
4. Production planning marathon during every waking hour you are not working your day job.
5. Hire filming staff. Make sure your lighting person understands working digital.
6. Take a two-week vacation from your day job in which you will shoot your film.
7. Edit a rough cut. Show to your backers and ask for more money for a good editing, foley, etc.

8. Sell! Sell! Sell! Film festivals, cable tv, independent movie houses. Sell! Sell!

That should be about 2-5 years work for the average fully-employed sysadmin. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

You will have earned your movie-making stripes and can call yourself a director!!

Re:Is it possible to make a profit with union labo

[SkyDude]

Don't film in Hollywood. Hire only non-union film wannabes that will work for peanuts.

With the internet, does it matter where the film production takes place? I think not.

budget

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a question.

How much would you spend on a low budget movie and what would the budget breakdown look like? I've been looking for something like this for a while so I can write out a plan and know how much money I would have to spend to make a feature length animation. I guess people like to keep these things private... but I know film and animation are separate but I would still like to know how much money a "low-budget" film spends and where that money goes.

Mod Parent Informative

[mpapet]

I know for a fact this happens with startling regularity.

At very high levels that, coincidentally, are difficult to reach this does not happen as much. Before one gets their "big break" there's LOTS of plagarism.

Re:Are there any gentile producers in Hollywood?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nazi bastard... Just because there are a fair amount of jews in showbiz doesn't mean you have to pander to their "jewishness". There are plenty of secular jews out there who dont use Yiddish colloquialisms, and plenty of gentiles who do (think new york city...)

I have a superb movie idea...

[PortHaven]

How do I shop it around while at the same time protecting my idea.

I know my idea is good. I know it's marketable. And $200 million dollar movie idea if done right.

Where to begin? And how much info should I provide and to whom and when?

Re:I have a superb movie idea...

[jvin248]

Only real protection is to have lots of great ideas. You might have one or two lifted, but eventually you'll win.

Re:Are there any gentile producers in Hollywood?

[Anonymous Coward]

I take my cap off to you sir

Shreveport, LA

[Notquitecajun]

How have right-to-work states like Louisiana, where there have been several successful films and a burgeoning movie industry, affected the marketplace? Also, how successful are aspiring actors at getting beyond the "cattle call" stage and actually making a living there? Is it a good place for directors to ply their trade without having to deal with the expense and obnoxiousness of California?

I'm sure we already know the answer...

[Xest]

It's something to do with putting your hands over your ears, closing your eyes and repeating "the internet is not the future" to yourself whilst simultaneously suing your customers isn't it?

DP?

[Petersko]

"2.5 - get a good DP for free."

In my experience, a good DP costs at least four times your companions usual hourly rate.

From the series to the finale

[The Queen]

I've been involved in a sci-fi drama series since 2006; we've just wrapped shooting on season 3 this weekend. We've been churning out 30-minute+ episodes and making them available online (Veoh, Google Video, etc.) for free.

The director was hoping to cap the series off with a feature-length finale (and DVD release of the series episodes). If a studio were to back such a venture, would they want more of an intro/rehash/summary scenario (for new viewers) or would they trust in the existing fan base to pick up where the series left off?

See my sig for info on the show.

Re:The Answer

[QRDeNameland]

"Hello, Hammer!! Back again, huh?"

Re:Is it possible to make a profit with union labo

[mpapet]

Yes, it is possible for an independent film to make a profit. Directors have to start somewhere and many of them start by making their own films and selling distribution rights. You must do it yourself.

Don't blame the creative and production unions for everything. They continue to be a response to the unreasonable demands that Producers put on them. The creative and production sides have worked for decades to protect the value and safety of their work.

Now, Joe Schmoe indie studio guy won't put it to you like that, but he knows the game and you should learn it too before maintaining uninformed opinions.

Do what George Lucas did to get his break

[jonwil]

Pitch it to a studio (who will most likely say no) then when the studio gets bought out a short time later, come back and claim they said yes the first time.

Its how Lucas got his first film (THX 1138) made. (he pitched it to Warner Bros who said no, then Warner Bros was brought out by someone else, then Lucas went back and said that Warner had said yes pre-buyout and got enough money to make his film)

No

[mpapet]

Every movie is a crapshoot. They pay more for creative entities that has been successful before.

They are also responsible for taking good work and gutting it too. Look at all the bad movies that have been made from great books. Charlotte's Web comes to my mind. (Yeah, I'm a HUGE E.B. White fan)

No matter how much market research, pre-screenings, etc they use, their odds of success have only gotten _slightly_ better because it's so hard to make movies.

Breaking in

[Null537]

Which one of these types of people most easily gets the attention of a studio exec:
-The PA/wannabe director who is really good at getting coffee
-The director who has a list of short film fest awards
-The director who funded a feature length indie flick, that wasn't as well received as the short-film director's movies
-Some other person who doesn't fit into these categories

Getting Production Financing

[JohnAGonzalez]

I'm in the process of writing a screenplay for a children's movie. How do you go about getting financing for your idea with just a script, a storyboard, and maybe a 30-45 second trailer? There is a local production company that I would like to use to help with making the movie, but I am not what you would call "cash rich" at this point in time. Any suggestions?

Tom Cruise

[sammyo]

How important is getting (above the line) NAME actors involved in your upcoming productions? The headline (Tom) is a bit of a troll, but if a producer brought a (great) script about hackers with Tom attached would you be eager to be involved? Do you see YouTube 'celebs' like say a future 'ObamaGirl' having enough crossover awareness to 'open' a theatrical production?

Larry, I Have A Movie Script, But Not An Agent...

[Nom du Keyboard]

Larry,

I have a movie script. Not an idea, not random scribbling, but a 120 page script in proper format (courtesy Final Draft) on a topical item (robots), with a proper beginning, middle, and end.

What I don't have is an agent, contacts in the industry, or a lot of money to spend to pay other people to read my work on my own dime. What is my most effective course of action next to lead to an eventual sale and resulting movie? Are there new places to look beyond the traditional venues for an aspiring screenplay writer?

How's the biz changing?

[Marsala]

It seems like the rest of the world is finally catching up to what we all envisioned would happen in 2000. Content producers like record and movie studios seem to have finally recognized the fact that folks want content delivered digitally and that customers are no longer willing to be chained to their TVs at a specific time, prefer to carry all of their music with them where ever they roam, and aren't necessarily interested in having to go to theaters to watch movies when they've got their own big screen setups at home.

Having listened to several directors explain parts of the movie biz in commentaries on DVDs, it sounds like the distributors are still holding on to opening weekend ticket sales as the primary metric for determining how well a movie performs financially. This, as a result, determines what movies they'll fund, which scripts they'll buy, etc.

Are things in chaos on the business side as consumers start to move away from the studios' primary metric, or are we not quite there yet? And what do you see the movie making landscape looking like if we ever do get there? Less big budget blockbuster CGI extravaganzas in favor of more character driven movies?

PS: Sling Blade owned. Thanks for giving me a way to use the term "french fried taters" menacingly. :)

Re:Are there any gentile producers in Hollywood?

[elrous0]

Yes, I'm a Nazi because I point out that Hollywood is dominated (and has been from it's creation) by Jewish producers, writers, and studio heads. What a startling revelation!

Getting a little camera time

[McFly69]

For a person who is interested in the film industry, what is the best way to get a little camera time? In particular how does a person (in Boston, MA) find out where and when a movies are going to be recorded so they be a stand-in? Perhaps even interview for a small role? Thank you

Re:Getting a little camera time

[Anonymous Coward]

Try the classifieds section on www.newenglandfilm.org. I'm in Connecticut, but most of the stuff on there seems to be for the Boston area, so you will probably have more luck finding something suitable.

Re:Getting a little camera time

[Anonymous Coward]

The second half of this post, farther up the thread, has a great summary of how you can achieve what you want: http://interviews.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=572309&cid=23640027
Basically, it's a mixture of dumb luck, persistence, and being in the right place at the right time to even get a small speaking part, mainly because there are so many people dying for a role. If you want to Be In The Movies(tm), Boston isn't the place for you - move to either Los Angeles or New York (preferably the former). I know there were interviews for extras for some Scorsese (?) movie this past winter, but I wasn't going to brave the Boston cold just to be told no by some assistant to the associate producer.

On the other hand, if you wouldn't mind doing a few student films, the kids at Emerson College (on the corner of Boylston and Tremont, near the Common) are constantly looking for people for their movies. I'm a student there - ping me if you're interested in doing something: xshadow410@yahoo.com

Re:Are there any gentile producers in Hollywood?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because I really don't want to waste my time even trying if I have to throw in some fake Yiddish colloquialisms to even get my calls returned. isn't this just a little bit not antisemitic?

Documentaries?

[GeorgeK]

Q: Would making documentaries offer a superior risk/reward ratio compared to feature films, especially if someone is just starting out? What suggestions would you offer to succeed in documentaries?

Re:Documentaries?

[Optic7]

I would mod your question interesting if I had the points...

A Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Has your view of the art aspect of filmmaking changed since you first began creating movies?

Re:Are there any gentile producers in Hollywood?

[elrous0]

Yes, because acknowledging something that's obvious to anyone who isn't deaf, dumb, and blind--and is a long-standing Hollywood joke--makes one a racist, homophobe, anti-semite and whatever other politically correct curse word I can make up on the fly (oh wait, I forgot misogynist and ageist). It's all part of my campaign to restart the Holocaust by acknowledging that most of the producers and studio heads in Hollywood are Jewish. Hollywood, it turns out, is a great place to put in the ovens.

Who would you trust with your first script?

[joe.terry]

The question is ... do you go to the writers guild and pay them $35 bucks or whatever, first? Do you go to an agent? If you have a killer script, that you can't film, where do you go first?

Only one thing you need to know to get into movies

[angus_rg]

and that's how to swallow......

Data Mining/Predictions

[cleatsupkeep]

In the book "Super Crunchers", one of the fields they covered was the movie industry, and discussed firms that would be able to predict the success of a movie by reading its script? One example of this was a script that was going to be filmed at too many locations, was predicted to be unprofitable because its filming cost was too high, and the number of locations would confuse the viewer. Have you looked into any of these ideas of using statistics and data mining to predict the popularity/profit of your scripts, and if so, any success/failure stories, and if not, why not?

http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/supercrunchers/

Money or Fame

[Anonymous Coward]

There are in my opinion two reasons why people go about making a film. You either want money or to say something. Movies like Clerks and other independent based films try to say something to us. Then we have movies like police academy and Die Hard that are mainly to make money. While they both have interesting story the latter more so, they did not have any grand message besides we'd like money to impress you. Movies are made for fame and fortune, thats the essence of entertainment it's the capturing of attention, and getting paid to do it, sort of like a pick pocket at a carnival.

I personally only see movies as something to entertain or entertain through the telling of a meaningful story.

If I had one question to ask however, would be how much do you enjoy your work on a day to day basis?

Why doesn't it work?

[Mrs. Grundy]

Given that there is so much competition and so much talent in Hollywood and that they are all competing fiercly with one another, why is it so hard to find a good movie to see? Where is the bottleneck that is stripping away the truly creative and feeding pablum to the audience?

Re:Why doesn't it work?

[Optic7]

Filmmaking by committee. The problem is that the larger the budget, usually the larger the committee with all the problems that go along with it. That's why so many amazing small to medium budget movies are made, while it's usually rare to see a really good big budget movie.

Worst of all is that from what I have heard the big studios are now mostly run (from inside or outside, i.e. investment firms) by pure business people that have no knack or background in films, they just want a guaranteed profit. You can understand what this leads to.

Interview Question

[David_Hart]

Since most of us on Slashdot are technical in some way:

When working on a movie set, are IT professionals involved?

If so, are they hired "in-house" or contracted from local IT consulting firms? What tasks are they involved in (i.e. pc support, networking, digital storage, etc)?

I had the unique opportunity to watch a portion of the filming of the movie "This Side of the Truth" (a comedy coming in 2009). They were filming at the apartment complex across the street. I noticed that there was a lot of A/V equipment (of course) and a number of LCD displays. However, there didn't seem to be any network gear, digital storage, or PC/Mac/Laptops in use. My guess is that this is because of the type of film (i.e. lower budget, no special effects, etc.).

David

Self Distribution

[Anonymous Coward]

Some would say that a film becomes a movie when it gets played in a movie theater. How do I get my film in movie theaters? I'm not talking about the sell my rights to some major/independent studio/distribution company way of doing it. I want to do it myself. I also don't want to have to do the Clint Eastwood Play Misty for Me four walling gimmick. Do I find a film booker or do the theaters use specific bookers that I must go through and convince to pimp my film? With digital theaters popping up everywhere, film prints will become a thing of the past. What do I send to digital theaters, a hard drive, a bunch of DVDs ? What video/audio formats would I need to use and what container would I need to shove them in? DVD pressing is cheap enough to do a very limited run on a used car budget, but how do I get places like Wal-Mart or Best Buy to stock them?
Thanks.

The Thing is Good; now what?

[Scroatzilla]

In the age of desktop video publishing: If a movie/entertainment professional were to discover original material on YouTube that s/he considered exceptionally great (understood that's subjective, but let's say it just hits home in some sense) despite poor production quality, what's the next thing that s/he would look for?

Would it be the rest of the poster's/director's body of work?

Would it be contact information to try and make contact with the poster/director?

Would the poster's page simply be put on some sort of favorites list?

Or, would it simply be ignored because of poor production quality?

Make your Own

[jvin248]

Cost of cameras and video/sound editing (especially Linux & Open Source) have really dropped. The internet is a definite distribution medium. Get some people together and make short and long movies. Start a web site. Look for fan sites and fan films (star wars to star trek) for passion and methods. Go to youtube. With costs falling - it's very possible to launch your own brand. I saw where George Lukas was said to have modeled his rebellion against the movie empire. He was in the business and wanted a hit to get out to make his own stuff. (why o why jarr-jarr?). Have some fun like the guys doing "Chad Vader". So make your own and bootstrap up.

Try going to school for it

[cab_codespring]

Get a BA in Film at someplace like School Of Visual Arts in NYC. A place like NY is good because can get internships locally to get experience. My nephew did this, and he interned various places, like The Discovery Channel for instance. You also make the contacts you will need to get into the business. As a bonus you might know what you're doing as well when you make you own films or freelance or actually get a job. I'm surprised not one person has mentioned an educational route.

Re:Try going to school for it

[Ag3ntSm1th]

That's probably because most people would say save the money ($40-80k) you'd spend on school and instead quit your job and do internships full time. Either way you'll start at the bottom as having a degree means nothing in the film industry.

Re:Try going to school for it

[cab_codespring]

You aren't going to get the internship without the training and the school connections. I don't think some doof off the street that skimped on training and connections will have a better resume than somebody with a degree from a good school and some industry experience. It's like any other job that requires skills.

Oh, McFly, your shoe's untied.

[circletimessquare]

Don't be so gullible, McFly. Got the place fixed up nice-o, McFly.

sorry, couldn't resist ;-)

What about a script only?

[bb84]

If you have developed a fairly detailed idea for a movie, perhaps even an entire script, but you haven't actually tried to film your ideas, is it possible to get your idea picked up based on a script alone? What is the best way to get some attention to your script from people in the industry?

Same way you get into any other bullshit career

[billcopc]

Suck dick, Kiss ass, or have a friend/relative on the inside.

The problem with the film industry (and many others) is they think they're these superheroes saving the world from boredom. Such inflated egos create a very bizarre work environment.

Re:Same way you get into any other bullshit career

[KudyardRipling]

-1/0, [ Uncomfortable Truth | Overrated | Troll | Flamebait | Please! Will someone ban his entire domain already? ]

However, this is THE bullshit career.

It is not enough to possess the skill with the crew, cameras, lights, props, makeup, scripts, etc. It is not merely knowing the right people. One must conform to the dictates of their lifestyle. Skills are required but without the right ideology, relationships cannot be established and as a result skills become meaningless. You must become one of them. Once having adopted the proper idelology, corresponding behavior must result. This includes but is not limited to the the following: doing drugs, opposing and/or embarrassing the current administration, demanding military involvement where interests do not exist, opposing military involvement where interests do exist, banning fur, donating to NPR, partying all night, sleeping all day, grooming and dressing weirdly. If all goes properly you will need to take a regimen of certain medications that cost tens of thousands of dollars per year. But heck, you are making more than twice the national per capita average income in the USA.

Only through the casting down of all taboos, inhibitions, decoram and good taste can creativity be realized. Then and only then will you be discovered.

There's NO business like BLO^WSHOW business...

VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[shidarin'ou]

The job you're talking about is a visual effects artist.

Special effects are on set, visual effects are post production. A visual effects editor is an editor whose job is not to edit the movie, but to edit the VFX shots from different post houses into the cut. On a big budget effects driven flick, you might have multiple houses (ILM, DD, and 5 smaller houses) working on the same movie. These houses will be sending editorial updated composites all the time, and it's the job of a VFX editor to manage the cut, and place in all the updated version of these shots into the cut in a timely manner so that the director and the effects supervisor can review the cut with the effects in place, and send notes back to the effects houses on the effects shots (IE, too blue. Explosion bigger. Needs less asslike work).

A visual effects artist can be multiple things. The two most common things are a compositor or a 3d artist.

A compositor will take things (green screen elements, CGI, background plates, etc) and composite them to form a seamless shot that ideally looks as real as possible. They work in After Effects, Shake, Nuke, Fusion or Flame.

A 3d artist can be further specialized in a bunch of categories (are you a rigger, a texturer/lighter?, a modeler?) but you're usually creating CGI to be used by the compositors. They work in 3ds Max, Lightwave, Cineon 4d, Vue (really more of a matte painting tool though), and Maya.

It sounds like you're doing the work of a compositor and the work of a 3d artist, in which case it IS very hard to generate realistic looking footage because it's almost impossible to be pros in both of these fields.

It is very hard to get many of the things you've mentioned to look clean and professional without the support of a qualified 3d team. If you were looking to get into compositing effects, I would recommend doing more simple things as professional as possible. These would include muzzle flashes (you can make these look perfect even in After Effects), green screens, reflection elements, removing people/items from shots using clean plates, etc. Show you have a working knowledge of the job, and you could get hired doing rotoscoping for a while, then get bumped up to basic compositing, etc.

A possible way to get demo reel stuff is to sign up for fxphd (www.fxphd.com) they're train you, and give you tons of stuff to use on your demo reel that was professional shot, and CG elements professional done. Fxphd is the training division of the site fxguide, which is a great resource for any VFX artist- there's a ton of tips, tricks and tutorials at www.fxguide.com too ;)

Hope this was helpful.

Re:VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[Jarik_Tentsu]

Yeah mate, that was really helpful!

From what you said, I think I'd be compositor. I primarily work in After Effects. Got my own little mini-business with some mates who do projects, DVDs and whatnot for people. I usually end up doing effects-heavy montages, DVD menu's, etc etc. Hired doing rotoscoping....*shudders*...but I guess you gotta start somewhere.

I'll also check out those two FX sites. Another good one is www.videocopilot.net - free topnotch AE video tutorials which are easy to understand, but have some really cool stuff.

I was also wondering if stuff like gaming highlight videos (I've got a mate in a CS clan that I'm doing a video for) or stuff like AMVs (I'm starting one for a competiton), and generally other montage-based stuff with purely electronic footage is respected/acknowledged as good showcase material?

Certainly something like that is a place where I *can* make a video that doesn't look like amateurish due to limitations of physical camera work, lighting, physical effects, etc and something that can really come together to the best of its abilities. Because I would have a couple of good demo's of that stuff over the next year.

Main issue is at the moment video effects compositing is a hobby for me; something I'd love to do as a part-time/casual thing as I study my Bachelor of Engineering. I don't suppose any studio's look for these kindsa people. By that I mean, smaller, freelance places and whatnot? I mean, if I was given footage, a deadline and whatnot, I'm sure I could get something done.

~Jarik

Re:VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[shidarin'ou]

If you start doing compositing more heavily, I recommend downloading the Personal Learning Edition of Fusion. It's a great way to migrate to a node based (rather than a layer based like After Effects) interface (http://www.eyeonline.com/) and it's fully featured and relatively cheap compared to some of the other solutions out there. Also fully featured, but now unsupported, is Shake, but I always found Shake to be a lot less user friendly- but Apple keeps slashing the price on a license so it's getting very, very cheap.

Major post houses and smaller post houses don't really look for part time people unless you're an old hand. Smaller post houses especially can't afford that, as the smaller number of people means everyone has to wear more hats and do generally more jobs.

Now, what sounds ideal for you right now is to find a small company that specializes in corporate videos/weddings etc. Every now and then some kind of effects shot comes up (it might be changing the logo on a jet, doing a quick green screen comp to place the CEO inside an architectural model of their new building, etc) when those shots aren't there, you could do motion graphic design work (DVD menus, titles, lower thirds, etc). This is pretty much the path I took.

What kind of engineering are you studying? System administrators are always needed, programmers are always needed, people who can write complex shaders for 3d work are always needed.. etc etc. At a smaller house, someone who can do those tasks AND composite are very valuable- more valuable than a person who just does one thing. A larger house on the other hand, is going to have more use for someone who only does something like that. For Speed Racer, Digital Domain spent a long, long time just researching how to render 3d cars correctly and built a bunch of new stuff for it.

Wish you luck.

Re:VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[Jarik_Tentsu]

Thanks again for your reply mate! Someone mod him up.

I'll have a look at Fusion and Shake sometime. So far been a pure Adobe-fanboy, but nothing hurts by trying other stuff! For the moment though, I'll stay to the "Everything on the internet is free" until I have the money to buy one of those packages...

A mate of mine I do work with actually managed to find a freelance small company exactly what you said - doing corporate videos. I think I'd enjoy that. Advertisements and whatnot quite often are heavy in special effects, whether its titles or all through it. So far I've also done a few jobs for my school too. The thing that kinda 'started' me on this was the 500 hour (over 3 people) Year 12 Video we put together and it led to extra interest from the school for us to do other stuff.

As for what engineering...well, if I wanted to go into programming, I'd be doing Computer Science, but I've always been more of a computer hardware guy, so I'm looking at Electrical System Engineering (with bias towards electronics). I was hoping at chip design and stuff like that. Either that or Mechanical, maybe even mechatronics. (I only have to decide end of second year. First year is common, second year let's you choose two disciplines to study). But I know enough programming theory such that I could maybe look into writing 'complex shaders' and whatnot. What's a good place to start? What language are these usually written in? Are there any resources into writing effects tools?

So with the "path you took", did you startup your own company, or join one? If the latter, how did you go about advertising yourself to them?

And yeah, how are stuff like "Gaming highlight videos" and "AMVs" dealt in the industry? I'm not talking those little projects people put together that really suck, but the kinda projects people put 1000 hours into putting together. Are they respected at all? Or considered kinda 'childish'?

Thanks again for your help,
~Jarik

Re:VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[shidarin'ou]

I was a big Adobe fanboy too. The man thing to remember about After Effects vs Shake/Fusion/Flame is that After Effects is a layer based compositing system (the workflow is built around a layer list, you add filters to layers, etc) while Shake/Fusion/Flame are node based systems- where your footage are inputs to a flow of nodes, and every filter or 2d move or track or gmask is a node along a chain, starting with multiple inputs and (usually) culminating together in one output. Node based is (in my opinion) the only real professional option, but I believe almost all motion graphics are done with a layer based system (mostly After Effects) since it's very nature allows you to generate a look in Photoshop, bring it in, then animate the layers- very handy.

Sometimes I've wished for a node based Photoshop, but thats just overkill and silly. As far as everything on the internet is free, just remember it's all fun and games until you start making money off it.

I asked about the engineering because you never really can tell what someone wants to do or their specialty off their stated major alone. I'm not really sure that your chosen specialty (things liek chip design) would be needed- as I'm not that knowledgeable about the field of engineering. I believe most of the 3d plugins etc are written in C++, Python, or MEL (a maya scripting language I think). It's a long way off from compositing. I don't really know of any resources to help you get started here, as it's just too far away from my chosen fields (I'm a 2d compositor with a heavy 3d overlap).

I went to college for Film Production (Loyola Marymount University). While there I TA'd the effects and editing class, and got a job part time at one of the corporate places I mentioned as an editor/motion graphics guy/effects. Following college I got a roto job at a small VFX house, and now I'm a compositor. My program journey went like this: Premiere (High School), After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Shake, Combustion, Flame.

Sorry for not addressing your previous question of machinina and game videos. I know that the Unreal engine is used by one of the major effects houses to do a lot of previs (basically moving storyboards) work, but overall I'd probably recommend against putting that stuff on your reel- I think most of Hollywood still doesn't "get it" when it comes to how hard some of that stuff is, and how much work is put into it. Sorry.

Re:VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[Jarik_Tentsu]

Thanks a lot for all your advice mate! Probably the most I've ever gotten about this field.

I'll keep it in mind, and have a go at learning node-based compositing software. That fxphd thing looks really cool too. And yeah, once I start making serious money besides cash sales to family/friends/school I'll probably buy my software. And 'tis a shame about machinina and AMVs - you're right, a lot of people really don't know what the original footage looked like, and thus dunno the kinda editing work put into doing it...

But yeah, I'll give them all a go!

Though, what's the difference between all of Autodesk's stuff - flame, combustion, smoke, fire, inferno, etc?

Thanks again,
~Jarik

Re:VFX editing, VFX artist, your reel.

[shidarin'ou]

Flint Flame and Inferno are all pretty much the same node based compositing system- Autodesk adds in some arbitrary "you can't use that function" to the lower end models (Flint and Flame) that the inferno has, but it's nothing you really need. Flame is the dominant of the three in North America, while the Inferno is bigger in Japan because clients INSIST on it because they think it's better.

Smoke is a flame like editing system that can do basic effects, but is primarily used as a high end commercial editor- kind of like an Avid Nitro. I think Fire is the same thing, but either a higher tier or a lower tier. I'm not sure if they sell many.

Combustion is a low end layer based compositing system that most closely resembles After Effects but gets a lot of hand me downs from the Flame.

Stay away from Toxik.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

[Anonymous Coward]

Basket Case 2 (1990) (location assistant)

Lovely.

Opening Titles / End Credits

[shidarin'ou]

Absolutely there are companies that focus on opening and ending credits. An opening sequence is a lot more motion graphics intensive than most Visual Effects houses deal with on a day to day basis, as well as sometimes requiring a lot more practical element photography than a lot of effects houses use. While it wouldn't be unusual for a mainly film VFX house to do opening or closing titles, there exist many companies that focus exclusively on producing awesome title sequences. Here are a few examples:

PIC agency (http://www.picagency.com/) (The Kingdom opening credits) Article on their opening credits for the Kingdom: http://www.fxguide.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=435

Picture Mill (http://www.picturemill.com/) Article on Picture Mill: http://www.fxguide.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=435

These are just two of many. Hope this helps.

Re:Opening Titles / End Credits

[Ag3ntSm1th]

This is very helpful. I just watched The Kingdom last week and the opening title sequence blew me away. I'm guessing having a background in general CG and typography would be the most important, or would studying say just typography and After Effects be enough to break ground in this line of work?

Re:Opening Titles / End Credits

[shidarin'ou]

Typography, after effects, motion graphics studies would be good to have. General CG is probably less important, as if you're going the motion graphics route you're going to have people who KNOW KNOW CG providing you with CG.

How do you get the right eyeballs to see your work

[danglia]

So I live in a small state that's pushing hard to get the movie industry's attention.

I've been making my own projects for 8 years now. I've completed a feature-length sci-fi comedy, several feature length docs, dozens of music videos, plus hours and hours of local projects.

I've directed, produced, run "pro-sumer" cameras, Green screening, animation, compositing, original music. I've got first hand experience with it all.

I feel that I'm rather creative and quite prolific with that creative output.

Now, I know all about the below-the-line work, and have a dozen friends doing make-up, set design, grip and all the other grunt work. But I'm not interested in that. I want to work above-the-line.

I've seen projects like that 'Sky Captain' dude who got to make his movie with big $$$ because his girlfriend's dad knew someone. I see Robert Rodriguez doing all his own stuff--directing, music, compositing--and I think I could find a niche in that mold.

My current challenge is breaking out of the "indie" mold and being entrusted with a modest budget to produce a larger project.

I'm tired of scraping by to finance my creative projects (so is my wife). I'm tired of submitting projects to dozens of "indie" festivals that each cost $50 and then your project screens in some warehouse from a crappy DVD projector with lousy sound.

There has got to be a better way.

How do you get the right 'eyeballs' to see your work?

-DanO at NMDV

Best way to obtain quality scripts for independent

[duck81]

We are starting a small production company in Las Vegas, and need a supply of quality low budget unproduced screenplays to read. What is the most efficient way to solicit for submissions without attracting an ocean of really bad stuff? (there are only three of us, and only two who can evaluate scripts.) We can't afford to pay up front - so it'd have to be writers without representation. Contact film schools? College writing departments? Please help. Thanks.

So, out of curiosity...

[DurendalMac]

If I were to have a pilot episode script for a TV show and a lot more ideas for it to progress, how might I go about getting a foot in the door and hopefully getting it sold?

Film Production Techniques for IT Project Mmgt?

[filterpipe]

Hi, Question: Are there any resources that might show how to apply film production methodologies to the management of IT projects? Background: After having 33+ years in computing in a wide range of organizations, I had the opportunity to be the lead on a viz centre. The company that did the actual design, install and set up of the system downstream of the video card outputs all the way to the rear-projected, active-stereo projection system had strong ties to Hollywood productions.At least two of the folks involved, the viz centre designer and the viz centre builder actually had recurring jobs working on movie productions _ set design and set construction. In a phrase, I was absolutely blown away by the professionalism, amazing competence, and ability to work around problems on the fly shown by the Hollywood types.It was unlike anything that I had ever seen in dealing with IT management in my 33+ years experience.

Self Distribution

[Anonymous Coward]

With digital theaters popping up everywhere, how do I go about getting my movies played in them without having to rent out each one like Clint Eastwood did for Play Misty For Me? Do I hire a film booker or do theaters have certain bookers they use that I must convince to pimp my movie? A very limited run of DVDs can be pressed on a used car budget, but how do I get them in retail chains like Wal-Mart and Best Buy?
Thanks.

Addictions, addictions

[mauddib~]

How do you make sure you're not going down the illegal drugs scene?

What are the "bibles", THE Books pros study?

[Anonymous Coward]

Matters of Light and Depth, by Ross Lowell
being one such, better than merely-still lighting, for photogs...

( Strobist Bookshelf: best photographic lighting books )

Lighting, Sound, Cinematography, Post, the *business* of film, etc, what are THE Books?

What are THE training-DVDs to get someone up to speed, as sometimes needs to happen, when someone is filling-in outside of their specialty...

IOW, Where's The Knowledge in portable form?

Blackbird Crow Raven

[BClayShannon]

I know every author probably feels this way, but I think that all of my novels would make great movies (if "done right," of course). However, my novels are "self-published" (available on lulu* for free download). Am I just "whistling dixie" thinking they have any shot of ever being seen by the masses?

* go to www.lulu.com/blackbirdcraven for all of my books

"the Zany Time Travels of Warble McGorkle" (Sci-fi/Social Commentary):
www.lulu.com/content/568188

"the Wacky Misadventures of Warble McGorkle" ("Road"/Social Commentary/political campaigning):
www.lulu.com/content/569012

"Twisted Roads" (Police Procedural; search for it on www.lulu.com; although it does not contain explicit sex scenes, the subject matter is very "intense" (child abduction by a child molester and his pursuit) and the violence is quite graphic.

The Vavilovian Conspiracy" (Sci-fi/Utopian):
www.lulu.com/content/352385

A best way to handle music rights for soundtrack?

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

For someone starting out in the world of film, what is the best way to get/handle/process rights to music for a film?

For example, I do all of my creative thinking as montages to a particular song that inspires me, and extrapolate from there, so many of my scenes are cut to match the music of a specific song.

how do i contact you offline?

[circletimessquare]

your email here is blocked

there's no way on massify to contact the cto ;-(

HBO project greenlight

[cellurl]

What did you think of that HBO: Project Greenlight thing a while back with the film "Holes" and Shia LaBeouf?