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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

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?

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.

I'm already in the movie business...

[Anonymous Coward]

As a distributor. ;D

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.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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?

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!!

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?

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?

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.

[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.