There is a sad, often unspoken, reality in the world of low-budget filmmaking…and I am aware that I now defy all expected conventions in revealing this coveted truth – your poster and your trailer are actually more important than the movie itself.

As myself and the rest of the Robin Hood Films team gears up for the upcoming American Film Market, a large portion of our energies, as expected, are being spent on putting a shine on otherwise mediocre trailers and creating new artwork and, in some cases, new titles for films that might otherwise suffer for their lack of marketability.  (For those who don’t know, The American Film Market is an annual event which takes place in Santa Monica, CA where buyers from all over the world can meet with distributors and sales agents with product to license.  Along side the big studios and notable independent labels are many smaller players in the game, such as myself.  And just like in the U.S., there are buyers for dozens of territories around the world looking for big, medium and small feature films to take to theaters, TV, DVD, VOD and any other outlet they feel they can turn a profit in their territory.  This is the biggest event of it’s kind in the Western Hemisphere.)

At the show, buyers will be inundated with hundreds of films they’ve never heard of and trying to fill a quote for their company.  This might be as simple as “1 drama, 3 horror, 3 sci-fi, 2 comedy, all $1m-$3m budgets”.  If that is their agenda, and I have a horror film available, it’s my intention to make my film more desirable than my competition.  Now, of course, I can’t compete with Lionsgate shopping around “The Cabin in the Woods”, and fortunately I don’t have to.  Anyone looking for an A-list title like that has no interest in my little zombie film.  Of course, a buyer for Germany wanting “Cabin in the Woods” might have to pay $750k for those rights (probably not the best example as the really big films will actually get released in that country by the studio or the distributor they have a relationship with…but you get the point).  A small film like “Broken Springs: Shine of the Undead Zombie Bastards” might only cost $40k for all rights in Germany.

Now, I’m not sure if you caught it since I tried to slide it past you in the previous sentence, but the title of the film is “Broken Springs: Shine of the Undead Zombie Bastards”.  Or should I say the title “was”…..

Fortunately, the filmmaker, Neeley, has proven himself a pragmatic businessperson in that he’s deferred to my suggestion/advice/genius (people always get high marks for this!) and agreed to change the title and the poster.  The previous poster falls squarely into my previously posted concerns about bad posters (see below).  It was terrible, but as is often the case, resources were limited and the team knew whoever picked up the film would rework the artwork anyway. 

So what you see here is the new poster we commissioned from a very talented artist we’re happy to have on our team.   Continue reading →

It is a fascinating business we’re a part of and perhaps one of the most intriguing parts is the vast diversity among the players involved.  People of every conceivable type seem to be drawn to this business for a plethora of reasons (the main ones being money and sex…oh, yeah, and “desire for creative expression”…all three certainly interest me, but I’m pleading the 5th on the order!).   And due to the vast disparity among this motley crew, there is likewise a set of completely varying thoughts, beliefs, opinions and preconceived notions….all of which is a nice way of saying plenty of these people have their heads up their asses.

And this is the point…no scratch that, as usual I have no  point….this is the TOPIC of today’s ramblings.

I’m not sure why, but today I recalled a filmmaker I met more than 10 years ago who wanted some help with his film.  I remembered it being an odd story and felt it was worth sharing because, as is often the case, there is a lessen to be learned.

This story took place around 2000.  I know the call I received was precipitated by a showing of my first film “Impact” of which there were two Vegas showings around this time.  A local man had attended a screening of “Impact” and had a movie of his own that he wanted help with.  We talked for a bit and he invited me by.  Since these were the days before Craig’s List and I was still green and naive, it never crossed my mind that this man may have had ulterior motives like having seen me at the screening, his beautiful daughter had immediately fallen in love with me and convinced her father to kidnap and drug me until I consented to marry her and take over their estate in the South or France.   Fortunately, that was not the case and the guy was actually a filmmaker.

Continue reading →

I have a friend, we’ll call him Nate (not his real name), who is a filmmaker.  Nate made an low budget horror film that he’s been trying to sell.  I gave it a look and he did a decent job for the his limited budget.  Not a great job, but a good job.  No stars, obviously, and nothing terribly original, but he chose the horror genre and an equally marketable sub-genre.  Is it sellable?  That’s what he wants to know.  Well…maybe.  He’s not going to get Lionsgate or Miramax to pick it up, but he can probably get a smaller company to take it.  Will they get it into Redbox or Walmart?  Probably not, but there can be life in video on demand – and that’s a big enough arena where he could possibly see a profit (if the distributor doesn’t screw him over).

So, what was the biggest drawback with his film, he wanted to know?  Keep in mind I’m big on constructive criticism, here.  I don’t go to a filmmaker with a complete picture and say “I wish you’d gone this direction with the story….”  If there are little changes that I think are possible, I’ll thrown them out.  I’ll point out issues with the audio that need fixing.  I have no problem with berating bad titles.  I have no problem telling a filmmaker he really needs to cut 20 minutes from the picture to make it tighter.   This is a surprisingly common issue among first-time filmmakers…they spend all this time writing, then all this time shooting, then all this time editing a scene and have so much invested at that point they can’t bring themselves to cut it.  But I digress…there are plenty of problems with virtually all indy films, but only a handful are even worth mentioning since the vast majority are beyond repair.  Nate’s biggest problem was, fortunately, an easy one – his poster sucks balls!  It’s terrible.  The thing that bothers me the most is that there’s no way any person wouldn’t know this…but I see it ALL the time. Continue reading →

A filmmaker wrote me a few days ago.  The producer (a first-timer, I’m sure) emailed me with an inquiry in regards to her film which was just completed.  I followed the link to the website to learn a bit more about the project.

The site looked slick, sharp and professionally done.  Always a good start.  It’s amazing how many filmmakers fuck this up right out of the gate.  It shouldn’t be hard to fathom that most people are going to equate “shitty website = shitty film”.  Most websites suck and were put together by a filmmaker with no graphic artist skills who spent a few hours reading up on Wed Design 101 – and it shows.   Last week another producer wrote me about another film.  His site was set up like a novel where you click to flip through the pages.  Each page (actually 2 since it was like a book) was accompanied by the sound effect of pages turning and a sound byte from the movie.  Very annoying actually and not easily navigatable.  The visitor had to view the pages in the order the web designer set them up whether he wanted to or not.  The problem…it was a 52 page “book”.  I didn’t even make it half way.  Why does your film need 52 pages to get a distributor hooked?  I don’t want to see 300 stills from the film.

This latest filmmaker had a nice looking site, so their first check was in the positive box.  Their first BIG negative was their title.  As I’m always careful not to throw people under the bus, I won’t tell you the actual name of the film, but there was a equal sign and a squared sign in the title.  Yes, in the fucking title.  As an example (not the actual title), it was something like Lovers = (Friends)2…  I don’t even know how to type a squared symbol in my blog program! Continue reading →

A filmmaker, Joel (not his real name) approached me this week about this project.  This happens often and I’m always willing to hear people out.  If you’ve been following my posts, this is the guy who shot a film about 5 years ago that still isn’t finished…seems they’ve been working on audio forever.  It took Wagner 26 years to complete his The Ring cycle of operas, so maybe 5 years to finish post on a film isn’t so bad.

Joel has three projects he’s pushing.  The main one is a comedy set to be shot in Canada.  One the surface, it looks pretty good, aside from being a comedy…  With a $2.5m budget, taking advantage of Canadian tax credits and incentives, only $900k is actually needed to make the film.  Not bad.  The script is by Harland Williams.  Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know the name, but you’d recognize him as a comedian and character actor.  I recognize him from my days as a blackjack dealer at the Hard Rock where the cheap bastard played at my table for 2 hours, won over $800 and tipped me $1.50.  That’s right – $1.50.  What a piece of shit.  Like all areas of life, we remember the great and the shitty, the big tippers (Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Keifer Sutherland) as well as the cheap bastards and assholes (Louis Gossett Jr, Jennifer Lopez, Tiger Woods, Harland Williams).  But I digress… Continue reading →

I just got an email from Henry, the indy filmmaker going into production in a few weeks.  Just when I thought his cast couldn’t get any more impressive with Traci Lords and James Franco’s mom (see below), he’s locked down…wait for it…Karen Black!  No shit!  How you land Karen Black on a film without a studio budget is a puzzlement to me…but exactly the opposite.

Now, he did point out that she’s an Academy Award nominee.  He didn’t have to remind me that her nomination took place before I was born.  Please know, I’m not trying to demean Karen Black in any way; she was in some great films a long time ago.  I just have to shake my head that a producer/director can think that getting an actress that has been out of the spotlight for decades is a big deal…or even a medium deal.  In fact, how can he think it’s anything but a small deal.  Actually, is there a smaller word for “deal” itself so I can accurately describe my thoughts on this?

So, I’m sure it’s surprising to him, but I’m still no impressed enough with the cast to put money into his project.  Now, maybe, if he writes me next week that he’s locked down Bob Saget’s gardener…

Surprisingly, it seems I do have at least one friend who appreciates my advice and the fact that I’ve been involved in this industry for a while.  Perhaps he’s the only one, but he’s surprisingly willing to admit that I know something of what I’m talking about when it comes to filmmaking and selling films.  (How I fooled him, I don’t know…)

This friend, Randy (not his real name), has made one film to date.  Actually, he’s made one very good film to date.  For having a very small budget, he did a wonderful job.  I’m impressed and I don’t give out that accolade lightly.  He put together a hell of a cast and crew and delivered a project that’s solid in every respect.  Recently finished, I have no doubt he’ll get it out there…I’d even be very surprised if it didn’t turn a profit…I just hope the distributor he’s working with doesn’t screw him.

So, he’s developing a new project and wanted some advice.  Actually, now that I think about, maybe he didn’t want advise at all, maybe he just wanted to share with me his ideas for the new project, but it ended up in advice from me.  Lots of it, in fact.  He’s stepping up his budget and wants to do a comedy for the next project.  Right out of the gate, I warned him that, all things being equal, not the best genre to start with.  Comedy is very tough to pull off.  Everything thinks they have a sense of humor and are funny; very few people actually are.  Even those who are often fall on their faces when it comes to making a film.  But Randy wasn’t remotely deterred.  ”We have an amazing script!”  Okay, I told him I’d take a look. Continue reading →

I received  a call a couple of weeks ago from a local actor who is trying to put a film together.  His name is Tommy (not his real name) and he’s one of the stars of a local film that’s been wallowing in post production for years.  The thing is, I saw a trailer for the film he’s in probably three years ago or more.  It looked like they did a very nice job with a limited budget.  Shot on the Red camera, it seemed slick and impressive.  Of course…the more years that pass, the less impressive it seems it has to be.  I recently reached out to the producer.  I wanted to know if the film would be done in time for the 2012 American Film Market.  I mean, since he missed 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 market, I thought he might be inspired to hit the 5 anniversary show celebrating the wrap of this picture.  I also figured, maybe, I could get a look at the film to see if it is something my company could handle.  His response was “We’re still working on sound”.  Yep, that was the same reason (does “excuse” sound too negative?) I’ve been hearing for years.  It probably doesn’t matter to me, because first time filmmakers, be it producers, directors or actors, are living in a fantasy land of sorts.  I can say that, because when I was a first time filmmaker I was guilty of exactly the same thing.  The reality is, this producer, I’m sure, is still adamant that he’s going to sell his film for more than they have into it.  Whether that’s an advance against even more obscene profits the film is sure to bring, or an outright sale putting them comfortably in the black, he is no doubt convinced this is going to be his foray into successful filmmaking and open all kinds of doors.  Again, I know, I was there.  Now, granted, I haven’t seen the film, but the reality is, I don’t have to.  I mean, not really.  I know roughly what they have into the film, probably around $200k.  And I know what they might, MIGHT get out of a distribution deal.  If someone will advance them $50k, they should take the money, but if an offer along those lines comes in early, I assure the producer will hold out a few months until he realized “it aint’ gettin’ any better”.  At that point, maybe that deal will still be there, maybe it won’t.  Of course, the odds of getting even that $50k deal are slim, but maybe they slowing playing (and I mean REALLY slow playing) a greay indy film.  Of course, odds are against that as well.  Regardless of the deal, I hope they talk to some people who have been through the process or their contract will ensure they get fucked over as that’s the rule, not the exception in this game.  My guess is, egos will prevails and producers will be convinced they’re smart enough to decipher the contract themselves.  Good luck with that… Continue reading →

The latest film I’m involved with is now done.

My hats off to the team including stars Danny Trejo, Steven Bauer, Oscar Torre and Camila Banus for their outstanding work.

I’ve no doubt the film will find a good home and big distributor to handle it domestically.

Seems my John Carter box office prediction was off by a mere $5.7 million as the domestic haul came in at just under $71 million.  If we start with the $250m price tag and add what was probably $50-$100m in marketing and subtract the exhibitors fees…it’s official!!!  -  John Carter is a colossal flop!

Who would have thought?..aside from EVERYONE!