Is Sustainable Independent Filmmaking Possible?

[Jonesy Jones]

On 7/14/2017 at 8:07 AM, Chris Oh said:

I liked your post for diy lights here. 

I have contributed to a few youtubers with Patreon. $1 to $5 coming out automatically, for contents I'm interested in, I'm in.

If you want to go that route. 

 

 

Did you ever build your own lights?

I still use mine. I have purchased a gaffer kit of kinos since. They are brighter and better light than my homemade ones, but I still use my own. 

On 7/13/2017 at 10:41 PM, HockeyFan12 said:

I think it's very possible but it's difficult. I think Rocket Jump has the closest thing to a good model that there is. They are absolutely cleaning up. But at the begging, when you're small, it's going to be very hard to monetize.

If you can move from day job with freelance supplementing it to freelance with creative work supplementing it to creative work paying the bills to creative work making you rich... then you just lived the American dream. If you have a vision, go for it. 

I have no advice except look to Rocket Jump and only do it if you have a vision and you're willing to fail but so desperate to succeed you don't worry about setbacks and failures. Look to Patreon and YouTube channels, too. 

And let me know what you find out!

And start small. Gall's law is truth!

This is another great info nugget. I think after learning enough of these one increases their chance of success greatly.

On 7/14/2017 at 2:07 AM, TrueIndigo said:

Thanks for starting this great thread!

I first heard of Patreon when I used to read interesting 'Doctor Who' articles by someone who was on it! It's an interesting idea: contribute to the person rather than the particular project.

A film-specific crowd-funding community I found (but haven't used yet myself) is Seed and Spark:

https://www.seedandspark.com/

Here's an article by Kevin Kelly about fan bases (probably a bit out-of-date now) called "1,000 true fans" which I found quite interesting when I first read it:

http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

And also another by him about the nature of distribution in the age of 1:1 digital copying versus the era of precious copies:

http://kk.org/thetechnium/better-than-fre/

I had hear of seed and spark, but thank you for adding it to this thread. 

I had also already read the 1,000 true fans article years ago. It was great. But I had not read the better than free one. That was fantastic. This has given me so much to consider. Man, great content.

On 7/14/2017 at 9:31 AM, mercer said:

So I think that it is smart to design projects that have the best chances of being marketed to not only a mass audience, but also to a DIY filmmakers audience.

Hmmm... Hadn't thought of that really.

[mercer]

19 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said:

Did you ever build your own lights?

I still use mine. I have purchased a gaffer kit of kinos since. They are brighter and better light than my homemade ones, but I still use my own. 

This is another great info nugget. I think after learning enough of these one increases their chance of success greatly.

I had hear of seed and spark, but thank you for adding it to this thread. 

I had also already read the 1,000 true fans article years ago. It was great. But I had not read the better than free one. That was fantastic. This has given me so much to consider. Man, great content.

Hmmm... Hadn't thought of that really.

Yeah, even take Vimeo Staff Picks for example... how many of the comments relate to the production of the video... what camera was used, what lens, what was your post workflow, etc...?

Filmmakers love films, so that will be a built in audience in any DIY filmmaking endeavor... be it a short film, feature, or more specific to what you're interested in... self-distributed no/low/micro-budget films. 

Of course, this is just a theory that I have never put into practice, but I would think it would be something to consider when designing and marketing your projects.