SO YOU WANNA MAKE A TRAILER... IN PHILADELPHIA???? HAAAAAHAHAAAHA!! PART TWO: PAYING FOR IT

Doing a trailer involves as much work as making a complete film. It's also the same work as doing a short. It may not be as expensive as making a completed film, but it involves the same amount of work. So it becomes an evaluation game: is your time worth a teaser, a short or a completed film?

We were due to film between the holidays. Scheduling became a nightmare. I was making phone calls and emails to strangers, negotiating salaries to people I hadn't even met (always dangerous). The budget kept rising. Why? Because when you're faced with a hard shooting date, you start to throw money at your problems.

In the end, I decided to pull the plug on making a trailer. The work outweighed the reward.

Plus, it was getting to be too darn cold.

So, having dipped my toe in the indie world on the East Coast, I thought I'd share some lessons and stories I picked up along the way....


ADVENTURES WITH DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

As I may have mentioned before, there appears to be a complete and utter dearth of talent in Philadelphia. So we were forced to consider DPs from New York.

We talked with some very talented DPs from NYC who were willing to work on our project for either free for little or no money, provided we rented them a camera.

Read that last sentence again.

Yep. You read that right.

I was actually talking with DPs WHO DON'T OWN CAMERAS.

Think about it.

It's like considering hiring a driver who doesn't have a car. Or a writer who doesn't have a computer. Or a landscaper who doesn't even own his own LEAF BLOWER!!!

(sighs) Moving on.

One DP we talked to was from Los Angeles, who offered to come down and work for free! Sure, we had to fly him out and put him up, but man, was he talented!

In addition to flying him out we also had to rent some equipment.

Oh, nothing big. Just a Canon 60D package....

.... With a Technicolor Cinestyle update....

.... And a Zeiss ZE prime set for Canon.....

....And a 21mm t2.8.... A 28mm t2.... 35mm t2.... 50mm t2.... 85mm t1.4.... And a Canon 70-200 t2.8 if we could fit it in.... And a Red Rock Cinema Bundle.... Three 32 gig cards.... A 7" Marshall monitor with mount.... A lighting package with two 1.2k Par HMIs, 1 2K open, 1 9 light fay with 2k circuits, a 1K open, one 650w, one 300w, one 4 x 4 Kino (3200 tubes), one 2 x 2 kino (200 tubes), one 1 x 1 Lite Panel Bi-color.... A Dana Dolly Speedrail Slider kit.... And a basic one ton grip truck package.... In addition to the grip package: one 12 x 12 solid, one 6 x 6 light grid, four 4 x 4 floppy solids, two 4 x 4 ultra bounce flops, two 3 x 4 frames (light grid, opal), one 4 x 4 bounce, two hi roller stands (3 riser), one low roller stand, two baby primi stands, four Gobo headsa, two 40" exterior arms, six Cartolini clamps 3", one 4" C-clamp w/spud, one 6" C-clamp w/spud, two 8" C-clamps w/spud, and two 6 foot speedrails....

....oh, and while we're at it, could we hire him a camera assistant, a grip and a gaffer, all with experience? Plus cover their expenses?

(sighs) Moving on.

Starting to panic, we interviewed a friend of our director's. Great eye. Could have been a perfect fit. He looked at the script and our location and said he needed a crew.

We were under a time crunch. So I made an offer: if we gave the DP a budget could the DP hire a crew himself?

He balked.

Why?

He said he doesn't have the time to hire his own crew BECAUSE IT WAS TOO MUCH WORK!!!!

What kind of human being declines money because picking up the phone and hiring a few of his friends was simply too much work????? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??????

(counts to ten... slowly)

Now I know what you might be asking yourself. Why did I even want a crew in the first place? Haven't I postulated that the future of indie film making hinges on finding that one-man band? The filmmaker who can do everything himself? So why didn't I search for my one-man band?

Well, I got greedy.

Instead of shooting an atmospheric, moody teaser trailer, I envisioned a more content-driven trailer, capitalizing one key moments from the script. That meant shooting on more than one location, with many setups. It would have been a tight three days, but it could have been done.

Plus I didn't have time to find the one-man band. So I wound up courting DPs who could do the job but at a price.

LESSON: Lack of time + hard shoot date = money disappearing.



ADVENTURES IN CASTING

There were two principal parts: a 16 yr old girl and a hermit-like man, aged seventy. We did the right thing: we got a SAG contract, went on BreakdownServices.com, and put up our breakdowns. We specified links to reels and/or websites. We rented a space in downtown Manhattan and brought our top choices in.

Auditioning the girls was a blast. Such talent in NYC! No matter what we threw them, no matter what we asked, the performers were able to create something fresh and exciting. The girls rolled with it.

The men? Not so much.

Maybe it was because of the huge age difference, maybe it was the nerves, maybe even the material, but many of the older men were un-directable.

Classic example: a man walks in, asks us about his character, background, etc. We tell him. He asks if we needed to hear the character with an accent. We said no, we'd rather hear what he had to bring to us, yada yada.

"Well, I prepared it with an accent, so you're gonna hear it that way."

Um, okay.

Then they started to argue with us. We started to explain what the character was, where he came from, what we wanted, and they started to argue with us. Lots of "That doesn't make sense" and "Whaddya mean?" and "I don't follow."

Some men came very close to what I wanted, but I had to face facts: we were having trouble finding an actor.

While that was happening, the budget was escalating, the shoot date was approaching, and I needed help.

So we "cashed in" a favor and hired a NY casting agent.

We met in coffee shop. Why a coffee shop? Why didn't we meet in her office, located on 80 8TH Ave Ste 303 in Manhattan? Beats me. I guess because she was giving us a discounted "friend" rate, so the informal location was part of that, right?

Before she sat down, she handed me a four page contract outlining her duties, obligations and, of course, salary. Informal. Right?

She said not to worry. We'd have an actor by the end of next week. She'd personally see to it that it got cast.

Monday comes? She pawns us off to her assistant. The names she submitted were names we could have gotten off of IMDB. We called her to give her direction. She told us not to call her because she preferred to communicate via email.

She said we'd have an actor by the end of the week.

I'm still waiting.

LESSON: Never ever meet a casting agent in a coffee house.


ADVENTURES IN MAKEUP

We found a makeup person off of the Philadelphia Craigslist. Very friendly. Very competent. We did makeup tests. Looked great.

Then I realized we hadn't talked money yet.

Since this was becoming a very tight production I thought I'd go low, then go higher to a price I was comfortable.

I made an offer of (blank) dollars/day.

She paused.

She said, "Well, I usually get (blank) for a day rate."

What was my offer? What was her day rate?

Let's just say I was off by a zero.

LESSON: Always talk money first. Even if they're from Craigslist.


WHO NEEDS A PROPMASTER?

We didn't have time to find a propmaster, and since there were only a dozen or so props that needed finding, we did it ourselves.

One of the best pleasures of all this was discovering State Supply Props on 126th Street.

You couldn't swing a dead cat and not find what you're looking for.

In fact, there's a dead cat now!

While you're there, ask for Emily. She's awesome. :)









MEETING OTHER PRODUCERS

I sought another producer to help us with the load. I met one in Philly who was wonderful! Very energetic, excited. Willing to work at a very low base salary. Offered contacts with her team. Great. But....

I couldn't help but notice that her work was not online. All her website had were trailers. I couldn't get a handle on the scope of her work.


So we met for coffee. I asked, Was there a link to her work I could see?

Nope, she shrugged.

Okay. Could I get a DVD of her work?

No. She didn't have any.

"Hmmm. But how can I make a decision -- ?"

"Would a thousand dollars sound all right to you?" she asked.

Beat. "Um, but I have no way to evaluate your -- "

"Because that's what I usually get."

"Um... (long pause)... Let me talk to my producer about this. Are you sure I couldn't get a DVD of your work before I make my decision?"

"Sorry. I just don't have any.. (pause)... So we're okay with the thousand dollars?"

Ah, Philadelphia. You never disappoint.


ALL WAS NOT LOST, BUT...

The budget was getting to a point were I could have bought a RED camera on my own. And for what? For what?? A two minute trailer? Was it worth it? Shouldn't I be thinking bigger? Why was I rushing this trailer into production? And who is this Ed Burns who shot an entire feature film for 9 grand?? And when are we shooting??? In December???? Brrrrr!!!!!

God readied his snowball...

... and I blinked.

The biggest regret is I really wanted to work with the people who we selected. They were going to rock!

But I needed time to re-evaluate what I was doing. I rushed things and it got expensive. And I got burnt. I had never been busier in my whole life, and that includes producing SEX ED. Luckily, I got out of it just in time to save myself from losing any more money....

.... Plus the script need a rewrite. Stat!

But nothing is lost. I hope everyone has a safe winter and I hope we have no conflicts in May.

On the plus side we'll no longer need a box of hand warmers or a heated tent. And who knows, in the time being, I might find a DP, old man, makeup person and producer, all wrapped up in one!