I recently read Scott McMahon‘s post 5 Tips To Make Your Independent Film More Viable with interest.
He believes that as an indie filmmaker you should:
- Do what you love.
- Keep it cheap.
- Offer value.
- Be specific.
- Make what Hollywood will not make.
To back up his beliefs, he made a feature for $500 using what he calls Resource Filmmaking.
I followed up with Scott via email:
Why did you want to make ‘THE CUBE’?
“I went to film school, made a lot of awful short films; but one that was half-way decent. Good enough to land a job at Sony PlayStation. I was there for 12 years and ran the Cinematic Department. When that gig ended, I did what any smart person would do when the economy is tanking — make an independent film! After being disillusioned by the traditional way things were being done, I spent the next seven years trying to answer this basic question: ‘If films can be sold online, then how do successful entrepreneurs sell things online?’ I was used to making things in a big playground, spoiled by PlayStation, but I knew there could be a way to make a really small feature film… I just didn’t have a story to tell. Until one day, I did. ‘THE CUBE’ was made because it was a story that I could film and make in my own home and around my full-time job. ‘THE CUBE’ was made for $500 with no crew. It wasn’t planned that way, but my lead actress had a limited window to make the film, so I just redesigned my shot lists to use more static shots than I had originally planned.
A year and a half later, are you in profit?
“I made ‘THE CUBE’ all wrong. It’s a film with no stars, a genre that is not clearly identified, and I built no audience awareness for it. With that said, I knew things would be CHEAP and SLOW. However, I have made money between the theatrical premiere and Electronic Sell Through (EST) sales. So, in a way, you can say I’m a successful filmmaker because I made a film for a set budget and not only made my money back, but made a little profit as well.”
What’s your ROI?
“The easiest way to determine ROI for any über independent filmmaker selling their film directly online is to use the conversion rate of 1%. This means, that if your film gets 1,000 trailer views, then about 1% of viewers will actually pay for your film. 1% of 1,000 views equals 10 sales transactions. 10 x $5 rental price = $50 in sales. You can read more about this 1% conversion rate in a guest blog post I wrote on Ted Hope’s blog. My overall trailer views have been around 5,500. With a 1% conversion rate, I’ve made about 55 sales transactions at around $10 a transaction. That’s about $550 in sales. Adding in the profit made on the local theatrical premiere of about $180, ‘THE CUBE’ has pulled in about $730. Laughable, I know… but it was always designed this way. That’s why I made sure the film was made for so cheap. Now, the cool thing is that I plan on relaunching this film again, with a whole new marketing campaign and targeting an audience who are NOT other filmmakers. I’ll report back on this experiment later in the year to share those results too. The great thing about owning the license to my own IP, I can repackage it, relaunch it, and resell it in anyway I feel will work. So, I still may make more money in the future.”
Do you have another feature in development and what’s the budget?
“‘THE CUBE’ was always designed as a small film for me… and to be used as an experiment to see what works and what doesn’t work when selling a film product online. With my next feature film, I’m trying to apply all the things that should have been done the first time around. This particular film is in the straight up scary movie genre. The budget is targeted at another $500. Why? I’m very keen on trying to get better at making feature films in this budget range and test my storytelling skills as much as possible. I believe one day, someone is going to make a little film for $100 and sell it directly online to an audience and make a million. Remember the iPhone app boom, when a single programmer could make a ‘fart’ app, sell it for $0.99 and make a million? Who’s to say this can’t happen to a filmmaker? Once it does, then the entire indie film industry will turn its head and say, ‘Ok, let’s do it like that.’ Anyway, that’s where my interests lie. When the normal convention is to think that we should up the budget and go bigger… I want to go even smaller.”
What’s the one piece of advice you’d like indie filmmakers to follow?
“From all the work I’ve done over at FilmTrooper.com, where I focus on trying to help filmmakers become entrepreneurs, this is the one thing that stands out for me: Filmmakers should ‘let go’ of their ego and surrender their talents to SERVE a group of people who they have determined to be their IDEAL FANS. Putting yourself in a place where you are SERVING others will give you greater joy and fulfillment… more so than any award can ever give.”
My take: thanks, Scott, for sharing. I also think smaller budgets force filmmakers to come up with creative solutions to challenges, rather than just throwing money at ‘problems.’ A $500 budget certainly enforces some creative discipline — Ingrid Veninger in Toronto raises the bar to $1000.