What I’ve Learned About Film Producing

Hi! Today, I’m just gonna talk a little bit about what sent me down the screenwriting path. First of all, I took a course back in 2009 in screenwriting and ended up writing a feature film, a draft of a feature film screenplay during that course. It was an online course, and it seemed to be halfway decent at any rate. I submitted it to a contest, Scriptapalooza, and made the quarter-finals, and I was shocked, absolutely shocked.

So with that, I attended the Austin Film Festival, really loved what I saw there. And before that, actually there was an indie film production seminar or workshop or whatever you wanna call it put on by Maureen Ryan. (Click there to check out her awesome website.) She was selling this book. I got my copy and it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about producing a film.

And this really kind of sparked me a little bit. I was like, okay, I’ve organized a law office, started my own business. I’ve organized a fundraiser that raised money. I’ve published books myself independently, through the usual online means. Why can’t I produce a movie? This is all about organization and getting various components to work together. Well, it’s a very complicated thing, putting a movie together. It’s about more than just organizing. It’s about taking control, taking stock of what you can find in terms of support financially and otherwise, as well as putting together a package that will be irresistible to whoever you’re trying to get financing from. And that is not easy and it takes time, a lot of time, but more importantly, it takes trust and relationships with people. People knowing that you’ll come through for them, people knowing that you have something to give them, some value for them.

So these are the kinds of things I’m working on now. And it’s really hard in a way to adjust your thinking toward that big universe of filmmaking, podcasting, all sorts of media out there. And what I just started with, which was just books. And it’s like, but it’s not just books. I say, just books as if books are like things you can just toss off. Some people obviously do. And some people obviously don’t. And, so anyway, my point is, I wouldn’t mind going through a little bit of this with you to give you an idea of what it is like to be a producer. So maybe I’ll explore that more in some of my videos.

That’s it for today. And I’ll talk to you later.

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