The Business of Filmmaking: A few things they don't teach you in film school Ep81

In this episode, Sue dives deep into a topic that not typically covered in film school - the business of filmmaking. 🎥💼

Here are three key takeaways from this episode:

1️⃣ The Craft vs. The Business: While film school teaches us a lot about the art and technique of filmmaking, it often doesn't teach us about the essential business aspects. Producing work in the film industry involves much more than just the craft of making the film. But don't be discouraged! If you aspire to be your own boss and create your own work, you're in the right place to learn the business side of the industry.

2️⃣ Building a Sustainable Career: If you want to earn a living and have a long-lasting career in filmmaking, it's important to create and initiate your own projects. While specializing in a specific area and working solely on other people's productions might be an option, it may not provide the financial stability and creative fulfillment you desire. This episode explores how to make filmmaking a sustainable career by creating meaningful work that resonates with audiences.

3️⃣ The Power of Consistency: Consistency is key in many pursuits, including filmmaking. However, it can be a challenge to maintain consistency while nurturing your creative abilities. Sue's sharing some thoughts on this and more.  

If you want to dive deeper into the topics discussed on the show, make sure to sign up for our weekly drop of Moonshine via email at moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com. 💌

Happy filmmaking, and stay tuned for next week's episode! 🎬✨

📩 Want to stay up to date with the latest? Head to www.thedocumentaryfilmmaker.com to join our weekly newsletter and get all resources to make you the best impact filmmaker in the business. 

Find & Follow The Documentary Filmmaker on social:
Website: www.thedocumentaryfilmmaker.com
Facebook:
Instagram: @TheDocumentaryFilmmakerPodcast
LinkedIn: Sue Collins [Host] || The Documentary Filmmaker [ Company Page]

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to episode 81 of the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. Today it's all about what they don't teach you at film school because you learn a lot about the craft of filmmaking, which is great, but you don't learn so much about the business of filmmaking. And that's what I talk about a lot in this podcast. All the ins and outs that you don't necessarily learn at film school, because so much of producing work actually has very little to do with the craft of making the actual film. But don't be discouraged by that. It's just a fact. And if you want to be your own boss and make your own work, then that is just a reality of the industry. And look, if you're going to go into a specialist area and work solely on other people's productions, this isn't really going to impact on you. But if you want to make money and have a sustainable career doing work that you create and initiate, then you're going to have to do work as well that is not strictly filmmaking. Welcome to the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. I'm your host, Sue Collins, and if you've landed here, it means you're wanting to find out more about how to make filmmaking a sustainable career. And you're also curious about how to make meaningful work that fills your cup. You're ready to learn how to make movies that matter, build a sustainable career, and have a positive impact on your audiences. So you are in the right place. Filmmaking has so many parts, and I'm sharing what I've learned over the past 15 years producing impact films that reach their intended audience and support real-world change. So let's get started. So let me walk you through the last week in my work, and I think it's going to give you a good sense of some of the things that you may encounter in your work in future. Now I had a project in the pipeline, well, I have had a project in the pipeline, should I say, for almost eight years on breast cancer prevention. I know that is a really long time, and it's not typical for a project to get stalled in development for that long. This one came about because I got a phone call from a young mother who was at high risk to develop breast cancer due to her family history. And the story is around her exploring the options she had to prevent getting breast cancer herself. And we could never quite get the project over the line with funding. It's a very niche area and just couldn't quite get there. But since the Conquering Cervical Cancer film and campaign has gone so well for us over this past couple of years, we decided to delve back in and broaden the scope. So we've reimagined the breast cancer project to be part of the Conquering Cancer series, and it's now going to be a story of conquering breast cancer. So broadening it right out from familial breast cancer to being breast cancer more broadly. And over the past few months, I've been developing the new focus and creating new pitch materials, and it's finally ready to start attracting finance. So that has been a big part of the past week is just finishing off the proposal, getting the teaser ready, and getting everything ready to pitch. So writing proposals and creating pitch materials is definitely a really big part of what I do and producing any work really. Now, did you learn about that at film school? I'm curious because I'd really be keen to know if they do teach you that these days at film school. What else has been happening? Well, we had a it was a really exciting little preview screening of the film. We traveled to the US earlier this year to capture American stories to put into the Conquering Cervical Cancer film. And so we've created Conquering Cervical Cancer in the USA. And so one of the project partners from the US hosted a screening. It was kind of like a test audience, I guess, in some ways. And it's resulted in some feedback, and now we'll go back in and do the final edit to incorporate the notes. So that was kind of exciting having the film screened to a test audience. It was just a bummer that it happened in the US because there was no way to get over there just for that event. But it's fun to know that a whole room full of people watched it and had some generally pretty positive feedback. So that was exciting. And then we also decided to submit it to Sundance Film Festival, which now this is something I don't normally do, is go in for festivals. Because in the past we have spent, you know, I mean, you can spend a huge amount of money on just in festival entries and not get very many acceptances. But film festivals are notoriously hard to get your film accepted into, particularly if you don't already know someone who's working at the festival to champion the film for you. So generally, film festivals isn't a strategy we pursue. But on this case, the timing was right, and one of the project participants was really keen for us to do so. So we did, and uh, we thought we'd throw our hat in the ring and we will see. And you will definitely know if this result is successful because believe me, I'm gonna be talking about it a lot. Um, but festivals, yeah, as I said, it's not something that we usually do as part of our strategy for distributing our films. So that was a bit of a different one for us. Now we've also been filming for another conquering cancer film called Conquering Skin Cancer. And this one is definitely under the bracket of filmmaking. So this was part of my week. There was definitely some genuine filmmaking in there, which was nice. It was actually a very interesting shoot. We had well, I I have hit a point where unfortunately I'm getting some dodgy moles and having to get them removed. And I had to have a little bit of very minor surgery to remove a little bit extra after a previously removed mole was a bit suspicious. And so the surgery was definitely precautionary. But we thought opportunistically, why don't we film it as part of the Conquering Skin Cancer Project? So as I was having this little procedure done on my arm, I was also being filmed and sort of impromptu conducting an interview. So the interview was, it wasn't really planned out, but my dermatologist was very interested in the project and was sharing some really interesting perspectives. So I've never done an interview lying down. Well, somebody removed bits from my arm, but there you go, all in the name of filmmaking. What else have I done? Well, okay, this has been a big one, and I don't know if I'm happy or sad about this one, but I've been learning to use new tools to create social content for our platforms. And I just started using one called Typeset, and it's really great for turning text into ebooks with images and worksheets and social tiles for social media. So it's been a bit of a learning curve how to actually just use that, but if it works, it could be a really good way to generate content quite quickly. So we put a lot of work into creating the films, like the short form films for social, and then hopefully this platform will help us turn it into the formats needed for social media. And I've also been exploring a new Adobe product called Adobe Express, uh, which has got some really fun graphics. It's kind of like Canva but on steroids. So check out our Moonshine Communications Academy Instagram if you want to see some examples of the posts that I'm putting up over the next week or two that I've been exploring that program or application to use. It's really, really simple and it just is visually much more interesting than some of the stuff you get on Canvas. So, you know, have a play around. Gotta learn these new things. There might even be some good things to use in our editing in the long term as well. Oh, I was just looking for a place where I could learn everything I need to know to make an amazing film that changes the world. It's such a shame that that place doesn't exist. Oh what? Hang on. It does. Oh, if you're looking for inspiration, ideas, tools, and ways to learn how to make movies that matter, head to Moonshine Communications Academy over at Instagram and all your problems will be solved.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Warning, results may vary depending on the questions, and success is not guaranteed. Always read the label.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

So I have to say, building content for social media is a huge time suck and a really big part of my work week. So I recommend you learn how to build audiences on social media, especially if you're going to do any kind of self-distribution. And I was really thrilled when I saw on the news the other day that Taylor Swift and also Beyonce have produced films from the concerts that they've been doing. And those films, they've both gone direct with AMC, which is a really big American cinema chain, and they're distributing directly with the cinema chain because they both have such impressive audiences online. It gives the cinema confidence that they're going to bring an audience to their films. So they're not using a distributor, they're just going direct. And as you know, marketing is critical for getting people to the cinemas. So having those online audiences has definitely helped them to achieve this outcome. So if you can build a decent online following, it's going to help cinemas feel confident that you can get folks along to your movie if you want to then go direct and not work through a distributor. In amongst all of that, has been some planning for a couple of interstate trips that we've got coming up, which is more filming for the Conquering Skin Cancer Project. There's been some, what I find incredibly boring, bookkeeping. There's been team meetings, there's been real estate agent inspections for the office, because we've had a few cracks appear in the building. And also, you may not be, I don't think I've ever talked about it, but I'm a bit obsessed with indoor plants. Did you know that every indoor plant that you have clears the air by an additional 5%? So I think that's an awesome way to get cleaner air into your office space. So anyway, I've got we've got so many indoor plants in here now, and there's lots of watering and new pots appearing all the time. And I can send you actually, maybe I'll put some pics on Instagram in case you are interested. And in what I consider professional development, I have been consuming content. Now the show I am currently addicted to is Only Murders in the Building, which is a brilliantly cast and scripted show. And it has me well it's also had me start listening to Selena Gomez's playlist because she's a lead in the show, if you haven't seen it. And I yeah, as I mentioned before, I've also loved hearing about Taylor Swift and Beyonce using self-distribution for their own films, and they have now gone into cinemas direct without a distributor. So if you've been listening into past steps, you'll know much of what we do here at Moonshine Agency relies on hybrid distribution. And our recent film, Live the Life You Please, went direct to cinema without a distributor in the middle, which means way better returns for you as a producer. And the report that I heard on the Taylor, Swift and Beyonce films was that they got 50-50 deals on their own direct approach. And I think that's something you should really be thinking about, everybody, because if you can build an online audience and you can give cinema chains confidence that there's an audience for your film, you can go direct in a lot of instances. And that will mean much better returns for you and your film. It does mean you've got to do all the marketing and all of that kind of PR, etc., etc. yourself or hire people to do it for you because you're not going to have the distributor doing that part of the work. But it is absolutely something to think about. Anyway, back to Only Murders in the Building, because it is so fun. It is such a fun show. It's got starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, uh, and also Selena Gomez. And Steve Martin and Martin Short play these really quirky, fun characters, and the story just keeps you guessing all the way through, like a murder mystery should. And I am loving the script writing. It is really creative and incredibly fun. So I highly recommend that you check that one out if you haven't already. I realize I'm maybe late to the party and you may have already seen it, but love to know what you think if you have seen it. Now I want to leave you with a question today. And I'm wondering if you could magically acquire a habit, what would it be? I'd like to say I'd like to acquire the ability personally to be more consistent. And then part of me worries though, if I did that, that it would really inhibit my creative abilities because I think they actually come from never being particularly consistent with things. But consistency is so crucial when it comes to many pursuits. So that's food for thought from me, and I'd really love to know what habit you might like to magically acquire. So please drop me a comment over on Instagram and let me know. Now I hope this little dialogue that I've given you today helps you kind of understand a few of the things that you might do as a filmmaker if you decide to run your own show and produce your own work. And I will be back next week. I'm not quite sure what the topic's gonna be, but I will be back next week. So till then, happy filmmaking. Thank you for joining me today and every week here on the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. If you're wanting a deeper dive into the topics being discussed on the show, then I would encourage you to head over to Moonshine Communications Academy.com and sign up for the weekly drop of moonshine via your email. Being on our newsletter community means we can support your filmmaking journey in a more tailored way as well as keeping you up to date with the resources we share on how to make movies that matter and so much more that we deliver inside your inbox every single week. So head over to Moonshine CommunicationsAcademy.com and at the bottom of the homepage you'll see a little box to add your email address, and as a thank you for signing up, we'll also send you a bonus ebook to support your messaging. So voila, you'll be on the way to receive all the best content weekly.