The myth of the west is heavily discussed in John Steinbeck's classic novel "The Grapes of Wrath" where desperate families hope the west will provide them something greater.
I am specifically talking to DIRECTORS / PRODUCERS here, both with some feature film experience and none at all. People who have access to money including studio support or investors are not really the target of this discussion, you know who you are.
Here I am explaining why you don't have to go to LA to make movies and how you can easily get lost in LA.
Today on the Genre Filmmaker Journal we are going to tackle a filmmaker game plan I find to be very dangerous and one I even considered myself, before several wake-up calls (luckily). I have directed/written 4 feature films that have won awards, star recognizable name actors, had major distribution and in some cases turned almost immediate profit for our company to continue making films. I have also directed/written 90 episodes of our own behind the scenes series, over 20 shorts (majority of them with SAG actors) and mini/major client work with my business partner and producer. We are proof that there are other ways to make films and we work damn hard and passionately to make them.
"I'll go to LA and there I will finally get my feature films financed and become a film director/producer."
This is the worst idea ever and pretty bad advice to give someone. I have been given this advice more times then I can count. As Martin Scorsese (who was a NYC director for much of the first part of his career) preaches, "make your own industry." He is absolutely right, this is the best advice a filmmaker could give you if you consider what it actually means.
Here are some important ideas to remember filmmakers. Can you afford to live well in LA without sacrificing your quality of life? If you can't eat, live, have a nice place, pay your rent and drive around? Barely? Good luck making films too. Can you afford to move to LA and be comfortable there? If not, it may be best to work where you are and hire local crew. Example: Sam Raimi "Evil Dead."
No one cares about you until you are already "somebody" so why would anyone give you over 200,000 or more to make a feature film unless you had a proven track record? It is very true to say in the film industry that it is very hard for people to believe you can do something until you have already done it. Here is a good example of people who should be able to prove this but are not able to: Freddiew, Corridor Digital. Some of the best young content creators with their own production companies (with MILLIONS of followers) and even they cannot get into the studio system and get something financed.
Maybe they are aiming way too high - that is a thought. No one cares about them in the film industry, this makes sense in many ways. They have never made a feature film (besides maybe one bear horror film they have names on as producers) with sales numbers that they can use to their advantage. Also, do you need over 100k to 1 million to make a low-budget feature film? No. You may need to write another feature film script if yours is too expensive to make but is that really such a bad thing? I realize that I carefully wrote 2 feature film scripts (and 10 shorts which we made) before writing my 3rd feature film script which was the one we finally made into our first feature and it was still an extremely uncomfortable struggle to make with 46 locations in 18 days. A new feature film script just takes some time and paper. No money is lost in writing it, as Akira Kurosawa would say, writing a script is the best way to learn film and filmmaking.
Back to our Youtube filmmakers, these guys may be aiming at a target above their level, unfortunately, it comes down to an actual feature film track record unless you get lucky. It is also worth noting that they do not want to take two years out of their busy content schedules to make a feature film, I will be honest here in saying that making feature films is absolutely the most time intensive thing you can imagine. You need to work day and night for over a year at least, probably more like two years. They are right that it is time intensive but it almost seems impossible from my perspective not to focus on the feature film no matter how you want to do it, 90 percent of your time will be that. It is also hard to maintain A) money to survive and a job B) other creative work while creating low-budget features if you are not paid well. This is where these guys have advantage (they have resources) and disadvantages, they are TOO BIG to make small movies/pay their staff. I think it will require a level of delegation where some people do this and run the company while that unit works on the feature film. It is always going to be a challenge for new feature film producers and directors to create features, much more challenging than people realize but you will need to suffer a bit to get to where you need to and build one small step at a time, it is painful often too. Most people do not like being uncomfortable and taking risks and the truth is you must take some risks within reason to be a filmmaker. Risks here can mean a lot but an example may be...not pursuing that full-time job so you can instead work 2 part-time jobs and then drop one when you are shooting/editing and so on.
Corridor Digital talks about this problem and they come to the same solution, they will stop "playing the studio system / fancy producer game" and make their own film:
Freddiew on how nobody cares and he wishes he made low-budget features instead:
Private investors, indiegogo, etc. this is how you will probably make a feature film. Putting together 5K at a time or $500 - $50 at a time. Yes it is slow sometimes, painful and it is hard. If you need to do it you will. This is why a smaller budget goal will also help you when you have no immediate contacts. Prepare to do more of the work yourself and embrace it and aim to have fun instead of making it grueling work. Christopher Nolan made his first feature film "Following" on weekends and it took a year, the actors packed their own lunch. The budget was less than 10k and everyone had jobs during the week. We live in a new age of technology and you can write, finance, shoot, edit, festival and sell anywhere in the world - Scorsese's video above touches on that. Keep your budgets as low as possible (50K and lower) until people begin investing in your films regularly and you have a proven track record to sell films for more then you have made them for...PROFITS is a good word here.
Get your first feature films done more in the 10-20k range. Remember you need to sell this thing and have it succeed to help you move forward. It is all a steep learning curve at first and selling is made easier when you spent as little as possible. "Make your own industry, do your own thing" is words from Martin Scorsese. This is great advice and the advice I found best. Study theses films for more low-budget inspiration and successes! FOLLOWING, PI, SLACKER, PRIMER, COSMOS, EVIL DEAD, CLERKS and EL MARIACHI.
Also note...it is true that these filmmakers made themselves into big names...but try to never emulate a filmmaker's career, in the end you must focus on what you love to do which is the work and let the chips fall where they may. A career in film is challenging but you can truly mitigate the risk and the challenge with solid planning, pragmatic expectations, low-budgets, hard-work, a level of optimistic vision and true love/passion for what you are making.
WORK HARD & DO IT YOURSELF. You will always be grateful you did the reason why is simple - when an entire industry lets you down, you will always know how to / be capable of building what feature films you want to make yourself with the right budget, careful planning, reliable financing, a commercial idea, step by step progress and passion.