3. FOLLOW OUR POST-PRODUCTION ADVICE
The last step is -- can you guess? – "post-production." This is a long, tedious step that no one really thinks about before making a movie but which is probably the most important one in the whole process. After all the glam actors go home, you're left with several cans of film. That doesn't equal a movie, Scorsese. So buckle up.- Find a Film Processor to develop the film
- Find an Editor to transfer the film and edit it
- Hit the festival circuit and hold a screening
Find a Film Processor to develop the film
When the beast is finally in the can, you'll be psyched -- but you're still a long way from being finished, darling. Just like with your own camera, the film isn't worth a thing until it's developed and can be shown to the smiling relatives. So get your DP to help you find a good film processor. All a processor does is develop all the rolls of film you will have shot. It's like dropping off a roll at the local drug store -- just a hell of a lot more expensive. Don't worry though, you can get discounts if you're a student -- or can pretend to be one -- and, again, 16mm film is a cheaper option. But for about 10 hours of footage, expect to pay around $3000 or $4000. For this step, you'll probably have to send your film to LA where most of the best and cheapest processors are. No matter where you shoot, this may be the best option since these guys are professionals and are used to receiving film from projects all over the world.
Find an Editor to transfer the film to video and edit it
Once you have the film developed, you are going to need to get it into the hands of a fairly skilled Editor. An Editor is simply someone who is familiar with computers and the process of editing. Accordingly, the Editor oversees the process of editing, which is where you take the bits of the film you want to use and put them in the right order. Editors are usually film school students or recent graduates stuck in boring day jobs making motivational corporate films and pre-flight safety videos while pining for the fun stuff at night. And you can find one and compensate him or her in all the same ways you did for your DP.
How editing works
Remember, there is going to be a ton of film you shoot that you will not end up using: actors will mess up lines or things will go wrong. So you'll have to throw out a decent amount of footage. And from the footage you have left, you may not necessarily want to present it in the same order that you recorded it. Sometimes you may be forced to film the last scene first, for instance, because of the availability of actors or locations. If you were to edit that footage, you would need to cut that scene from the beginning of the film and put it at the end.
But these days, no one edits a movie by slicing up the long streams of film and taping sections together; the process is all done on computers. The drill: you transfer it to video by renting a huge machine called a Telecine. This gizmo runs the film though some sort of equipment that can take the images from film stock and transfer them onto videotape. Once the film is in the video format, you can edit the images by uploading the video into a computerized editing system -- either Avid or Media 100 -- and handle the editing on a computer.
It's all kind of complicated, you see, and that is why getting an Editor is pivotal. Just as your DP was your technical guru for the first stages of the film, an Editor will guide you home. He or she will know how to get access to the Telecine and editing systems that you will need to use to edit your film. With your input, he'll get you your finished product, which brings us to our next item.
Hit the festival circuit and hold a screening
Once you have some type of finished product (even if it's just video) you'll need to start hitting the festival circuit. Film festivals are essentially singles bars: studios and distributors who are looking for content mingle with aspiring artists who have made films, and everyone wants to go home with someone.
To enter a festival, you will need to get your hands on a list of many of the festivals held across the country, when their deadlines for entry are, and how to obtain an entry form. The best place for all this information is on the web at yahoo. Some of the most famous independent festivals are:
- Sundance (Park City, Utah)
- Slamdance (Park City, Utah)
- Tribeca Film Festival (New York, NY)
- SXSW - South by Southwest (Austin, Texas)
Festivals can cost as little as $10 or as much as $100 to enter, so you may have to be frugal. Typically, you send off a video copy of your film, plus the entry form and fee, and if you have been able to generate any publicity about your project, throw that in too. Convincing your local artsy newspaper to drop by the set one day will be a good way to get press coverage, and the people reviewing festival applications would rather read those than have to sit through another hour of home video footage. Sell yourself.
If you start getting into festivals, you will want to up the stock of your project by holding distributor screenings. Filmmakers typically hold one of these in LA and NYC. The idea is that you rent out a nice small theater or screening room, invite distributors and studios to send someone to attend your screening, and then have them appraise your project and bid against one another to purchase the rights from you. If you think you've never heard of a distributor, you're wrong. All the major movie studios -- Sony, Warner Brothers, MGM/UA, Disney, Fox, etc. -- do a lot of distribution. A good way to find one would be to see who distributed a movie that you really liked or thought was like yours. Check out www.imdb.com to find the credits on almost any movie ever made.
To find a place to screen your movie, just call a local art house theater and ask them if and when they have space free. You may have to rent it, but then again, they may be interested in hyping their Indie feel by giving it to you gratis. To find the addresses and phones of a bunch of theatres near you, you can use the yellow pages, or you can go to www.moviefone.com and type in your zip code and nearby zip codes.
Remember, the ultimate goals of a filmmaker are to have the project distributed to theatres around the country, and to be recognized as a talent and offered financing for future projects. Festivals and distributor screenings will be your prom and if all goes well, you'll be well on your way to living a cushy lifestyle amongst fabulous celebrities.
