MicroBudget Feature Film Course

[Christian Ford]

how does UCLA extension work? are there lectures we download?

Hi Shaftbond--

You access the class website via the UCLA online gateway. Once there, you'll find the 12 classes, each one of which goes live as that week begins. We are using a variety of materials in the class. There are written lectures (full size and smaller ancillary ones, called sidebars) audio and video casts of interviews with people involved in all aspects of marketing, casting, distribution, production, financing, etc. Additionally, there will be case-study budgets and schedules to download and examine, as well as a substantial recommended reading list. A student forum will also exist, to help with networking and discussing issues from class, and students will be encouraged to submit well-considered questions which we will answer by distributing the combined Q&A to the entire class. In terms of classwork, students will write a few short papers that we will return with our comments for rewriting. The purpose of these papers is to give each student, by the end of the class, a combined sales/marketing document which they can use to sell their project to investors.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Christian

[Tom Lowe]

Sounds like an awesome class. Exactly what I need, really.

Any chance you will be doing this as an in-person course in the LA area? Like a bootcamp type thing? The price also seems a little steep if it is aimed at people trying to scrape every last penny together to make their films. I don't know how much control you have over the price, but you'd probably get 5 times more interest if this was priced closer to 200 bucks.

[Christian Ford]

Any chance you will be doing this as an in-person course in the LA area? Like a bootcamp type thing? The price also seems a little steep

Hi Tom--

Great to hear that it sounds appealing. And sorry about the price tag. UCLA makes that call, we're just the guns for hire.

As far as the in-person class/bootcamp, it might be a possibility somewhere down the line. For now, though, we're trying to take advantage of the online format by bringing in lots of guest speakers whom we'd never be able to schedule into a live class.

cheers,
Christian

[Babu Kantamneni]

Good idea.Let us start
babu

[GlennChan]

My friend set up a website to talk about his experience, with brutal honesty about the process...

http://www.tengrandmovie.com/

Interesting read Jim!

[Joel Kaye]

Re: Casting. We find it to be the lynchpin of both the creative and business side as it (along with story) is the most significant creative decision and it entirely determines your foreign sales estimates.

Cheers,
Christian

Yeah - I'll buy that notion. I think that is a critical business decision. How much do you pay for who and what can you anticipate in return. And how do you research that.

I'd say I'm more likely than not to sign up.

[number6]

Re: Casting. We find it to be the lynchpin of both the creative and business side as it (along with story) is the most significant creative decision and it entirely determines your foreign sales estimates.

Cheers,
Christian

Christian, can you elaborate on how casting affects foreign sales?

[JD Holloway]

I shot a film called "The Behaviour of Houses" years ago for 10 Grand....

...canadian...

100min drama

That included purchasing the camera (DVX 100 #5 in Canada).
The rest of the money was spend on tapes, gas...celery.
Mountains of celery.
I hate cellery now.
I had to build the lights...didn't have to...Sigh....
Crew? Whats a crew?
Writer pulled sound (bad idea).

Its available on amazon.com
www.behaviourofhouses.com
It was an answer to the Danish Dogma movement and great experience considering I'm IATSE.
The DVX had back focus issues right out of the box.
We didn't know until we projected it.
(that's why you have dailies.....DOH!)

[Christian Ford]

Christian, can you elaborate on how casting affects foreign sales?

In short, the foreign sales companies are selling a generic product (from their point of view) to a worldwide audience. How do you sell something that no one's heard of? Either by positioning it within a certain genre (their default mode) or by selling the faces on the box. This is where it gets interesting, because some of the most unlikely faces can be quite valuable for the sales companies -- and hence for the filmmaker who casts his film in such a way that the sales estimates go up. This pool of valuable low-profile actors is constantly changing, and different companies value these same people differently, but you can engage in a dialogue with the companies while you're casting and try to shape your cast in that way. Of course, you could make a knockout movie and sell it for a bundle to IFC at a festival -- but just in case that doesn't happen, a worldwide DVD release and not losing your shirt is a nice fallback.

Christian

[shaftbond]

CRAP! for some reason i got it in my head that this class started in late July...

so, anyone in it? how's it going so far? any plans to do another semester?