Noah Harald & Speak Now - Winder, GA, Micro-budget Filmmaking Part IV

The final update from filmmaker Noah Harald, who toured his film Speak Now on the Southern Circuit:

As I screen our film 'Speak Now' at the next four venues in the Southern Circuit I'm going to try something interesting and share my thoughts and advice about making a micro-budget improv film as well as my travels here in the South. Fourth and final screening- Winder, GA.

I had a few days off and spent them on Lake Oconee in GA for a few days and it was beautiful bliss. Got to fish under an incredible sunset and feel amazingly lucky to be alive and in the south. 'Speak Now' screened last night at the Winder Cultural Arts Center, and it was a great screening. Pretty robust turnout and a very diverse crowd. People enjoyed the film and had a ton of questions. Don Wildsmith ran the Q&A, and though he was a self-professed 'tech' he had great questions. It was a pleasure to chat with everyone about the film. After the screening, the cultural arts center had a reception and I got to meet and speak with some of the crowd. Awesome experience. The thing that has struck me most about screening the film in the south is that I think I had a preconception about how it would land with audiences. I thought that the lesbians and the closeted gay character and the movie about young people and failed marriages wouldn't ring as true as it did with intellectual film festival audiences and our friends in New York and LA. I was proven completely wrong. From young college age kids to retirees everyone appreciated and engaged with the film. It was eye-opening for me and a total re-education of my own beliefs about people in the south. I'm so appreciative it was an experience I got to have.

Making a micro-budget film, Part IV: Releasing your film into the wild
This is the hardest part. On many levels. One, you have to let people see your film, judge it as a film and watch it without disclaimers or cautions. Two, there are so many films being made now that finding an audience is harder than ever. The good news is the audience for indie films has never been hungrier and there have never been easier ways to reach them. I'm gonna outline the important things to think about and how we tackled (or failed to tackle) those issues- feel free to do your own research on how to tackle them yourself but know that I'm giving you a roadmap of obstacles.

1. Submit to and attend film festivals. Budget yourself several thousand dollars for this. Festival fees range from 25-150 bucks depending on the festival and the sheer numbers of films being submitted means your micro-budget indie with non name actors really has to stick out. Sometimes it will be lost in the crowd, sometimes it will be under-appreciated but eventually it will find it's home. We were rejected from at least a dozen smaller film festivals before we were accepted by the very prestigious Austin Film Festival, where we premiered and ultimately took home the Write/Rec Audience Award. If we had given up after the rejection of the smaller ones, we would never have gone on to play Austin, Atlanta and the many others culminating with the Southern Filmmakers Tour. Be persistent, have a great hook and count your lucky stars- you will find the right home.

2. Release the film! Sounds easy enough, right. RIGHT! In the best of all worlds a distributor will come to you at your Sundance premiere and buy the worldwide rights for a ton of money. But in the likely chance that this doesn't happen, you can release the film yourself. We aggregated with a company called Quiver, which for a small fee puts in the legwork and applications to get your film on digital platforms. We chose to go with iTunes and GooglePlay, and our film is currently available there. We also put the film on VHX, which is a newer on demand platform that you can name your price as well as connect with the audience of buyers. It's also a great way to fulfill digital downloads for your crowdfunding backers. If you've been following along and haven't seen our film, you can go to VHX and purchase the deluxe edition now for only 4.99 with the code SOUTHARTS at https://speaknow.vhx.tv/buy/speak-now-deluxe-edition

3. Marketing. We are still trying to figure this out. The most important thing is to keep interacting with your fans. Twitter and Facebook are great tools for this, local press and ads may work, though we won't know what kind of conversion we can get until after a few months of working it. Make sure when you raise money you set money aside for this. No matter what you've spent on the film, you must spend money here if you want to reach an audience beyond your facebook friends. It's not an exact science, and there's so much research you can do and get lost in, but plan for this step.

4. Enjoy the ride. You made a film. You created a piece of art and now you're part of the conversation. What a beautiful thing. Thankfully there are people who crave the kind of art being created outside of the normal channels and no matter what happens, you made a film. Thanks for following along, and thank you so much to South Arts for creating this opportunity and having an agenda to spread the cinematic arts through the south. Cheers everyone.

Noah Harald & Speak Now - Hanceville, AL, Micro-budget Filmmaking Part III

Another update from Noah Harald, touring his film Speak Now on the Southern Circuit:

As I screen our film 'Speak Now' at the next four venues in the Southern Circuit I'm going to try something interesting and share my thoughts and advice about making a micro-budget improv film as well as my travels here in the South. Next up- Hanceville, AL.

'Speak Now' screened last night at Wallace State Community College. It was quite a trek from Clemson to Hanceville, AL but I've been listening to a book on tape so along with the gorgeous weather, the sequel to The Shining kept me terrified to make the time pass. I also drove a bit off the beaten path to a barbecue spot outside of Memphis that was amazing. Once I got to Wallace State, I was greeted and brought into their massive and gorgeous performing art center and I wandered their art collection in the museum til the crowd showed up. What a crowd. People really came out to support our film here, we had a packed house and a super enthusiastic crowd. The Q&A went well, and I got to speak to a couple of young aspiring filmmakers who I hope will stay in touch with me as their career grows. Super fun. I've got two days off which I will be spending with family in GA and they we have our fourth and final screening in Winder, GA on Sunday. Stay tuned!

Making a micro-budget film, Part III: Post

Some of the best advice I've ever received was from the editor of Dodgeball who spoke at Los Angeles Film School before my classes began there. He told me to graduate in a craft that could pay me when I got out of school, because nobody was lining up to hand paid gigs to directors. Since I was already well versed in post, I majored in editing. Now, I had help editing the film from my talented editor friend Matthew Hickney, but being able to see the film to the finish line is what allowed our micro budget film to stay micro.

That being said- you've come up with your idea, you've shot your film (CONGRATULATIONS) and now you have to turn it from footage to an actual movie. Because our film was improv, we had a very strange process. Erin Cardillo (writer/producer) and I watched all 6.5 hours of footage and wrote down what the major conversation beats were as we went. From there we scripted a rough outline of what we wanted the movie to be. Matthew took the outline and edited the first draft of the film. Now you may be a wunderkind, all-in-one able to do everything person, but it's so important that even when you are editing the film yourself that you bring others in on the process. For us, we were lucky enough to have a core group of 5 producers to weigh in their thoughts. If it's just you, make sure you have screenings for close friends and colleagues of the rough cut. Get their feedback and ask  the tough questions; does it work, what doesn't work, does it make sense, where were you bored, what did you love? Take all of this feedback and your own gut and finish the picture edit of the film. This is what we call a picture lock, and from here you will plan to never alter the actual edit of the film again.

The final steps are to sound mix, score and color correct the film. In my opinion, these are the 3 places where you can't skimp. Find really talented people willing to cut you a break on price and pay them to do these things. Nothing will hurt your final vision more than these three things being executed poorly. And since you have a limited budget, be flexible with people's time. If you're not paying someone enough to make working on your film their full time job, allow them the time to finish it on their own terms. Once you have these pieces together, you bring them all back into the edit bay and create your final movie. You will create HD masters, streaming masters, DVD masters and maybe even audio masters. From here, you send your baby out into the world- but I will talk about that in the next and final blog post. Thanks for following along!

Noah Harald & Speak Now - Clemson, SC, Micro-budget Filmmaking Part II

The latest update from Noah Harald, screening his film Speak Now on the Southern Circuit:

As I screen our film 'Speak Now' at the next four venues in the Southern Circuit I'm going to try something interesting and share my thoughts and advice about making a micro-budget improv film as well as my travels here in the South. Next up- Clemson, SC.

'Speak Now' screened last night at Clemson State University. First I drove from Augusta to Clemson, through thick forests and small lakes. I stopped to take pictures at some abandoned buildings, it was lovely. Clemson is a town that is completely in love with it's football team, everything is emblazoned with the orange paws for their Tigers, it's really cool, feels like Friday Night Lights. My host Amy was great and I got to wander the beautiful campus. The screening was almost entirely students, which was in sharp contrast to the older audience in Augusta. I feel like the jokes landed a little better tonight, but the audiences at both venues have been equally appreciative and awesome. So far, two for two. In the morning I make the trek to Hanceville, AL to screen at Wallace Community College.

Making a micro-budget film, Part II: The Execution

This is the hardest and easiest part of the process. It's hard to pull resources together, to have everything go as planned (it never will) and to shoot a film on a micro budget. At the same time, it's never been easier to access equipment to make a film. We shot 'Speak Now' on two RED Epic cameras with Zeiss super speed prime lenses. However you can shoot a film entirely on a DSLR with available light and it can still look great these days. Our cinematographer David McGrory and myself have a great repoire and we've worked together for about a decade- he and I were able to dip into the favor bank and pull not only equipment but crew. If you don't yet have those relationships, build them by making a film. Just remember, as good as it looks to have a feature under your belt as director, that also applies to your department heads as well; cinematographers, production designers, producers etc and they will join you if they believe in the story you're telling. One of the most vital components to making one of these films is a great producer- we had two in Benjamin Friedberg and Eric Goldrich. A great producer will help organize everything, lock down crew and locations, but most importantly they will lift the burden of you having to deal with those things on set where your crew and your cast need total creative attention from you. Once you have your idea, your crew, your equipment and location- shoot the movie. Jump in and do it. Don't find the reasons not to, because there are a million (not enough money, wrong location, actors, crew, money again.) Find the one reason to do it- you want to make a movie.

Schedule efficiently, leave time to block and rehearse the scenes with your actors and make sure that everyone on set feels respected and taken care of and they will reciprocate that energy into the film. We all got into this because making movies is fun, and nearly 100% of the time the vibe on set will translate into the final product. We shot 'Speak Now' in three days with all of the dialogue improvised by the actors. We didn't have time to stress the small things and in the end I think that helped the final product. Be easy and let the movie happen, if you've put the pieces into place it will.

Noah Harald & Speak Now - Augusta, GA, Micro-budget Filmmaking Part I

The first update from filmmaker Noah Harald, touring his film Speak Now on the Southern Circuit:

As I screen our film 'Speak Now' at the next four venues in the Southern Circuit I'm going to try something interesting and share my thoughts and advice about making a micro-budget improv film as well as my travels here in the South. First up, Augusta, GA.

'Speak Now' screened last night at the Morris Museum of Art here in Augusta. The Morris as well as being a cool little museum also curates a really wonderful slate of films and other artist events. I spent the day exploring Augusta and geeking out over taking pictures of the gorgeous Savannah River. I drove to the Masters golf course because it's mecca for my father and ate some great Southern food at Honey From The Rock. The screening started at six and I noticed that the crowd was considerably older than in most festivals. I wasn't sure how we would play to an older crowd as most of the actors/characters in the film are in their 20's and early 30's. Turns out the crowd loved it. Not only did it go over well, but everyone was very involved in the Q&A. People were surprised to learn that we shot the film in three days and that the dialogue was entirely improvised by the actors. Also, with so many couples that had been married for decades, they found the drama of a bunch of millennials on film pretty hilarious. The Morris was a very friendly venue and I've really enjoyed my time in Augusta.

Making a micro-budget film, Part I: The Idea

For me, the purpose of making 'Speak Now' the way that we did is to make a film without waiting for someone else to say yes. The film business is hard to crack, and as a filmmaker there is a catch-22 where nobody wants to give you permission to make a feature film until you've made a feature film. If you're waiting for that permission, you may not get it for a long time. But you've had ideas before; casually tossing concepts to your friends, long brainstorming sessions, or jolts of inspiration that wake you from sleep. Here's the easy part- find and idea and gab hold of it. I had the pleasure of accompanying my wife, Rosie Mattia to her acting class taught by our writer/producer Erin Cardillo and watched this incredibly talented ensemble perform the improv exercise that would eventually become our film. As we shared celebratory drinks later I said to Erin and the actors "This should be a movie." Granted, it took many steps and just over a year to become a movie, but we made it and didn't have to ask permission. So next time you have that idea, don't brush it aside or save it for later- pounce on it and go make your film. Stay tuned and I'll let you know how I think you can do that.

Time to hit the road and head to Clemson, SC. More from that screening tomorrow.