Enjoy this brand spanking new Hulu commercial.
From No Budget to Low Budget
Posted by: cooper cherry
March 15, 2009 at 8:07 pm
This excellent indie film related panel consisted of the following people:
- Meghan Scibona: a producer/director from Small Media Extra Large
- Jason Nunes: whom I recognized from a similar panel last year a wrtier at Small Media Extra Large.
- Felicia Day: the creator of the web series “The Guild”
- Kevin Sullivan: producer Asia Minor Productions
- Michael Nigro: writer/director Partially Submerged
Tips to go from no budget to low/high budget?
- Nigro-There’s no paradigm on how to get money. Networking is extremely important. There is money to be had, but you have to pound the pavement. Know the value of a good trailer, people want to see something that pops, they don’t want to listen, they want to see.
- Day-work begets work. People were willing to donate to her sho via a pay pal link, and eventually got approached by people who were willing to pay her to do the show
- Nunes-We have day jobs that make us money, but we do passion projects on the side. This is the reality of indie filmmaking,
- Day-You need sound people. Get a boom and someone who knows how to use it.
More tips on how to go from no budget to low budget?
- Sullivan-Get someone who knows how to frame a camera
- Nigro-Figure out what your weakest point is and find someone to fill that
- Nunes-be willing to let go and allow people to be part of the process, can be scary for auteurs
- Day-Kill the auteur, everyone’s contribution is important.
What’s a waste of money?
- Sullivan-Not planning, money will go flying out of your pocket.
- Nunes-If you’re not willing to put up with working in a different style.
- Day-Makeup artists. A dolly-no one knows how to set it up, no one knows how to do the shots.
Do you guys write for what you have?
- Nunes-If i’m actually gonna produce something you have to take into account what you have. Add that into your writing process.
- Sullivan-write the best story you wanna write and try to go find it.
Felicia Day, how did you get your show sponsored by Microsoft?
- Day-Its like building a community, tell people about show, soft sell, think as an audience member.
When do you turn down money?
- Nunes-Listen to your gut.
- Nigro-When you’re making a low budget film your goal is to make your next film.
- Nunes-You can do you’re passionate about
Define low budget
- Sullivan-At my day job-under 2 million, personal-half mill. Its all relative, $4,000 goes a lot farther in Austin than in LA or NYC.
- Nigro-Anything outside the studio system is low budget.
- Day-Web video is very low budget, its all about what story you want to tell.
On the new media landscape
- Day-Studios aren’t making money on Hulu. We’re in a weird transition phase, buts its also a very interesting time. The ad dollars haven’t caught up yet. Web video is growing because people want more control over their products.
- Nunes-The old way of media production doesn’t work anymore.
- Scibona-People approach me and say they’re creating just for the web
- Day-I’m inventing as I go along, experiment, tell the best story.
- Nunes-The internet now is like early tv was.
Marketing your film
- Nigro-A huge mistake people make is not putting marketing into the budget, and film festivals, etc.
- Scibona-Think of your film as a jar of spaghetti sauce
- Nunes-Think of hooks that can become marketing stratagies
On lighting
- Nigro-I shot a feature in black once.
- Sullivan-If you can’t afford real lights, go to home depot. Do whatever you can to add to your story.
- Day-the gaffer is always my best friend on my shoots.
South By Morning Bits: February 18
Posted by: Maira Garcia
February 18, 2009 at 9:45 am
Happy morning SXTexas State readers. The countdown continues to SXSWi, with only 22 days left until geekdom takes over Austin, Texas. Hopefully, the weather will be of equally nice in March and not hotter, which unfortunately we aren’t betting on. The Central Texas area is looking at high of 80 degress today. While we sweat it out down south, here’s a snapshot of this morning’s SXSWi-related tech news:
Speaking of sweating things out, it looks like the social networking universe, namely that of Facebook, went awry to the point that they decided to revert to their old terms of service. The first thing I saw this morning as I logged into Facebook was a message regarding the Terms of Use. In a blog post by Mark Zuckerberg, he talks about the feedback he received not only from users, but experts as well, on the terms of service. The social networking site still plans to update the terms, but this time it plans to take input from users through a Facebook group titled Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. Apparently, the changes may have arisen not just from frustrated users, but the possiblity of formal FCC complaint. [PC World: Facebook Privacy Changes Spark Federal Complaint]
- Twitter continues to be in the news with their recently announced plans to sell analytic services to business using the microblogging site. Heck, if even old media like Forbes is talking about how it could potentially work, maybe Twitter is onto something. It seems even Forbes columnist Mike Schaffner is interested in it as a tool for himself. Using Twitter for business will be another highlight at SXSWi. Ricardo Guerrero of Dell and Morgan Johnston of Jet Blue Airways will host a panel on that very topic March 15.

- Finally, it looks like Hulu.com and TV.com are friends no more. NBC has decided to remove its content from the CBS-owned TV.com and stick to its own site, likely because it want to keep users on Hulu. As long as I can keep watching 30 Rock and The Office somewhere on the Internet, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Speaking of which, BJ Novak of The Office will be on a panel called Comedy on Television and the Web during South By. Maybe we can ask if there is a difference. [CNET: Hulu Pulls Content from TV.com]




