South By Texas State

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.