the weird freedom that comes with having done a "no" budget feature OR the next feature may be big budget/big star or no budget/no star...

... & either way, I am cool w/ it. Having fully embraced "no" budget/"no" star production & "no" budget self-distribution, I am strangely indifferent, at the moment, to budgets & stars, in a good way: I would be totally cool with making my next feature for $50, or $5000 or $50K or $50 million (of course the more money we have the more we can pay ourselves). With just some of my friends or the biggest Hollywood stars & best H-wood crew money can buy. Either way I will still be self-distributing - either "no"/ultra-low budget/Date Number One style - 1 theatrical screening & 1 DVD sale at a time, or super high budget (if I can swing it) Passion or new Star Wars flicks or American Haunting style w/ a distributor for hire - 1000s of theaters at a time, w/ nationwide DVD availability. I feel this comfortable indifference to budgets & stars 'cause I know that the essential things that my movie will deliver: the story, the dialogue, the moments, the ideas, the jokes, etc. can be delivered at any budget, and can be delivered on a "no" budget if I must, by a crew of one if need be - myself, using a 1 chip DV cam & my Mac Mini for gear, if need be. This may be one of the benefits of having made an ultra low budget movie & having started the self-distribution of it. You can see what is essential & how it can be achieved more clearly. I know, deep in my bones now, that the budget is not directly related to the quality of the film, but it merely appears so. And that is a very comforting thought. The universe is now clearly a malleable thing, not prohibitively massive and inflexible and indifferent to my needs and abilities; I can get some form of what I want out of it through my efforts.

I am going to try to get the biggest production & initial distribution budget I can get for the next movie. But, after a certain period of looking for money, we are gonna start work with what we got, $s wise, and that will be the budget, and the film & the distribution of it will be made to work on that budget. $150K would be very nice for my next feature's budget. Send it to me if ya got it to spare :)

- Sujewa

ps: the next feature is still going to be Filmmaking For The Poor. shooting at some point in '07.